Where are they Now?

[Andrew Potter]

Hello Andy,
Have just returned from 10 days in the Lake District and am catching up. I haven't yet been able to access the results from Saturday but will have another go in a minute.
In answer to your question concerning colour schemes, and this is from memory, the major colour on all his cars was a dark non-metallic blue (Royal, perhaps). The Anglia and Lotus Cortina had silver roofs, as may also the G12. Therefore I suspect that, if John's car had a hardtop then that only would have been silver. John was obviously not short of a bob or two, and I'm not sure how serious the car sales side of the business was. He was a gentleman!
I think that the area where Cedar Motor House was is now a block of flats. I'll check next time I'm that way.
With best wishes,
Andrew hot laps!

[Andrew Potter]

Good morning Andy,
A little detective work has not found any more information on John McKechnie, but a surprising (to me) find on the internet which you will most certainly know about. Go to www.leadfoot-festival.myshopify.com/pages/drivers-2 where you will find an article concerning a yellow 1955 +4 Highline owned by a Tim Hill of your acquaintance.

Andrew

[peter rafter]

Tim Hill in a Leadfoot festival
very appropriate

[Andrew Potter]

Hello Peter,
Shouldn't that be Strictly Come Dancing with his footwork?
Andrew

[Mark Shears]

Hi Andrew and Andy,

When I was at the Classic Car Show at the NEC at the weekend I had the opportunity to look through all of the photographs of old Morgans Ted Walker of Ferret Fotographic had taken to the show.

I was actually looking for photos taken in period of my 1952 Flat Rad KUY 475 but I found loads of interesting photographs including a couple of John McKechnie in his 4/4 racing in the early 60's.

One photograph was annotated that it was a 997cc Morgan 4/4. It was a striking silver colour (body and wings) with a dark hardtop - that we know now was actually dark blue. It did look immaculate.

Kind regards

Mark

[Andrew Potter]

Hello Mark. Well done. It's amazing how the mind can play games for I could have sworn that John McKechnie's Morgan was mostly blue.But it was nearly 44 years ago that I last cast eyes on it. All his cars, though, were immaculately presented. 997cc- would that have been a Ford Anglia engine? One of these days I will go to Cheltenham to find clues about John.
With regards,
Andrew P

[Roger Bonsall]

Hello Andrew.

A very good source if information about John MacKechnie would I'm sure be Mike Duncan. After serving his appentceship at the Factory around 1960/62 I think he went to work for John in Cleltenham. I competed against Mike a few times and remember a story about John rallying a 4/4 and as a result of the poor ground clearance of the Morgan and John's over-exuberance on successive weekends, a rebuild on a new chassis was required - twice! I also have an idea that John was possibly the first to fit a Lotus Twin-cam engine into a 4/4 - a potential threat to us +4 racers!

Mike Duncan is a delightful man who is not only a Morgan enthusiast of long standing (over 50yrs!) but very knowledgeable about the TOK era! I think that your best bet is to arrange to go and see him. Also, someone should record his memories as he knew many of the more well-known Morgan personalities of that era, including Ray and Joan Meredith.

Good luck - I hope this helps. I should be interested to learn more about John MacKechnie too.

Roger Bonsall

[Andrew Potter]

Roger, Thank you for that. Perhaps John levered the twin cam from his Cortina? That gives me a lead, anyway, and I hope that someone will nudge Mike Duncan to be in touch. Crikes- perhaps I met Mike Duncan all those years ago! I have been in touch with Martyn at Pickersleigh Road, but so far not a word.
With many thanks,
Regards
Andrew

[Andrew Potter]

Hello Roger and Andy,
Martyn at Malvern has kindly sent two photos in the archives of John's rallying 4/4. I suspect these were taken in 1963, before I had met John or even moved South. I was in the Cotswolds at the time, however, stuck in a village cut off from the outer world as a result of the snow.

[Andrew Potter]

With regards,

Andrew

[Mark Shears]

Hi Andrew - great pictures.

Do you know where the photograph of the Morgan 4/4 was taken in the snow? I expect it was the same snowy Cotswolds you describe!

Also it appears to be in the same colour scheme you remembered. The photos of the racing (as opposed to rallying ) 4/4 I saw was with a silver body and dark blue hardtop.

Cheers

Mark

[Andrew Potter]

Hello Mark,
They will have been taken at Cedar Motor House, Bath Road, Cheltenham. I suspect it will have been the winter of '63, as that was the worst winter for a while. This is exactly where I used to go for coffee instead of flat-footing after malcontents.

Andrew

[RICHARD PLANT]

I gather one of the cars has resurfaced and is being rebuilt up north.
Richard.

[Andrew Potter]

And finally, it would seem! With many thanks to Roger Bonsall, Martyn Webb at Malvern, Mike Duncan, but mostly Jake Alderson, from whose e-mails I copy below.
Dear Andrew,
It is the same John McKechnie and he was the local Morgan agent for Cheltenham, trading as Cedar Motor House. Mike Duncan, who is the current Morgan Agent in Hartlebury, worked for him and prepared his Morgans in the 1960s. John died from Diabetes apparently.
................................
Mike Duncan rang me yesterday to say that he didn't know dates etc. for John McKechnie. This prompted me to try harder and I found an obituary for him in Autosport for 24th Jan 1969:-
'John McKechnie. We regret to report the death of JM who died from diabetes on Jan 2nd after a long illness.He was only 33 and will be remembered as a genuine club driver, having competed in many events with success, particularly at Oulton Park. He raced under the banner of Ecurie Chiltern and his exploits with an AC Bristol were particularly noteworthy. Autosport offers its condolences to his family, his brother Alan, sister Liz and all his many friends'.
................................
Mike Duncan told me that Alan McKechnie is also dead and possibly his sister.
Our book,' Morgan Sports Cars. The Heritage Years.' covered 1954 -60 and has quite a bit on his early Morgan racing and rallying. Our next book will cover 1961 -64 inclusive and will have quite a bit on John, too.
With Best Regards,
Jake
...............................
There are references to Alan McKechnie and McKechnie Racing (F1 and saloons, etc.) in MotorSport archives which I shall follow up. And, of course, I would be delighted should anyone else find photos of John racing his Morgans.

Andrew P

[John Clarke]

He raced under the banner of Ecurie Chiltern

I wonder why?

cheers

John "living in the Chitlerns" clarke