John Collins passed away at the weekend,Affectionatly known as Granny, he always made time to talk to any number of Kiwis who made the effort to visit him. John was crew on the Hulme/Miles GT40 in 66 and moved on to Lothars team later before finally establishing his business in L.A.

Duncan,

John also was the Crew Chief on the Gurney Foyt 1967 LeMans winning GT-40. John was a crew chief for Lothar Motschenbacher during the Can-Am and worked for a host of other famous drivers. Someone more knowledgeable than I am needs to post the rest of John's achievements. John would have been 77 this week and he was a wealth of knowledge about racing history and still had a detailed memory of past events. He was one of the few race mechanics from the era that remembered the minute technical details so important to properly restoring vintage cars. To the Can-Am world he was one of the few people that could help us with our cars and source the hard to get parts in the eighties and nineties. The race world lost a great link to the past and wonderful human being.

John was a good man and many of us will regret him. Now it is for Graham to assume command of the business, and I wish him the best.

It was my pleasure to have known John and to have him work on our race cars. I sent Graham an email; but can one really say? He will be missed greatly.

Anyone who has had the pleasure and priviledge of meeting John, surely must feel saddened by this news.

Nick