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Leonard (Len) Witton was a British motorsport enthusiast. In the 1950s, he was a member of the 750 Motor Club in England, at the same time as Colin Chapman, who later founded Lotus. At the time, he was racing a 750 Special that he had assembled from "Austin 7" parts.
Len emigrated to Canada in 1957 and continued to design and build racing cars in his spare time. In 1962, he built a racing car equipped with a Chevrolet V8. This was used quite successfully in the Montreal region. This car is currently owned by a collector.
He built his first roadster in 1969. He dreamed of building a car in the style of a classic English roadster, as he knew them from his home country. He wanted to combine the best features of the well-known brands and role models in a new car. A Ford V8 engine was used in this car. He built the second car in 1972, but this time he used a 1.5 litre Ford Pinto engine. The oil crisis and the introduction of speed limits in the USA prompted him to do so. This car is now owned by Darol Hinton, Len's nephew.
Len then emigrated to the USA (Washington State).
There he began work on the third vehicle. This time the concept was changed and the result was a roadster with a VW rear engine (1500 cc), but still with a ladder frame. Other VW-based kit cars at the time used the floor assembly of the VW Beetle. He wanted to create a kit car that was cheap and very easy to build, using cheap and easy to obtain VW parts. This meant that there was no need to search for a rust-free VW Beetle floor assembly and the entire body became much more torsionally rigid. At the same time, the remaining technical parts required could be found at the scrapyard.
With this car, he decided to enter the kit car business and market his car. Len himself built 7 or 8 Wittons in his own workshop, all of which were sold.
In the 1970s, Len entered into a partnership with Thoroughbred Cars. They produced the Witton kits in the USA, prepared for a VW rear engine or a Ford Pinto 2.0, 2.3 or 2.8 litre. They were marketed as Thoroughbred Tigers.
However, the partnership fell apart. Thoroughbred continued to produce the Witton and Len sued Thoroughbred and won. He received the exclusive rights to the car, the tools, the parts and compensation of 100,000 dollars.
He then sold the rights to the vehicle, but the company went bankrupt.
Len died in 1996 after a serious illness. Although he was a smoker, he had also spent many years breathing in filler, paint, wood and fibreglass dust. When he died, he no longer owned any of his beautiful cars.
The Witton is the father of all Merlin and Lynx. Its design is timeless and was immediately used as a template by other KitCar manufacturers to build similar vehicles.
Many thanks to Darol, Len Witton's nephew, for the beautiful pictures and for his support in creating this article.
