Seeking a long-lost Tojiero, and Henry Ford II’S other Capri unveiled
Like many old car enthusiasts (I guess that could be taken both ways), I’ve been using my lockdown-enforced free time to good effect. Tidying the garage was long overdue, but putting my archives into some sort of order was clearly more fun. While filing books, I settled down to read Graham Gauld’s Toj on the life of John Tojeiro – it reminded me that Toj’s life held several quirky parallels to my own.
He lived in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, and once worked at the local specialist commercial vehicle manufacturer Shelvoke & Drewry, albeit a couple of decades before me. Here’s the surprise – some years ago, I used to ride my horse past a local run-down cottage that was rumoured to have a Jaguar D-type and one of the V12 Le Mans Aston Martin/lagondas parked under tin sheets in the overgrown garden. Graham’s book suggests that the body of one of those Lagondas was removed and fitted to a new... Tojeiro chassis.
Further archive tidying unearthed a box of period photographs containing images of what looks like a mystery barchetta-bodied Tojeiro that doesn’t appear in Graham Gauld’s listings. So was that car, registered PWR 885, a genuine Tojeiro? If so, has it survived?
Malcolm Bates
The British Leyland malaise
Quentin’s story about almost causing a strike at the Longbridge plant after giving a bad review of the Metro on Top Gear exemplifies everything that was wrong with the British motor industry back then.
My father worked for a Jaguar dealership in the Eighties and won a competition to tour the factory with other salesmen from around the UK. Before entering the assembly area they were told not to whisper amongst each other or laugh out loud, in case the workers thought that a bunch of suits were making fun of them and downed tools. Is it any wonder that Eighties Jaguars were the pile of problems they turned out to be?
Gary G Smith
Henry’s other Ford
Thanks for an interesting article on the Ford Capri 2.8 Injection built for Henry Ford II (Ford’s Capri, May 2021). In the early part of my Ford PR career, I handled a small fleet at the Ford Press Garage in Brentford, including this car, loaned to visiting VIPS – usually Americans – and international media, though two lived at Mr Ford’s Turville Grange estate.
There was another Henry Ford Capri – PNO 156V, a Strato Silver 3.0S with SVO automatic option and brown Carla interior with Fishnet Recaros, and was superbly fettled by the plant in Cologne. It’s the vehicle we see the rear corner of in Walter Hayes’ book Henry (1990) with Mr Ford preparing the jack to change a wheel.
PNO’S life at Turville was cut short when someone in the household – not Mr Ford – managed to damage the rear corner. After repairs it wasn’t needed back at Turville because Mr & Mrs Ford weren’t in the UK at that time, so it came to us at Ford HQ in Warley, where I drove it as much as I could until eventually, it was sold.
As for the car that became AVW 109X? My boss, the late and wonderful Ford of Europe PR Manager, Harry Calton, asked me to order another Capri for Mr Ford sometime in the middle of 1981. After much fettling in Germany, it turned up in standard specification at Frog Island and I remember nervously driving back to Warley, then on to Dunton, where I handed it to Rod’s team for the conversion work. So very pleased to see it safely preserved. Paul Harrison
Happy TT workhorse
Last month’s Audi TT buying guide prompted me to write about my sister Jo’s 2004 225 Quattro, which she leased from new then bought after three years. It now lives as a second car, currently showing a total mileage of 261k. Testament to how enjoyable and long-lived an Audi TT can be. Matt Benoy