The master entertainer putting on a show for half a century

In a profession spanning greater than 50 years, Sonny Howard has had an immeasurable affect on nationwide motorsport. However, regardless of an inventory of non-racing shoppers together with High Gear, the Quick & Livid franchise, Jaguar and the king of Jordan, he doesn’t search the limelight. As a substitute, he has nurtured others whereas prioritising the present.

“We’ve altered folks’s lives, no doubt,” he admits. “However it’s not about Sonny Howard.”

From scorching rods to rallying, junior T Vehicles to crowd-pleasing Eurocars, Howard’s CV is as revolutionary as it’s diverse. Stunt automobiles for movies, reside reveals and producer launches – and even producing the Desert Iris army car – have additionally been main elements of SHP Engineering’s enterprise.

However offering alternatives for drivers from grassroots disciplines is his actual ardour. The likes of Le Mans racer and British GT champion Ian McKellar Jr and touring automobile ace Carl Boardley are amongst many to have made that transition with Howard’s assist. The 78-year-old, nonetheless hands-on on the helm of his Cambridgeshire-based agency, doesn’t dwell on the previous.

“I’m not into historical past,” he states. “The one cause I say you must have a look at historical past is to be sure you don’t make the identical mistake once more.”

He started racing inventory automobiles within the Sixties earlier than employer Geoff Glover, Ely’s Datsun supplier, provided an opportunity to go rallying and construct his first scorching rod. As he rapidly earned a repute for his engineering, Howard labored on different drivers’ automobiles in his spare time.

“We ended up doing limited-slip diffs,” he remembers. “I used to be beginning to get increasingly of them and, in the long run, there was hardly time to go racing.”

Howard has seen and completed all of it in his prolonged profession, however has by no means needed to be a star himself – as an alternative offering followers leisure

Picture by: Gary Hawkins

Via scorching rods he met four-time world champion Barry Lee, starting a protracted affiliation with the cult hero. It led to spells in rallying with Seller Group Opel and Blydenstein the place he acted as a chase-car driver to the likes of Russell Brookes and soon-to-be world champion Timo Salonen throughout Europe. However it was whereas at Glovers, after importing an ex-Shekhar Mehta Datsun Sunny, that Howard skilled one in every of his most memorable rallies, when Lee contested the 1975 RAC.

“He blew a head gasket in the course of the forest,” remembers Howard. “And we really modified the pinnacle gasket on his automobile in between the 2 levels. We bought it by, bought it to York – which was the place it was primarily based – with no water in it, after which in a single day we despatched any individual again to take the cylinder head off my little scorching rod, as a result of it was precisely the identical engine. I believe we have been two levels from the tip of the RAC Rally, we’d been main the category, and he put it in a ditch!”

Within the meantime, Howard pioneered spaceframe chassis building in Nationwide Sizzling Rods. Phil White took SHP-built automobiles to the primary of greater than a dozen world titles, scooping Tremendous Rod and Nationwide Sizzling Rod crowns on consecutive weekends in 1988.

“They have been all off-the-shelf elements. It simply was a large stepping stone for all of people who ended up having the chance to do it”
Sonny Howard

SHP’s maiden foray into circuit racing got here the next 12 months by way of the short-lived Intersaloons class at Lydden Hill. “They have been a Nationwide Sizzling Rod the place they put the entrance home windows in,” Howard explains.

The collection provided a primary style of circuits to drivers together with future aces Neil Facey (Thundersaloons) and Steve Dance (Eurocar and Pickups), and extra adopted into Thundersaloons, the place SHP grew to become a number one constructor. Following BDG/BDX-engined Ford Fiestas for White and Tony Paxman, fellow ex-hot rodder Paul McMillan’s Cosworth turbo-powered Peugeot 309 was SHP’s final weapon for the steel-shelled class.

However Howard remained pissed off by the ‘them-and-us’ separation between the (as then) Motor Sports activities Affiliation-controlled circuits and his short-oval roots, usually listening to the chorus: “‘That’s banger racing’. It isn’t banger racing – a Nationwide Sizzling Rod now, it’s £55k plus VAT,” he reveals.

Undeterred, he teamed up with oval promoter Philip Bond to launch a class that bridged the divide like no different: Eurocar. From 1994, Ford Cologne V6-powered rear-wheel-drive spaceframe chassis, clothed in GRP Mondeo-lookalike bodywork, raced on quarter-mile quick ovals and at conventional circuit racing venues in a single championship. Alongside Birmingham, Hednesford and Ipswich, the automobiles took to half-mile ‘oval’ configurations of Donington Park, Silverstone and Pembrey, ran anti-clockwise across the Mallory Park mile, and made journeys to Eire and the Netherlands.

Mondeo-style bodywork cloaked rear-wheel-drive spaceframe in Eurocar V6

Picture by: Gary Hawkins

“We used Cosworth entrance brakes; the entrance uprights have been off a Sierra however we made them into double wishbones,” says Howard. “In order that they have been all off-the-shelf elements. It simply was a large stepping stone for all of people who ended up having the chance to do it.”

Dagenham Motors-backed duo Lee and midget racing champion Alf Boarer set the early tempo amongst a area filled with short-circuit expertise. Led by the flamboyance of ‘Leapy’ Lee, they introduced American-style razzmatazz, incomes a legion of latest followers with an end-of-year contest at Manufacturers Hatch over the Method Ford Competition weekend.

Drawn grids, big-name visitor drivers – together with Paul Radisich, Win Percy, Roger Clark and Tiff Needell – and the light-weight automobiles’ spectacular fashion all contributed to a buzz that had been missing from the nationwide racing scene. Including a Roush V8-powered sister collection, with future British GT champion and touring automobile ace Mike Jordan twice claiming the crown, was one other step in the direction of emulating NASCAR.

