Horsham architect goes from designing houses to racing hot rods

An architect from Horsham has designed and eventually race a dragster car
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An architect from Horsham has designed and eventually race a dragster car.

David 'Motty' Mott, has renovated a Ford Thames 300E, which he found on a Facebook Marketplace ad, and started converting it into hot rod originating from the dragstrips of the United States in the late 1950s.

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The 66-year-old said: "I wanted to have some fun, and it didn't matter too much if the car fitted into that class. Most important to me at my age was that it ran straight and true when I put my foot down."

David 'Motty' Mott, has renovated a Ford Thames 300E, which he found on a Facebook Marketplace ad, and started converting it into hot rod.David 'Motty' Mott, has renovated a Ford Thames 300E, which he found on a Facebook Marketplace ad, and started converting it into hot rod.
David 'Motty' Mott, has renovated a Ford Thames 300E, which he found on a Facebook Marketplace ad, and started converting it into hot rod.

Naming the car The Brickyard Shaker, Motty's Gasser includes distinctive spitfire side exhausts, inspired by "Ain't No Saint", the Gasser chosen as the latest Hot Wheels die-cast toy.

At it's first visit to Santa Pod Raceway – located in Podington, Bedfordshire – The Brickyard Shaker put down a 15-second quarter-mile run, reaching speeds of 90mph. Motty hopes to go quicker when the car returns this April for the first of four or five planned visits in 2022.

He’s already brought his quarter-mile time down to the low 13 seconds at his first run of the year.

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Motty said: "The first time we fired up The Brickyard Shaker at the brickworks, our landlord called from three miles away to ask what the noise was! It's not a subtle car.

At it's first visit to Santa Pod Raceway – located in Podington, Bedfordshire – The Brickyard Shaker put down a 15-second quarter-mile run, reaching speeds of 90mph.At it's first visit to Santa Pod Raceway – located in Podington, Bedfordshire – The Brickyard Shaker put down a 15-second quarter-mile run, reaching speeds of 90mph.
At it's first visit to Santa Pod Raceway – located in Podington, Bedfordshire – The Brickyard Shaker put down a 15-second quarter-mile run, reaching speeds of 90mph.

"You can turn up to Santa Pod with your own car, and it feels like you've joined a small family. Even experienced drag racers with 20 or 30 years of racing experience come up for a chat and welcome you to this weird family."