Well it seems we all have the same opinion after all then
and yes - the fact that the "W&P" name "survived" ofcourse makes some people put all cars into the same bowl
which they clearly (as some allready have pointed out) are not.
Mr Collins left when Henly,s bought the WP name around 86/87, and by that time, he was the only person left from the early days, and even for a WP "fan" like me its hard to defend those later conversions
The thing people must remember = is time & taste (or lack off)
Back when the Hooper,s / Radfords and Margrave,s appeared, was a posh sports car by Jaguar a flatfloor type 1 E - type - and in the mid 60ies Lamborghine gave us the STUNNING Miura,
but then came the 70ies with glamrock & platou boots , who dosent remember Alvin Stardust or ABBA .
By this time the E type had become the XJS, and the Lamborghini a Countach
and dont get me started on Limo,s
The 70ies also brought in new clients to the coachbuild market = the Arab,s and when one have a company that is based on giving their costumers exactly what they ordered = well we have all seen those later 70ies "creations"
but again one must remember = they are all a part of the time frame, in which they were built.
So all W&P did was to keep with time, and give the costumers, what they wanted, which was more than could be said about Hooper,s who wouldnt do more cars after 5 or 6,
and Radford who didnt come up with a design, that their costumers liked (see my post above
)
that car was built as a demonstrator & shown at the big international motor show in Paris that year, but without success = Radford packed in shortly after.
So no one can claim this was a costumer,s job
= Radford had tried to copy & do one better on W&P,s Merc light conversion, and fell flat on their noses - nuff said.
Jens Christian