Lot details
Registration No: NH 4200
Chassis No: 5411814
Mot Expiry: Exempt

- Entered from the collection of the late Walter Witney

- First registered 1922 but rumoured to have seen WW1 service

- Hollingsworth of Northampton body and a wonderful survivor

Further Info:

Walter `Wally' Witney (1934 - 2014)

Walter `Wally' Witney had a lifelong affection for Ford vehicles. Growing up with various Model Ts and As in the family, he began his working life as an apprentice mechanic. A keen driver who would think nothing of undertaking a 600-mile round trip to visit a steam rally or pootling down to the local supermarket aboard a Model T, Wally also had a taste for speed which he indulged during the 1960s as `spanner man' to stock car ace Roy Gladwin (No. 324).

A keen auction goer who collected stationary engines and sewing machines as well as Fords, Wally was also an inveterate tinkerer. Thus the 1930 Model A Tudor Sedan was part way through an engine overhaul and the 1923 Model T `Speedster' Special had yet to be completed at the time of his death. A quiet, unassuming man who had nevertheless led a rich life, Wally's funeral attracted a diverse range of vintage and classic machinery.

Reputed to have had just three owners from new, this remarkable Truck was first road registered as `NH 4200' by Northampton County Council on 16th May 1922. Thought to have been bodied by one of the town's coachbuilders, Hollingsworth, it is also rumoured to have seen service during World War One. Acquired by Mr Witney in 2012, he was determined to (a) get the Ford running again, (b) conserve its wonderful patina and (c) solve the mystery of the `letterbox' set into its windscreen. The Truck is apparently lower geared than standard - perhaps all the better to help out with heavy loads on the battlefield - and Mr Witney was trying to source a suitable propshaft and other mechanical components at the time of his death. Worthy of museum display or sympathetic restoration, this characterful Ford is being offered for sale strictly as seen.