Autocar

MORE YOUNG BLOOD NEEDED

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There’s no shortage of work at G&A Fabricatio­ns. “These days, it’s about 50:50 between road cars and racing cars,” says Lawrence Kett. “We’ve had a few occasions when we’ve finished repairing a racing car on Friday and had it back in again on Monday after it’s been pranged on the weekend. No, having enough work isn’t the worry. It’s finding people like Grace for the future that bothers me. There just aren’t new people coming through.”

I suspect there are several factors at play here. There are simply not enough businesses like Kett’s; the aviation industry is no longer training and supplying the right sort of talent, especially as aircraft turn to composite materials; and having an apprentice in the shop is hideously expensive.

Expensive, but also time consuming. It takes a person of Kett’s passion to put the time in. Grace Roaf isn’t his only youngster. There’s a lad called Jack Renyard here, too, who is also highly skilled and getting more adept at his craft by the day. So if you biff your 250 GTO in a supermarke­t car park in Walton-on-thames, you’re in luck. Help is around the corner.

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