Howzat for a vehicle!
In 1968, Derek Manders and his friend Dave Wells saw a picture of a Velocette-inspired special. Little did they know that some 40 years later it would come into their lives…
Were you a young motorcyclist in the late 1960s? Did anything in that era really grab you and leave a lasting impression on your mind and did it lie there on a back burner awaiting the spark that would reignite it?
If, like me and my long-standing mate Dave, you have a soft spot for big singles and three wheels, then please read on. If not, read on anyway – you might enjoy this blast into the past.
We go back as near as I can place it in my mind to late 1968. At that time I lived with my parents in a terraced house halfway up a steep hill in Lincoln, not the ideal place to play with motorbikes. Even if I could get a big bike down the passage there was nowhere to play with it (sorry, ‘work’ on it – ‘play with’ is a term my mother used) as my dad had his toys in the only spare outhouse. As a consequence, I rented a lock-up garage on the allotments, which were at the top of our street. If you know Lincoln, this is where the new County Hospital is now. As you would expect, there were no luxuries like electricity, just an old hurricane lantern and candles when it was dark.
Conveniently my rented garage happened to be next to Dave’s dad’s allotment and lock-up garage. Well, it was his dad’s garage until Dave took an unhealthy interest in things with two wheels and engines! He promptly filled it with bike bits.
There we have it, two mates and two garages next to each other. It was Dave’s garage that is the inspiration for this article or, should I say, the pictures and newspaper clips stuck on its walls. He was, and still is, a Velocette nut. I remember going with him to pick up his first Velo in a hired van, with a driver as neither of us had a car licence. It was a Viper with two dustbins full of spares for the princely sum of £17 10s or £17.50 in today’s money! He still owns that bike today.
Seeing the Howcette for the first time…
Nailed to the garage wall was a cutting from a motorcycle weekly showing an absolutely beautiful vehicle. Well, it was in our eyes. It was a Velocette with an aluminium sports car type body, two front wheels and one rear with a single car-type seat between them. This was the Howcette and it was built by a chap called Bob Howard, hence its name. The image of this vehicle has stayed with us both ever since. It was seeing this cutting that led me to have a soft spot for three-wheel sports-type vehicles ever since, although I have never actually owned a sports three-wheeler, I have owned and ridden a few combinations (great fun) and owned a trio of Reliants, a sidevalve 1959 21E van and a 1975 Robin van (not quite so much fun but at times entertaining!).
Over the years I also took a liking to the style of the Lotus 7 and, in 1996/7, I did build a Locost, a Lotus 7-style car from the bestselling Haynes book by Ron Champion, ‘Build your own Sports Car for as little as £250.’ It cost quite considerably more than that in the end though, but it was worth it. I kept it for 16 years, then the old bike bug rekindled itself and I reluctantly sold the Locost which was, incidentally, one of the very first to be built from Champion’s book.
Anyway, I digress. Dave and I both got on with our lives, riding and driving this, that and the other, and, for my part, the Howcette was left sat on the back burner. That is until about 1985 when, on the way back from a works coach trip to Alton Towers, we were in the inside lane on the Nottingham ring road and I heard the sound of a big single. Fortunately, I was sat on the offside of the bus and able to look out of the window. There it was right beside me in all its glory, the Howcette. Wow! Not for very long though, as we were in the slow lane and he was soon just a speck in the
distance. At last, after about 17 years, I was able to see that beautiful vehicle, albeit too briefly, but I had actually seen it.
…and seeing it again
Now we fast forward to 2009 when I visited Dave to enquire what he had bought bikewise since I had last seen him. As I said previously, he has always been a Velocette nut and is gathering quite a collection of Velos, along with an assortment of other interesting motorcycles. After a bit of small talk and the usual banter he said, with a big grin on his face: “You’ll never guess what I’ve bought.” I knew immediately what the old bugger had done. I said: “You’ve got the Howcette...” And he had! With that it was off to have a look at it. That was the second time I had seen it, but this time I could touch it and even sit in it and there was no chance of it roaring off into the distance. Wow, after all those years, there I was actually sitting in it!
Apparently, Dave had come across it advertised for sale on one of his regular trips to an autojumble and vintage show. With it came a small bundle of paperwork and information that he had put somewhere safe! Yes, you guessed it, he then couldn’t find it!
Unfortunately, due to his business commitments it then remained in storage for ages, that is until I suggested that it really ought to be brought out of hibernation and to let others, who, like us, remember it, see that it is still around. This suggestion coincided with the announcement of a new classic bike show at Newark in January 2012, I think, which we decided was to be our goal. Well, more like my goal as I had volunteered to get it cleaned up and it was decided that the Howcette would come to my house so I could prepare it for the Newark show.
I am very pleased to say that it was worth the effort. The interest shown in it was amazing and it was a real treat to see so many people looking at and admiring it.
Lots of visitors said that they remembered the Howcette from years ago with most saying that they remembered Bob Howard competing in the National Rally in it. The icing on the cake though was for it to be awarded the Most Technical Interest exhibit.
Unfortunately, neither Dave nor I could claim credit for that award, and that credit must go to Bob Howard who built it back in 1967-8. A grand job he made of it too, as those of you who have seen it can testify. We both feel very lucky to have the privilege of looking after it for a while. But the next step was to get it going… NEXT MONTH: Bringing the Howcette back to life.