Speedwell Performance Conversions Ltd

The start of Speedwell Performance Conversions Ltd. has its origins in a London coffee bar called The Madeleine in Temple Fortune not far from Golders Green, where John Sprinzel used to go for lunch with an old friend George Hulbert and became friends with Len Adams who worked at Stewart and Arden and in early 1957. Sprinzel who had by this time had the engine of his A35 reg 119 KMH tuned by Gorge Hulbert while John concentraded on the suspension and braking and then disposed of anything that would lighten the car and then entered it into Whit Monday meeting at Goodwood, and as it was a handicap race and given a favorable handicap Sprinzel then won his race by quite a margin. After the race, Sprinzel was interviewed for BBC television by John Bolster, technical editor for Autosport who then asked John how he had achieved such speed in an A35 and who was 'Team Speedwell` that had entered the car.
The name came about from the local telephone exchange `Speedwell` which just happened to be the name that studio Sprinzel used for its trademark stickers. After the television broadcast went out John recieved so many enquiries from enthusiasts wanting to know how to make their A35's go faster than Morris Minors and Anglia's that John along with George and Len rented a mews building number 7 Accommodation Road, Golders Green and started up `Speedwell` as a business. Much of the work carried out at Stewart and Ardens premises on 119 KMH had been done by Reg Venner and he was hired as the first mechanic, an advantage he had due to being of a powerful built was that he could change engines on his own without the aid of a hoist as well as his skill and dedication.
The company then took off as orders for cylinder heads poured in followed by a demand for suspension modifications. Meanwhile 119 KMH was now employed in the role of `Speedwells` demonstrator car and recorded over 100,000 miles in a year including the May 1957 Tulip Rally with co-driver Ian Walker who had to pull out through illness and with his replacement managed a reasonable fourth in class but beaten by another A35 that turned out to belong to Harry Weslake with one of his experimental engines - he'd designed the cylinder heads for the BMC `A` series.
The official opening of the `Speedwell` showrooms took place in September 1957 and Ann Wisdom was employed part time to deal with the paperwork and as the christmas period approached it became apparent that a workshop manager was urgently needed. As luck would have it they were approached by the mechanic in charge at Lotus called Graham Hill who was looking to further his ambitions and was offered the job for £12 a week. Graham soon had success with a `Speedwell` A35 and many of his friends soon followed, and as `Speedwell` believed the only way to prove the products was through competition and soon found itself competing against the likes of Alexander Engineering, Don Moore, Downton and the old firm of Vic Derrington in the ever growing tuning business.
In May 1958 John was lent was of the first Frogeye Sprites appropriately finished in Speedwell Blue with the registration PMO 200 and `Speedwell` were to prepare the car for the Alpine Rally as a private entrant and `Speedwell gained even more publicity. And the icing on the cake came at the end of the season when all four directors (Graham Hill had become one by this time) took part in the National Six-Hour Relay race at Silverstone, the publicity recieved was fantastic as the only team to have the bosses racing their own products and winning the event and `Speedwell` continued to grow rapidly.

Towards the end of 1959 John Sprinzel left and sold his share of the company to Graham Hill and went to work for Donald Healy so he could persue his passion for all things involving the Austin Healy Sprite rather than the much broader direction that Speedwell were heading.
In 1960 they took over the Cornwall Avenue garage which gave them the much needed room for expansion, enabling them to have a purpose built engine test room along with an in house dynamomter these facilities gave them much needed development areas to continue developing the performance equipment side of the business.
In the early sixties the main areas of production at this time were cylinder heads, carburettor kits, differentials and suspension upgrades mainly for the Austin A35 & A40, Austin Healy Sprite & MG Midget, Morris Minor, Mini, Riley 1.5 & Wolseley 1500 and a few Saab items, however in 1962 they started producing a camber compensator for the VW Beetle which eventually led to EMPI forming a marketing arrangement for each others products. However towards the end of the sixties with the car manufacturers producing their own in-house GT versions etc the company went into decline and with in house differences and commitments it ceased trading in 1969.
Graham Hill then bought the company from the reciever and became the owner and called the new company Speedwell (Chesham) Ltd.
Relocating it to premises in Chesham that Graham owned and they continued selling and developing their products along with moving into the accessory market in a much bigger way.
However after retiring from Motor Racing in July 1975 Graham Hill who was 46 was killed in a plane crash on Arkley golf course in November 1975 and this finally caused Speedwell to close its doors. I spoke to an ex Speedwell employee who works at the Newtown Garage in Chesham which is only 100 yards from the old Speedwell premises and he said that after Graham's death things didn't last much longer and remembered the closing down sale when they were swamped with enthusiasts from all over the place who soon bought up all of the stock of parts and accessories that remained and that was the end of Speedwell.

Developed by Speedwell from their very successful range of alloy cylinder heads the 7 port was Speedwell ultimate spec race head.
This head was originally developed for use with 4 separate Amal GP Carbs. These carbs were notoriously difficult to set up & horrendously expensive even in the 60’s so a number were converted for use with twin 40 DCOE Webers, as this one has been.
Although they were successful in their day these heads were very short lived, as a matter of months after the first one was fitted to a race car BMC introduced the large bore 1071cc S engine making small bore race engines a thing of the past.
My thanks go to Mark Forster for all the information.