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Pete wrote:Anyone know this one, another pictured about twenty years ago+....





Very early tailgate design (quite different from the gold one above which looks like a very late '65/early '66), Paddy Gaston dash and Beetle lamps make it quite a rare one! Registered in Oxfordshire, September '65.


Registration number: GBW 266C

✗ Untaxed

Tax due: 31 March 1989

MOT

No details held by DVLA

Vehicle details
Vehicle make :MORRIS
Date of first registration :17 September 1965
Cylinder capacity (cc) :848cc
CO₂Emissions :Not available
Fuel type :PETROL
Vehicle status :Not taxed
Vehicle colour :MAROON
Vehicle type approval :Not available
Wheelplan :2 AXLE RIGID BODY
Revenue weight :Not available

That bottom photo is at my mum and dad's, god what a long time ago. Car was an Austin, originally red/black from Car Mart before going to Radfords, still had h4s and Downton rocker cover but had lost its 163 head.

Funny you say that Steve, I was only thinking about your dad's story about owning a Radford that he told me years ago! He did seem to suspect a Lennon connection and funnily enough so did the guy these photos came from but doubted the story. I would discount it also as the Lennon car had Aston rear lamps not Beetle and was a later conversion. Any idea what happened to this car Steve? (forgot what your dad told me!). Certainly a very early hatch, note the peak in the hatch at the waist line and the fabricated bottom panel that replaced the bootlid hinge panel. The next evolution of these came later in '65 which was the first standardisation that retained the factory bootlid hinge panel (as on the gold car) (and Brian Harding's) and this demonstrator :




The story (and it's only a story) I got about GBW 266C was that it was reshelled into this :



...which would be odd as it looks quite sound when your dad had it Steve?


PS please jump in and correct me Nev if I've got any of this wrong, you're the man when it comes to these hatchbacks!

WMU 211G wrote:Unusual looking wheels on that one Pete, don't recognise those at all.

From the Mini Wheel Directory


FAB, (4.5/5?)x10".

Ringo's also retained the bootlid hinge panel but had internal hinges and a much straighter hatch, his car was done at Radfords in the Spring of 1966, wonder if it was modified with the rest of the car later then?

Pete Ringo's car was the only Beatle car done at Hoopers the other 3 cars were done by Radfords. We reckon the car might have gone to W&P for an upgrade later in its life as it was de seamed/metal arches and it hooper seats were swapped out for Recaro seats which W&P were agents for.

I wonder why Hooper when Radford were already doing plenty of hatches and Epstein already had their custom. Maybe Radford were just too busy? Certainly looks like a Radford in the old photos, did Hooper just do the hatch? And I wonder when the hatch was done cos as yet Ibe not found a contemporary photo of the back of that car. My W&P S had very similar Recaros.

nick rogers wrote:It looks like George has asked Ringo for his autograph !
Seriousy though, thanks to Ant for the pics. Note the 4" Cosmics on Ringo's car and Moto Lita wheel on John's. Wipers parking on the left ?

Great pictures but I've just spotted the deliberate mistake, That's Paul, not George

AHH! Text refers to the picy before the picy before the picy before.

Still great pics.
Ian.

So back to Ringo's car. We're saying Hooper did the original conversion? How similar were Hooper to Radford then because it does look like a Radford...



No Hooper badges..anything to signify Hooper anyone?



Never seen a picture of the back in period and this is the only shot I've got of the front, and it's not too clever! You can make out the mutant indicator/sidelights though...

The door cards are finished different to Radfords and the dash is completely different to either Radford dashes and the rear hatch does not resemble any Radford Hatch. It's original seat would have been the same as the ones fitted in Peter Sellers Hooper. I know the article says '66 Radford but this is lesson not to believe everything we read.

This is Brian's early Hooper dash you can see the simlaraties. Hoopers added the binnacle as seen in Ringo's car sometime in '65.

Yep, got it. For some reason I thought the dash had been done again since '66, but you can actually make the top of it out in the colour shot. Nesmith's dash was pretty unique aswell though I suppose. I agree about the hatch, huge stays on it too!

PS that colour (ish!) shot of the front is from June '67.

The Hooper dash reminds me of another car I saw locally a couple of years ago, badged as a Radford but didn't look like one either. I'll see if I kept any pictures of it.

Pete wrote:So back to Ringo's car. We're saying Hooper did the original conversion? How similar were Hooper to Radford then because it does look like a Radford...


Never seen a picture of the back in period and this is the only shot I've got of the front, and it's not too clever! You can make out the mutant indicator/sidelights though...

Not seen that shot before Pete, many thanks for posting it. It would be nice to see the car out and about at shows more often, I haven't seen it in the flesh for donkey's years.

WMU 211G wrote:

Pete wrote:So back to Ringo's car. We're saying Hooper did the original conversion? How similar were Hooper to Radford then because it does look like a Radford...


Never seen a picture of the back in period and this is the only shot I've got of the front, and it's not too clever! You can make out the mutant indicator/sidelights though...

Not seen that shot before Pete, many thanks for posting it. It would be nice to see the car out and about at shows more often, I haven't seen it in the flesh for donkey's years.

Yep great shot. I've never seen this one before. 50 years old next year! Would be nice to see it out at one of the shows next year!

The dash for my hooper is out of my late 63 1071 the work done by hooper was in March 64. The car is coming on slowly but i am getting there hope to get finished next year.

Considering that Ringo had the Hooper a few years you'd think there'd be more shots of it out and about and I suspect that the big photo agencies will have more hidden away. I can understand there being hardly any of Lennon's cos he didn't like driving so I suspect it sat in his garage alot.

Pete wrote:Considering that Ringo had the Hooper a few years you'd think there'd be more shots of it out and about and I suspect that the big photo agencies will have more hidden away. I can understand there being hardly any of Lennon's cos he didn't like driving so I suspect it sat in his garage alot.

Agree on Ringo's hatchback, seems strange as there are plenty of photos about of his other cars (Mercs, the Facel Vega etc). Lennon was an awful driver by all accounts and sometimes got his passengers to do the honours instead. As well as Alf Bicknall, Pete Shotton used to drive him around a lot, including in the Radford. At least we have that ITV news footage of it arriving at Abbey Road on 20/12/66 in the Anthology dvds. This was no doubt edited down at the time but I wonder if Paul, George and Ringo's cars were captured on film that night but didn't make the final cut....

Edit - just remembered when it was*think* I last saw Ringo's Hooper... must have been Stoneleigh back in '99, for some reason I didn't take any photos of it, annoying really as I took several of John Hummel's W&P Mk2 S parked outside (it was metallic burgundy at the time). I did manage a few shots of Ringo's a few years earlier though, at Coombe Abbey in '94 I think, must have a look for the prints and scan them.

Found these in my Sales Brochures collection:

The car Ringo is sitting in doing the signing is surely George Harrison's Radford before it was repainted with tantric symbols?