it’s all in the detail

With victories on the most hallowed historic racing grids and concours lawns, Woodham Mortimer ltd is the top choice in the sale, restoration and preparation of classic cars

‘at 140Mph in a 70-year-old race car you need to trust the people who prepared it,’ says front-running international Historic racer, Chris Ward. When not competing at the sharp end of the grid, Chris is Operations Manager at Woodham Mortimer Ltd, one of Britain’s leading specialists in the sale, restoration and race preparation of the finest historic cars.

With many wins at Goodwood, Spa and Monaco, Chris adds: ‘I have been extremely lucky to race some of the most exciting cars at the best events, ranging from an ex-Fangio C-type Jaguar to a lightweight E-type, and customers’ Knobbly Lister and Ford GT40.’

Luck? Legendary golfer, Gary Player, once commented ‘the more I practise, the luckier I get,’ and you get the feeling something similar is happening at Woodham Mortimer Ltd. Otherwise how would it continue to rack up so many motor racing victories, concours trophies and restoration awards for itself as well as its customers?

‘I think a lot of our success comes down to passion for what we do,’ continues Chris. ‘Our racing cars are quick because of our attention to detail and constant striving to improve their performance, reliability and setup. We aim to stand out from the rest and our motivated team works very closely to ensure we keep improving. Podium finishes at important race meetings are a validation of our skills and efforts, and our customers are competitive and like doing well.’ This level of engineering know-how and precision allied to world-class restoration skills is also evident in the concours arena, in which the company has won multiple awards at the prestigious Pebble Beach, Cartier Style et Luxe and Salon Privé.

A visit to Woodham Mortimer’s astonishing 60,000sq ft facility reveals two showrooms and six workshops tucked away in Maldon, on the Essex coast. The immaculate green buildings hide one of the motoring world’s most amazing destinations. Entering through the securely gated courtyard, you are met by the enormous and impressive main showroom within. On the gleaming, tiled showroom floor is an array of some of the most important and immaculate classic and performance cars you will see anywhere in the world, as well as a generous sprinkling of classic racing motorcycles and automobilia.

‘Podium finishes are a validation of our skills, and our customers are competitive and like doing well’

Woodham Mortimer has a highly experienced team of 50 craftsmen, technicians and engineers, together with the vehicle sourcing, sales and research teams. Everyone is proud to work here and this more than comes across when visiting the extraordinary site. Being a full service operation it has race, engine, machine, body and paint shops inhouse, which guarantees absolute quality control. The workshops are immaculate and exceptionally well organised, and the team have recently added a trim shop.

Senior Restoration Technician Matthew Berry says: ‘Restoring a treasured car for a client creates a very close working relationship. We project manage the process from stripdown to completion. We feel responsible for each car and set very high standards. Throughout the rebuild we are in constant touch with the client and take ownership as if the car were ours. So it’s personal. We do our utmost to achieve perfection.

‘I started working on Ferraris many years ago and still love them. We have just finished a beautiful 275 six-carb short-nose to full concours standard. Another of my favourites is the E-type Jaguar. It looks fantastic and its XK engine is so robust. As well as wanting our customers’ cars to look good, we want them to perform as best they can. Look, we are just blokes who love cars and love working on them. We spend thousands of hours on each one.’ Finally, modestly and with massive understatement, Matthew says: ‘It’s our life, so we give it our all.’ This from the man whose cars have beaten the very best on the fabled lawns of Pebble Beach!

James Fraser, who looks after Sales and Sourcing, says: ‘I have had a passion for Jaguars, especially XKs, almost my whole life – my father had an XK120. These very versatile cars continue to be in demand, although at present there is perhaps more focus on the XK150s because they are so usable with a larger cabin, disc brakes and proper weather equipment. Undoubtedly the market has softened since the peak in 2015/16, so we price our cars sensibly. Of course, we always have extremely rare and special competition and concours cars at Woodham Mortimer but we also stock cars that are subtly improved, making them great to drive and I’m constantly amazed, and pleased, at how much our customers actually use their cars.’

Woodham Mortimer’s focus for 2019 is to open doors for its customers to go racing, rallying and enjoying their cars to the full. The company will continue to sponsor the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, Goodwood Revival, and the Mille Miglia in 2019 so its customers who want to compete will have unparallelled access at such leading events.

Former CEO of Group Lotus plc and now Chairman and CEO of Woodham Mortimer, Jean-Marc Gales says: ‘Trading remains a key part of our business and we want to build on this by developing both our restoration and Historic racing capabilities, which we are good at. We have a very good customer base but want to attract new people into racing and events. On our restoration side, our workshops are full but we want to expand. We will continue to offer upgrades for a variety of marques including E-types, historic XKs, Aston Martins and Ferraris.’

So what’s the secret? Why has this amazing ‘works’ in Maldon achieved near-mythical status in the classic car world? Of course, there is no actual ‘secret’ other than that the highly skilled team is exceptionally good at what it does. This, allied to a clear and determined passion to achieve the very best, means Woodham Mortimer and its fortunate customers will remain at the front of the most exciting Historic racing grids as well as on the lawns of the most prestigious Concours d’Elegance around the world. Contact +44(0)1621 879579; www.woodham-mortimer.com.