Bobby Howlings - The early 80's...

[MATTinSURREY]

All,

Who out there knows what happened to Bobby Holwings inventory of Race Cars when he decided to uproot and move to the US?

In addition, did Bobby work on the cars himself or did he have a mechanic working at his garage in the Arches, Manchester? If so who was this person and where is he now?

The reasoning behind my post is that we know Bobby acquired a car in 1983 that we're researching the history of. The car reappeared in the early 90's in Belgium but we have a gap of 7-10 years in it's life, which we'd like to uncover.

The car in question is a March 782, which needed some major restoration work when Bobby acquired it in 1983. At the time 782's weren't popular so it may have sat in Bobby's workshop or someone elses for some considerable time.

Any clues would be appreciated...

[allenbrown]

Graham Eccles was Bobby's regular restorer during this time but Graham, like Bobby, is no longer with us. Bobby was in a series of partnerships around this time, his company changing from AMCO to John Bull Motorsport in 1983, and then Graham Storey and Bill Quint took over a lot of his stock in 1985. The John Bull Motorsport name reappeared in November 1985 and then the AMCO name again in 1986. He dealt a lot with a German customer and with Steve Yanoshik in the US. I think it may have been his dealings with Yanoshik that led to him relocating to Florida. The last AMCO adverts I logged were in 1990.

His son Steve should be contactable. Have you already tried that route?

Allen

[MATTinSURREY]

Hi Allen,

Thanks for the information.

Bill Quint I'm afraid is no longer with us and his son, James, doesn't know that much about his race car dealings but did confirm he was a business partner of Bob Howlings.

Can you let me know where Graham Storey is these days please?

Thanks in advance.

Matt

[SidewaysFeltham]

Good to know that Bob is still around.

I used to buy loads of bits from him in the early 70s. At one time I'm sure he was in Newcastle??

Funny true story. I ran a team of three Midgets in Modsports, amonst other cars and used to buy Firestone sticky YB11 slicks, used on the front of F3 then. Bob used to find (don't ask me where from!), scrubbed rubber and sell it on cheap.

So all the Midgets ran on these.

As always in a panic, I used to have them shipped by the then new Securicor overnight delivery service which compared to Royal Mail was super-fast.

One day the delivery driver said to me "'Scuse me Gov: can I arst you a question??" I said yes.

"Why are you paying all this dosh to have bald tyres sent down from up North?"

[rogernorway]

When Bob Howlings stopped trading in used race cars and parts I, and Tim Colman bought all the cars and spares that he had left at that time.

The March 782 was the car that Norrie Galbraith got killed in during some sort of TV video recording at the Doune hillclimb.

I dont recall us selling it as anything like a complete car. As far as I can recall it was sold as parts.

Roger Andreason

[ghinzani]

Hi Roger - off-topic but do you still have the little kart circuit at your race hq?

[Malcolm Smith]

Originally Posted by rogernorway

When Bob Howlings stopped trading in used race cars and parts I, and Tim Colman bought all the cars and spares that he had left at that time.

The March 782 was the car that Norrie Galbraith got killed in during some sort of TV video recording at the Doune hillclimb.

I dont recall us selling it as anything like a complete car. As far as I can recall it was sold as parts.

Roger Andreason

Norrie Galbraith was killed at a non-race day film recording at the Doune Hill Climb on 8th September, 1982. The film was being made by Scottish TeleVision to promote the 50th Doune Hill Climb, which was due to be held later that month. He crashed into a tractor which had moved on to the track.
Jack Davidson's Scottish hill climb history 'Motor Sports Extra' notes that the March 782 had a 2.2 litre Hart engine and that Norrie acquired the car from Roy Lane.

[old man]

One guy who would probably know a lot about Bobby is Richard Dean, his father was a big friend of Bobby