Bill Needham dies at 85

Another legendary name that will be linked to Mini derivatives forever has left us: Bill Needham died on the 27th of August at the age of 85. 

Needham set up Coldwell Engineering Ltd. in 1961 and debuted in racing that same year. He entered his first race in a Mini two years later and developed a great and enduring passion for the small car. Bill was the first to develop and build a revolutionary 1000cc twin cam A-series engine for his own racing Mini in 1967, but it was the Coldwell GT that will appeal most to Maximum Mini readers. This rear engined and Mini powered car debuted at the Racing Car Show in January 1969 and had been fully designed and built in Needham's Sheffield's workshop on Coldwell Lane, hence the name.The GT’s chassis was built up from a multitude of round steel tubes and came with full independent suspension, using double wishbones and coil springs all round. Its fibreglass body was ultra light and ultra low, coming with tiny doors. At a certain stage the twin cam Mini-engine was fitted to Needham's personal GT racer, but it was later swapped for a more conventional Cooper 'S' engine. This GT was later sold to Singapore. Bill told me it may well still be there (more here). Just three more GT's followed. 

But Needham was also involved in the development of the Biota, dreamt up by John Houghton in 1968 in nearby Rotherham. This is how Houghton Coldwell Ltd. came about - the name seen on Biota's badges, brochures, letterheads, chassis plates and advertising. Needham wasn't very keen on the whole Biota project "I never liked the idea", he told me in 2007. That year I met him for the first time in his Lincolnshire home. He didn't seem too keen on a journalist coming over and didn't think he had anything interesting to share when I walked into his workshop. But with the passing of the hours he became more and more enthused. He also told me he didn't have any old pictures or material left from his Coldwell Engineering days, but then his (second) wife remembered a shoebox in the attic. She found it, too, and with the snapshots and old paperwork the memories flooded back over lunch. We were just in time to copy it, too, as the mice had already started feeding themselves on them! 

Since a few years Bill's son Mark has been working on the restoration of the fourth and last Coldwell GT and he tells me he is getting started on the project again after a long period in mothballs, now from a new house with workshop. Mark: "The GT project will continue and I hope he would have been pleased with the result when it is finished. I also have the twin cam Mini, which I hope to run next year. I'll update you with some pictures soon." In the meantime I wish Mark and the rest of Bill's relatives and family all the best with their loss of a special man.

September 2007, Bill Needham in his workshop with his twin cam Mini racer

Picture Jeroen Booij

June 1968: Bill (left) with the same twin cam engined Mini at Shelsley Walsh

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And the same engine in the same car once again some 40 years later

Picture Jeroen Booij

Winter 1968: Bill trying out the seating position of the first Coldwell GT

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The company as well as the car were named after Coldwell Lane in Sheffield where it was built

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The pretty Coldwell GT made it to the tracks in the late 1960s, early 1970s

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Just four of the ultra low GTs were made. This was Needham's personal racer

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Coldwell 1968 price list, found just in time before the rodents had eaten all of it!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Houghton Coldwell Ltd. didn't last very long. Needham "never liked the idea"

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The ultra rare Houghton Coldwell steering wheel center that was made for the Biota

Picture Jeroen Booij