My father designed, raced and rallied his cars in the 1960's. Through his Delta Garages BMC dealership and business in Leighton Buzzard, Douglas Wilson-Spratt was able to put his ideas into production. In December 1962 the prototype WSM Sprite was unveiled at Silverstone, and following a great deal of interest shown by other drivers, a further twelve or more cars followed through until 1965 - the red WSM pictured at Cadwell in 1999. Several cars were exported to the USA and there are still at least five of the WSM Sprites in action today.
In 1966, a friend brought his damaged Healey 3000 from Silverstone to Delta Garages and asked Douglas to design a WSM body for the car - the finished article is possibly the best of the marque - and the end result was said to achieve 140mph +. The maroon WSM 3000 is known to be in one piece somewhere in England.
Another bent car - this time a 1963 MGB had incurred some race damage, and again the request was to replace the standard body shape. The WSM MGB went on to many class wins and had some epic dices in the hands of Mike Lewis against the likes of John Gott in his Healey and Bill Nicholson in his 'B' at Silverstone in 1967. After display in Holland, the car is now back in family hands, pictured here at Rockingham in 2001 during the WSM Re-Union event to mark the designers 80th birthday.
Douglas wanted a 100mph car that seated four and with 30mpg + economy, so in the summer of 1967 he produced the MG1100. It served its purpose, and even towed the WSM Sprites around to race meetings on a trailer but the advent of the 70mph limit discouraged Douglas from further production. The whereabouts of this car are unknown at this time.
Can anyone shed any light on where it is now?
A customer with a Jaguar XK150S in 1968 wanted something a little different to tow his vintage Rover racing car and lug car body panels around for his business. The shooting brake design subsequently outperformed the racing car on the Tholt y Will hill climb in the Isle of Man, admittedly on a wet track, and is currently undergoing restoration in Holland. The car is pictured here at a hill climb event in 1968.
Motorsport bit the dust when back problems exacerbated by rallying caused Douglas to revert to his first love, aviation, and he continues to fly in the UK and Europe, and supports me in racing two of his wonderful designs.
Tony Wilson-Spratt
Thanks for that Tony! other recollections of motoring in the 1960s and before, can be found in the Motoring Memories section.
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