Gordon Spice

Gordon Spice (born 18 April 1940), is an ex British racing driver who competed in both sports cars and Touring Car racing in the 1960s and 1970s, before starting Spice Engineering with fellow racing driver Ray Bellm in the 1980s.^[1]

Racing career

Spice was most notable for his involvement with the Ford Capri, both as a driver and as part of Spice Engineering. Starting off his British Saloon Car Championship career racing Minis in the late 1960s for Downton Engineering^[2] Spice eventually progressed to the works Ford team, CC Developments, co-run by Dave Cook, running the Capri 3.0S.^[3] He won his class on five occasions between 1976 and 1980, but never won the championship outright. In all, he took 24 overall race victories.^[4] In 1980, he took on Andy Rouse as team mate, and the two dominated their class, only losing out on the title to Win Percy.

Gordon, as well as running a car accessory shop in Egham, in the early days of car accessory retailing, also founded, or maybe co-founded Gordon Spice Cash And Carry. They supplied motor accessories to trade customers and, at the peak of the business, they had cash and carry depots in Staines, Watford, Canning Town and Leicester.^[5] Subsequent floatation as a PLC, and an over ambitious investment in a state of the art central distribution centre, plus changing market conditions, led to the demise of the company.^[6]

References

• Summary on Haynes Publishing

Further reading

• Jeremy Walton, Life of Spice: The Autobiography of Gordon Spice ISBN 1-84425-568-9