There were a few men who helped the plastic sports car to become a success. Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, was one of them, Bill Woodhouse, who built around 600 cars with the company Tornado Cars between 1958 and 1964, all of which were characterized by advanced chassis and attractive GRP bodies.
The plastic sports car pioneer
If you don't know Bill Woodhouse or Tornado, you should know that Colin Chapman almost produced the Talisman model from Tornado instead of the Elan and that a Talisman equipped with the Daimler V8 engine could almost have succeeded the Daimler Dart SP-250. Woodhouse was a pioneer in plastics processing who recognized early on what the new material could be used for.
Unlike Colin Chapman, Bill Woodhouse is still alive and will be at this year's "Fantastic Plastic" plastic car meeting in person, driving his former Talisman SP-250 prototype. It is thanks to Markus Tanner from Classic Car Connection that Fantastic Plastic participants will have the opportunity to meet one of the most important sports car manufacturers of the late 1950s.
Diverse field of participants expected
As in previous years, the 2016 edition of Fantastic Plastic will once again feature a colorful and diverse field of plastic cars.
Alpine, Berkeley, BMW, Bond, Chevrolet, Citroën, Daimler, Jensen, Lotus, Matra, Opel, Pontiac, Reliant, Sbarro, Sylva, Tornado and TVR are among the brands of cars that have already registered. And of course there are many more. Guest brands in 2016 are Alpine and Lotus.
Registrations are still being accepted, participation is inexpensive. Details can be found on the Fantastic Plastic event website.
