HE’S SPENT MORE THAN 40 years living at motor sport’s cutting edge. So why would such a man, now on the cusp of his eighth decade, even think about starting again with a bright and ambitious new business? “It’s just what I do, ” says designer, ex-mechanic, artisan engineer and artist John Piper. “It’s what I’ve always done. I guess I’m at that age where lots of people use the ‘R’ word. I’m 69, 70 in August. But I’ll quote Carroll Shelby: ‘I’ll retire when the work’s done.’ This is simply who I am and I don’t feel I’ve done it all yet.”
Piper’s colourful racing life is an unplanned tapestry that’s brought him a great deal of pleasure and significant achievement: formative years at Williams and Benetton; a key role in the creation of legendary competition cars such as the Metro 6R4 and Jaguar XJR-14; breaking convention with the insane-looking Panoz GTR-1; heading to Bonneville to set diesel- powered speed records that might stand forever, especially now that fuel source is considered a global pariah. He’s done a bit of everything and now, under the auspices of Piper Special Vehicles, he enjoys electromodding classic cars, including his next big thing: a production armada of battery- powered Austin-Healey Frogeye Sprites.
We’ve headed to Bristol to meet Piper in his small industrial unit that was once home to Aardman Animations, creator of Wallace and Gromit. That seems fitting. Piper has something of the cheese-loving inventor about him and is brimming with boyish enthusiasm for his new project. There’s no sign of an intelligent hound to play the grown-up and keep him grounded… Still, he has engineer son Alex on CAD design duties and a small band of experienced technicians to steer him clear of the car equivalent of ‘The Wrong Trousers’.
Piper Special Vehicles’ latest work sits on the shop floor and is representative
