About - Bill Rawles Classic Cars

Introduction

Bill founded Bill Rawles Classic Cars Ltd in 2007 after the sale of and split from his previous company, Rawles Motorsport. We now have NO association with Rawles Motorsport.

In 1987 Bill started Rawles Engineering, subsequently changing the name in 1989 to Rawles Motorsport. The business grew, specialising in classic road car restoration and maintenance alongside building and developing performance Austin-Healeys for racing.

By 1997 Bill had built his own Austin-Healey 3000 racing car and began competing in historic racing across the UK and Europe. More than 20 years later he’s still racing that same car and using the first-hand knowledge gained to build, prepare, maintain and mend Austin-Healey racing cars.

Expanding the business through the 1990s and 2000s, Bill found himself working less on cars and more in the office, and by 2007 the business was sold, with a plan to retire.

It didn’t last and by late 2007 and with itchy feet to get back working on cars a new company was formed - Bill Rawles Classic Cars Ltd - and new premises established in Four Marks, Hampshire. Bill Rawles Classic Cars has become a large, thriving, family-run classic car restoration and maintenance business, specialising as always in Austin-Healeys. Well known and respected around the world, the new business soon outgrew its first workshop and now occupies two large buildings with separate floors for restoration and maintenance, machining and parts, car sales and car storage.

As Bill Rawles Classic Cars expanded so did family involvement, with sons Charlie and Jack Rawles joining the business to respectively run the bodywork department and business as a whole, under the overall direction of Bill. With a further staff of eight, we are the only Rawles family in the Austin-Healey business and if you want decades of experience, expertise and knowledge in restoring, mending, maintaining and even building your classic car, look no further.

For more details, please visit our Workshop & Facilities page.

If you have any questions about our services, please call us on 01420 564343 or email info@rawlesclassiccars.co.uk

Bill Rawles

Founder & Director

With over 30 years of experience in the classic car industry, Bill is firmly at the helm of Bill Rawles Classic Cars. With a wide range of expertise and skills, he is able to direct and manage the team as well as get his hands dirty too. Bill started working life as a press tool maker in the UK before living in Australia for 6 months in his early 20s, working at a garage. After moving back to the UK, Bill opened his first garage specialising in VW Beetles. He then went on to set up and run Rawles Engineering, subsequently Rawles Motorsport. Bill sold the previous company in 2007 with a plan to retire, but after countless emails and calls in 2008 Bill returned to the industry with a new stand-alone venture, Bill Rawles Classic Cars. We have NO connection to the previous company, although there is much confusion. Once you visit our new workshop, there is no comparison.

Charlie Rawles

Bodyshop Manager

Charlie left college, immediately joined the family business and has been working on Austin-Healeys and other classic cars for over 10 years. The perfect link between Jack in the office and the workshop, Charlie is a font of knowledge when it comes to metalwork and specialist projects. As well as spending his days working on cars in for restoration or bodywork repair, Charlie manages a small team of engineers and every bodywork job that comes through the workshop - about 40 projects at any one time. Specialist projects Charlie has managed include completely remanufacturing an Austin-Healey 100S and the full restoration of NUE 854, the first right-hand drive Austin-Healey 100. In his spare time, Charlie is building his own aluminium bodied Healey Sprite as well as racing his Mk1 Mazda MX-5 in the UK MX-5 Championship.

Jack Rawles

Sales & Motorsport

If you call the office there’s a good chance you’ll get through to Jack. He looks after the day-to-day running of the business, general enquiries, car and parts sales and motorsport. Jack campaigns various Austin-Healey race cars all over Europe - you may have seen his videos on YouTube. He started racing in 2013 in the Ginetta Junior Championship before moving into historic racing and proving how competitive and reliable Bill Rawles Classic Cars-prepared machinery really is, already with a number of race wins, podium finishes, fastest laps and lap records to his name.

Adrian Cox

Workshop Manager

Adrian has been officially working as a mechanical engineer since the age of 16 but started working on cars much earlier than that. With nearly 40 years of experience, Adrian has the knowledge and expertise to manage a team of mechanics. There’s not often a tool Adrian doesn’t have in his 13 foot snap on tool box. Adrian has owned an Austin-Healey 3000 for over 20 years so we hope it gives you great peace of mind to know that your car is being looked after by someone as passionate about classic cars as you.

Greg Rogers

Greg has been working with us for over 5 years. Greg specialises in metalwork and fabrication and has restored many Healeys since he has been with us. Greg takes care of the metalwork before car bodies proceed to the paint department.

Dan Derham

Dan manages the bodywork and paint preparation team. Dan completes all of the prep and paint on the cars and meticulously controls who goes in and out of his paint room... you better not make a mess! When he's not perfecting customer car bodywork, Dan can be found working on his MG Midget.

Will Cox

Will assembles and builds the engines you see winning races all over Europe. An important member of the team and a qualified mechanic, Will also works alongside Adrian in the workshop disassembling and rebuilding cars. When he is not building engines, Will can be found driving his Frogeye Sprite or in race track pit lanes across Europe supporting our race cars.

Rob McGreggor

Having worked with Bill for over 25 years, Rob is now part-time and specialises in building our gearboxes and transmissions. Rob has his own Triumph Dolomite spares business and has two Dolomite race cars which he campaigns across the UK.

Judy Plumridge

Judy runs the office alongside Jack & Bill.

Rose Rawles

Rose and Bill met in 1987, within three weeks were engaged, married a year and a half later and shortly after followed a family of 3 boys: Ollie, Charlie & Jack. Rose started working with Bill in 2000 as a key member of the business running the accounts, marketing and our much-loved social media pages. Rose has recently taken a bit of a step back from day-to-day running now but is still a hugely important member of the team having played such a big role to build the business alongside Bill. Rose is the buttercream that holds it all together.

Nathan Cave

You will find Nathan buried deep into a restoration project within the bodyshop.

Sam Tyrrell

Sam has an avid enthusiasm towards restoration work and interest towards classic cars he has gelled well with the rest of the team and is progressing his skills around the workshop.