This week, Bill Atkinson takes us for a ride in his 1972 Piper P2 as he shares his history with the niche British marque.
Back in the ‘60s, Veteran Formula 3 works team leader George Henrotte owned a small outfit called Campbell’s Garage, which was located in the village of Hayes, in Kent, England. The determined privateer banded together with a small group of talented tinkerers, wrenches, and visionaries to create a bespoke performance machine of their own. By 1966, Piper Cars was formed and development of their prototype racing car began.
Soon after, a group of club racers convinced Piper to produce a GT-style sports car. Piper built a car in response, which gained traction by 1967, showing some promising demand for small-batch production. Made-to-order with a number of powertrain options, the sleek, low-slung, and lightweight fiberglass-bodied machine caught the attention of Brian Sherwood, a club series racer. He saw serious potential in the little GT, and quickly got involved with Piper Cars. It didn’t take long before Brian was put in charge of overseeing the production car segment of the company.
Around this time, Bill Atkinson, the owner of the car in the film, recalls, “In 1968, I had a Rover 2000 and I decided I wanted a bit more performance from it. At the time, the only people in the country who could do head work on the car to improve performance was Piper Cars.” After hitting it off with Brian Sherwood, Bill reminisces, “At that time, I saw the Piper GT body and thought, ‘What a wonderful thing.’ I'd never seen anything quite like it…quite as beautiful, I suppose.”
Infatuated with the project, Bill mentioned if the car were to make it to production, he’d be genuinely interested. Some time later, he received a letter from Brian Sherwood stating that the Piper, now named the GTT, was road worthy and available for purchase. Bill, keeping true to his word, made another trip to the Piper garage and placed an order, securing
