Richard Sharp is the Sales and Marketing Manager at Rimmer Bros. A ‘Man of Kent’ , brought up in Sevenoaks, he has been married to Gillian for 32 years and has two daughters and a grandson.

He joined Rimmers in August 1998 after spending over 20 years at Esso Petroleum mainly in the retail sector dealing with pump pricing, statistical reporting and service station technology. He then spent eight years in the promotional handling industry running a busy storage, mail order and distribution warehouse before moving north.

It seemed inevitable that he would end up in the motor trade when you consider his background. His father ran a motorcycle shop and was heavily involved as entrant, mechanic and sponsor in the world sidecar championships in the 1960s. So, he was a CAR fanatic. His earliest recollections are sitting in his father’s red Morris 8 Sports, then his green Morris 12 Coupe and then the cream and red Sunbeam Talbot 90 Convertible. The latter was when the European touring started which was a real adventure in the early 60s. They even went behind the ‘iron curtain’ on some trips and made a great many friends around Europe, carrying everything they needed to carry out repairs to get them home plus the tent!

Richard’s first competitive event was as navigator to his father in his ex Monte Carlo Rally works Sunbeam Rapier at the tender age of 13. “The Maidstone & Mid-Kent Motor Club Windows Rally was one of those all night navigation rallies on public roads where we woke up the residents and tried to avoid each other as we desperately tried to find the next control point”. In the same year on the 3rd ever rally they even rolled the car on a bend. “I never did find the pencil that I was chewing at the time!” His 15 minutes of fame came in 1965 as the youngest ever holder of a National Competition licence...”not sure it’s actually possible now”.

Richard learnt to drive in his father’s ex-Frazer racing Sunbeam Rapier – overdrive on all 4 gears – passing his test in the local driving school’s Viva SL90 – “bit of a comedown!” He even opted out of university to get a job so he could get his own car. This came shortly afterwards and was a white 1964 Hillman Imp. “The one you needed a bag of cement under the bonnet to keep the front end on the road”.

His first taste of driving in a rally came in this Imp, which soon had to be replaced with an ex-Frazer racing Imp. This one had been resprayed BRG, lowered and had the front end re-cambered so that it actually went where you wanted it to….. ”Well most of the time anyway!”

As the rallying got more serious his long-term friend Dave Chapman took over the navigating (see pic - “note the shocked expressions on our faces…you would have too if a bloke suddenly jumped out in front of you in the middle of the night down a muddy lane and flashed at you!”) His next upgrade was to purchase a Mark 1 Cortina (see pic) “It seemed so fast…If only I had it (hands up everyone else who wishes they had kept one of their old cars”,) says Richard.

“Rallying ceased when her indoors said “I’m pregnant” and ‘ car things’ get a bit boring. It pains me to say that I actually had an Austin Maxi 1500 (remember? This is the one that fell out of 2nd gear) for many years and then went Japanese (Toyota Corolla Coupe, Colt Sapporo) finally making the biggest mistake in my buying history…I bought a brand new Austin Montego 2.0. An absolute bag of ******.

Anyway eventually I got rid of it to some idiot and bought myself a used, ex-dealer launch, black Nissan Silvia 1.8 Turbo. This car as anyone who has experienced one was great in the dry as the turbo cut in point kept you guessing. In the wet you just kept your fingers crossed. After this company cars started to come and go but my wife did get to drive our ‘toy’. We wheeled out our Renault 5 GT Turbo whenever we wanted a real drive. It remains my favourite car of all time. Such a shame that most of them have been ruined. Even company cars had to be something special… I insisted on a Peugeot 405 Mi 16 and only reluctantly let them take it away after 110,000 miles”.

As Richard has said, it is inevitable that he would end his working days involved in cars. “They may be classics but I remember when they were new”. Since joining Rimmers he has owned his first TR7 and 2000 and has also enjoyed two beautiful Dolomite Sprints….. The last one is featured on the front of the Rimmer Dolomite catalogue and now lives in Colorado USA and is a regular show visitor there.

So, what might Richard get next?“

“When I have the time I intend putting another classic on the drive, and if I get my way it will be a black or red late 3500cc Rover SD1 Vitesse. Again this desire could be something I inherited as my father had two Rover P6s. One was an ex Met Police vehicle (he never bought anything normal) and I had the pleasure of being driven around the country in a V8 SD1 with my boss at Esso in the late 70’s. So, Rovers are in the blood… It is inevitable that I will own one soon and of course immediately become a full paid up member of the Rover SD1 Club”.