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  • Octane Magazine

    Getting rad, man, at Radbourne

    Mar 23, 2022 6 minutes

    ITS FUNNY HOW little things prompt huge memories. Reading about Radbourne Racing’s founder, Lincoln Small, in Octane 225 was one of those moments.

    I had just started as an apprentice civil engineer with Mowlem back in the mid-60s and my mate John was similarly employed by Wimpey, building the new Brunel University over by Heathrow. I’d recently become fed-up with being a Mod on my home-tuned Vespa GS and deafening the good folk of Richmond with my straight-through exhaust, plus the trips to Brighton to see off the Rockers – it was all getting a bit much. On the other hand, the best birds always seemed to go for the GS, so it was a hard choice to sell it.

    So when John came up with an unloved and battered old Fiat 500 abandoned on the Brunel site, I jumped at it. DWL 200 was a full folding sunroof, suicide doors, 500. Obviously it didn’t run but our local garage in Whitton was Speedwell Motors – famous for Graham Hill’s tuned Austin A35s –

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