| PERCY
NILS ADLER His Metal History: Percy has been metal working ever since the early 1970's he bought a Triumph TR3 that "shockingly" needed vast amounts of metal work. He read some books on the subject, bought an oxy acetylene welding setup, and discovered he had a real passion for this kind of work. Then ... Percy needed to race cars to quench an inner hunger. In 1978 he bought a Lola Formula Ford to start motor racing. He brought all the metal skills picked up on the Triumph and gained new ones in keeping the Lola running. He had been modifying the Lola to such an extent that he began building his own Formula Ford race car. In 1981 this car did it's first race at Mosport and he finished second.  Shannonville 1981 He won his fifth race in this car at Nelson Ledges in Ohio. By then his confidence as a builder was up and he decided to build a Super Vee, which was a pro class for 200 hp VW water cooled engines. It was an exciting class but he was never able to enter any big races as finances were an issue. Okay, maybe he was aiming too high but many lessons were learned.  1983 Super Vee A new class had started in Canada called Formula 2000 which wasn't far off the Super Vee in chassis configuration so he converted the Super Vee to this class. He did some races in 1985 without the success he was hoping for ... cough.  1985 F2000 car Percy followed this car with two other F2000 designs. He had a few glimpses of success.  Mosport 1987 Percy and Joan had started their business Adler Metal Works in 1984 and in 1985 Joan gave birth to their first child. They were also interested in moving from Richmond Hill to a rural setting, so the dream of racing needed to end so they could survive. In 1989 they moved to Prince Edward County to build and rebuild vintage racing cars which kept them alive for several years. In 1996 Percy decided to leave building cars as a business and design and build aluminum trussing for Christie Lites, which is a relationship they had begun in 1986 while still in Richmond Hill. Without this relationship they would have been hard pressed to afford life. thank you Huntly Christie However... Percy had built many cars including two road going cars for customers but had nothing of his own to enjoy. So began the idea of building a unique aluminum bodied road going sports car. He started to build this car many years ago but life and other interests had been getting in the way of getting it done. Well it is on the road and running beautifully. The Nuvolari  And then in 2019 Joan decided "we" should restore our race car. So I dutifully complied. Here it is as a Formula Ford 1600 in 2022.  on Facebook. return to cars top |