Obituary: John Howell

The death of that great enthusiast John Howell at 71 is a severe loss to the vintage world. John suffered a long illness, but he was keen to the end. His cars had been diverse, from a 1915 De Dion Bouton to his supercharged twin-cam 3-litre Sunbeam which he raced for so long in VSCC events. John also had a fine 45hp Hispano-Suiza. and a big T46 Bugatti saloon, the latter used for an MCC trial; his girl passenger fell out on one of the observed-sections, but John continued to the top, remarking afterwards that “she was a horse-woman, so knew how to fall”.

In later years he owned such exotics as the 16-cylinder Maserati and 16-cylinder T45 Bugatti and purchased Ronald Barker’s VI6 Cadillac in 1997. He started Drill Services Co after graduating in mechanical engineering at King’s College, London, and-working at Merryweather on fire-engines and at CAV. Like other VSCC folk, Howell was a keen jazz exponent. To his wife and daughters our deepest sympathy.