When a Navajo, or Langridge Navajo, was offered for sale recently I received a great number of messages about it and dug out the files again. The Navajo really was an interesting little car built between 1984 and 1985 by racing car builder Alan Langridge in his ‘
Image Race Cars’ workshop at the Super Shell building, on the Goodwood grounds and just next to the track. The Duke of Richmond was a backer of the project and worked with Alan Langridge to get the Navajo on to the road. The car was originally based on the 1100 or 1300 but Langridge reputedly didn’t like the Hydrolastic suspension and converted the cars back to coil shock absorbers. A basic kit consisted of a mig-welded and zinc-plated monocoque with a fibreglass bonnet, windscreen, and all the necessary mountings, brackets, fixings, nuts and bolts. The Duke of Richmond was quoted: “I could have a lot of fun around the estate with this car”, but it’s unknown whether he ever had one. Langridge moved to South Africa in the late 1980s and later to France.
I wondered wether the car for sale was one I'd seen before. It wasn't and I decided to make a list of cars that I know about. Supposedly 12 Navajos were made and have pictures of 10 of them, while one of these - the prototype - has been confirmed scrapped. Know more? Let me know.
SWY 185 was the Navajo demonstrator / brochure car. It's been scrapped
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
The Navajos were built by Langridge's Image Race Cars in Goodwood's Super Shell building
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
SWY 185
ADE 378A
Q494 XUX
Q580 CGY
Q627 ODW
I bought & built Navajo #12 - Q494 XUX - it was completed in February 1985, and was a very fast and easy build.The steel hinged doors incorporating the sliding windows were added a few years later, replacing the canvas flaps that were really annoying especially when the zips snagged. I also upgraded the steel front bumper bar after the original one got bent, also adding the 'Tomahawk' lettering to it, as well as Tomahawk 'AXE' motiffs to the white plastic wheel trims - the spinning axes looked pretty cool when it was moving. I sold it around 1990, and I think that picture you have of it was when the new owner lived near the A41 near Market Drayton as I remember seeing it as I drove past one day.
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