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Click for: Ikenga |
| ©dwij 2002 |
| In
mid-October of 1969 Roger
Nathan, friends, and I put the final touches on the Ikenga MK lll
at Radford's and loaded it on a trailer bound for France, stopping
at B.B.C. T.V. in Shepherd's Bush for a Tomorrow's World
televised feature. The next day, at the port of Dover, I bid farewell
to my assistant John Quinn and boarded the channel ferry, headed
for a first exhibit in Paris and a rare opportunity to drive Ikenga
in city traffic.
The 1969 Italian Motor Show in Turin, Italy followed Paris. The Ikenga MK lll was one of the highly publicized surprises of the motorshow and the most acclaimed British automobile exhibit. Ikenga featured an innovative accident warning system as well as ultra-sound proximity sensors for parking. Bill Strutton arrived from London to assist me at the exhibit and many potential business connections were made. At the end of the convention Bill and I drove across the Alps for rest and recoup at La Colombe d'Or in St. Paul de Vance, where Madame Roux's warm smile and welcome was a blessing after many intense months of change, construction, and completion. Charles Williams would be honored and proud of our success! At
the
end of March 1970 our 170 mph sculpture on wheels was air
shipped to Stockholm from Nice, France to be the feature attraction
at the Pico Troburg produced Swedish Motor Show. Members of our
design team flew in from London for the motor show which was a last
gathering of our clan before another chapter in the story of Ikenga
began to unfold.
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Ikenga
MK lll 1969
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In
Gratitude To: Mr. Bill Lundt-Smith of Radford's, Ltd. and
*Designers
note: For over ten years, following its return from storage in
France to England, the whereabouts of the Ikenga MK III were unknown.
The vehicle was rediscovered in the 1980's when featured in British
motorcar publications as a highly valued collectors vehicle. The
Ikenga MK III eventually became a feature of England's Manx Motor
Museum and the designer had a first opportunity to again see this
vehicle in 1998 at Bonhams vintage/clasic car auction in London.
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