However, amid politics for which Howard had no time, Eurocar’s star waned. In some respects, it was a sufferer of its personal success. As soon as they’d skilled the circuits, short-oval graduates needed extra, and the quarter-mile tracks have been dropped. “They did placed on a present, no doubt,” displays Howard. “The group completely cherished them to demise. However the drivers simply needed to go that subsequent step additional.”

SHP’s Pickups class launched in 1997, initially as a Eurocar assist collection. However Howard was decided to retain management and preserve it grounded. He’d been constructing automobiles for Mark Gent, father of reigning Pickups champion Dale, to contest a largely unrestricted collection on Dutch ovals. Inspiration struck whereas watching together with his spouse.

“Someone turned up with a [NASCAR-style] pickup truck,” Howard remembers. “It was large, chunky, and I mentioned to Barbara, ‘That’s it. We’ll do a European one, and we’ll see how many individuals that have gotten a Nationwide Sizzling Rod make the transition.’

“We bought maintain of an outdated [Ford] P100 from the breakers, and ended up reducing and hacking it about. We created a chassis, and the thought was, initially, that each one the bits from a Nationwide Sizzling Rod would have gone into it.”

Finally, NHR axles and suspension required beefing up, however the idea was so nicely acquired Howard that instantly secured 10 gross sales from which he might fund the builds.

Pickup Vehicles collection has been a staple of UK racing for over 25 years

Picture by: Gary Hawkins

“The drivers already needed one thing else,” he reckons. “They have been getting pissed off, and it was aimed toward making an attempt to maintain them. It ended up occurring by frustration, due to [the politics] and what occurred with Eurocar.”

As Eurocar pale, Pickups gathered momentum. Rockingham Motor Speedway’s 2001 opening supplied a pure dwelling. The vehicles have been swiftly tailored to be left-hand drive and run a set spoiler, permitting them to race anti-clockwise on the 1.5-mile oval. SHP additionally supplied engineering and operational assist to Rockingham’s personal ASCAR collection after it had endured a troublesome beginning.

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However, as with Eurocar, the Pickups outlasted the headline act. When ASCAR folded, Pickups provided the one aggressive motion on the oval for its final decade.

Supposed as a extra related and cost-effective various to karting, T Vehicles ran from 1999-2007 and supplied a springboard for future Method 1 drivers Jolyon Palmer and Max Chilton

“It was too large actually – they bought it improper as a result of they constructed it for Indycars, didn’t they?” rues Howard, who reckons a half-mile oval would have fared higher. Along with his enter, such services have been deliberate on quite a few events. A 2006 proposal for Silverstone, on the location of its rallysprint circuit the place a Porsche Expertise Centre now stands, got here closest to fruition. “A lot work had been completed,” says Howard. “We’ve nonetheless bought the drawings.”

However it wasn’t simply established oval racers he nurtured. SHP additionally designed and constructed the automobiles for Britain’s first racing collection for below 16s. Supposed as a extra related and cost-effective various to karting, T Vehicles ran from 1999-2007 and supplied a springboard for future Method 1 drivers Jolyon Palmer and Max Chilton.

Howard, alongside the British Racing & Sports activities Automobile Membership’s Bob Armstrong, satisfied the MSA to endorse the spaceframe route. “I bought a lot grief,” he remembers, “however I justified it. We made them rear-wheel drive, in order that they ended up having to drive them by their bottom.” The identical chassis can be used within the Irish RT2000 (later Supercars) and Dutch VEGE collection too, with almost 70 in-built whole.

Quick approaching that rely is the automobile that SHP is maybe finest recognized for at the moment: its outlandish RSR, a Mk1 Escort clone of which almost 50 examples have been constructed thus far. The prolonged build-run was key to the gestation of a undertaking that helped Howard’s agency by the pandemic with out furloughing employees.

Palmer Jr (left) and Brundle Jr have been amongst these racing Howard’s T Vehicles machines

Picture by: Gary Hawkins

He explains: “All the pieces we’ve completed, you’d get previous, like, 10, then any individual desires one thing completely different, or ‘have you ever bought one other concept?’ So, it bought ‘evolutioned’. It retains costing increasingly cash earlier than you’ve bought an opportunity to amortise the primary lot again. So I mentioned, ‘The following factor we do, I’ll make it possible for it’ll by no means get evolutioned.’”

Adopting the acquainted blueprint of a light-weight spaceframe chassis draped in GRP bodywork from BOSS Mouldings – Mark Skitmore’s concern based by his late father Steve of Nationwide Sizzling Rod fame – SHP describes the outcome because the Escort’s “basic fashion with a contemporary engineering efficiency”. Basing the automobile round a mannequin that ceased manufacturing within the Seventies was poo-pooed by some.

“All people thought I used to be mad,” laughs Howard. “‘You’ve misplaced it this time. That is going to be the one factor in your CV that you just’ve failed at.’ However they [Ford] didn’t actually develop one as a race automobile.”

With the Blue Oval’s blessing, Howard pressed on. Providing bespoke engine alternative – “That’s why there’s by no means been a championship for them” – from humble Duratec to Millington Diamond and past, the result’s a automobile that may get inside a few seconds of British Touring Automobile lap report tempo in novice racers’ arms. In Modified Fords alone, 4 completely different examples took race wins final 12 months.

Extra importantly to Howard, they’re spectacular to look at. “Folks within the crowd haven’t bought a stopwatch. It doesn’t matter, so long as you’re placing on a present.” So says the quietly spoken grasp showman.

Ford Escort Mk1 RSR has been one in every of Howard’s hottest creations

Picture by: Richard Kinds