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Palliser
Based in South West London, Palliser were a short lived racing car manufacturer, their first car was built in 1968 and the company closed its doors four years later. The type numbers for the cars were WD plus the category designation, the W for designer Len Wimhurst and the D for Hugh Dibley, an airline pilot and racer and patron to the team. Cars were built for F Ford, F3 and F Atlantic, the F Ford cars were race winners and Vern Schuppan won the inaugural 1971 F Atlantic championship in his Palliser. Despite this success Pallisers were never fashionable and as already noted the name disappeared from the scene in 1972. It seems that Len Wimhurst designed an F3 car in 1976, the LRL 376, but nothing came of it.
1970
The WD 3 first appeared in 1970, it was a neat space frame design with the chassis construction sub contracted out to Arch Motors. Suspension was conventional wishbone and the most noticeable feature was the prominent roll hoop. Roger Keele had several promising results including a second at Castle Combe in May at a Lombank round and fourth at Oulton Park in August at a strong non-championship event.
1971
The car was unchanged for 1971 when two works cars were run initially powered by BRM tuned engines. Despite reported handling problems and a lack of engine power several top six places were scored, best finishes were a third for Peter Lamplough in a very strong Shell Super Oil-Motor Sport race at Brands Hatch in October and four 4ths, two for Lamplough at Crystal Palace and Brands Hatch and two for Derek Lawrence at Thruxton and Cadwell Park.
1972
Although the Palliser factory had closed, during the early part of the season Damien Magee ran a slightly modified car and showed that there was basically nothing much wrong with it. The most noticeable alteration was the new nose cone which echoed the F Ford design. Magee’s best finishes were a brace of seconds, one at the opening round at Brands Hatch and another at Oulton Park in April.
1973
Once again a lack of anything better forced Magee back into the Palliser at the beginning of the year until a huge accident destroyed the car at Thruxton in the third race of the season. Magee then found someone to buy a new Brabham BT41 for the rest of the year, however in his three races he did manage a 2nd place at the season opener at Brands splitting the works Marches.
Drivers
1970 Roger Keele.
1971 Peter Lamplough, Derek Lawrence.
1972 Damien Magee, Jac Nelleman.
1973 Damien Magee.
