Some of you may remember the controversial Judge, James Pickles who was from Halifax.
I live extremely close to his old house and vividly remember seeing him in the early nineties, ragging around in a very flash orange and green MX-5 that I now know to be a Le Mans.
He was a flamboyant character and I remember him wearing a flying jacket with helmet and goggles whilst driving the 5. I also remember him driving like a nutter.
A quote from the article, “…and a Mazda MX5 which he had custom turbocharged (‘That really went. It was chuckable, as well’).”
Considering that the venerable judge owned a string of exotic sports cars, that most of us could only dream of owning, he appeared to like the Mazda quite a lot. He must have had good taste. (I’m using the past tense because I seem to remember reading his obituary. Apologies if I’ve got this wrong).
He did indeed own a LeMans, and it was subsequently passed to his wife and then to his son (whos wife stated she wouldnt be seen dead in it) so it then sat on the edge of a field in Devon for a couple of years until I bought it!
I held on to it for a few years and subsequently sold it on to another member of this forum. It is now in the possession of yet another member…
The really weird thing is that I have a vague connection to both his Le Mans and his Corvette. His son contacted me when he decided to sell it and it was via this that Harco ended up buying it. His Corvette had been sold many years before to the father of my flat mate at University. It was white with red leather interior.
… unless I’ve got my Le Mans muddled up has now ended up in the Mazda Heritage Collection… and recently seen in Spain at the ND launch, having undergone a major refurb on account of some very extensive rot…
I’m not sure that’s the same car you’re talking about as that’s the Le Mans one of our members in Norfolk Fives sold to Mazda recently and it has been a beautiful,low mileage and cherished example for some time. I don’t know it’s full history but it certainly didn’t need the kind of work you mentioned to get it into its current state.
Kev, I am not sure if you are aware but the car was touch and go write off and a near complete rebuild, some rustproofing work had all but destroyed the underside of the car almost front to back and the back arches were totally gone, it was such great shame to see such a low mileage example with such history almost not make it.
Good news is it has been saved at great expense almost full underside rebuild and the car should serve promotional purpose for quite some time to come, just mind you don’t speak to the wrong person at Mazda though.
