Text and photos by Jim Simpson –
When I was 17 years old serving my European car apprenticeship, I negotiated a deal with Speedwell Motors in Beaumont Texas for our shop to get the dealership rights for Houston for the Intermeccanica Italia these are a few photos of our demo from back in the day.
We had the car for about 6 months trying to promote and sell them, one of the issues was that the cars were apparently stored outside in raw steel, then lightly scuffed and painted so by the time they got off the boat the rust bubbles were already starting to pop…meaning that most cars had to be repaired at least and in some cases repainted.
They were delightful driving cars and a lot of fun and of course easy on the eyes. Not sure what ever happened with the one we had it finally went back to Speedwell Motors in Beaumont. We did better with the Haflingers.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Jim Simpson started Simpson Design in 1978 as an outlet for his original design work in building custom sports cars.
Simpson Design, based out of Clinton, Washington, specializes in unique, hand-built exotic automobiles combining the high level of style and quality of vintage classics with reliability and mechanical peace of mind of modern sportscar technology.
Certainly a fun trip down memory lane for me…
Jim: long way from Star Motors (Sid Simpson). Always good hearing your comments.
Best, JW Wood
Nice to see your post JW, trust you are well my friend