THE ART OF THE SPARK

H&H Ignition Solutions was founded in 2004 by Lee Hull and his uncle, Phil. Both had worked for XL Components beforehand, an ignition factory on a massive scale that turned out thousands of distributors each week for the aftermarket in the late 1980s and 1990s. The units they were working on were simply for secondhand cars at the time (AC Delco for things like the Astra and Nova, Motorcraft for Ford OHV and OHC engines, Bosch and Lucas for CVH engines and so much of the BL stuff for example,) but many of those cars were just starting to edge into classic status.

By 2004, the classic market was booming and XL were neglecting it, putting only small volumes into the trade through businesses such as Lucas and Unipart along with a few much smaller service agents. Then a change of company ownership brought with it a change of direction, and Lee and Phil saw an opportunity to set up on their own. Spares for distributors were still readily available at the time and good quality, too. With their trade contacts plus going to shows to deal directly with the public, the new business took off.

‘We still get a lot of reconditioning work,’ says Lee, ‘but