Golden milestone for Aldon Automotive

The family-run company employs a staff of eight and is marking its 50th anniversary having started as a part time idea when two young men met on their first day as apprentices at the Austin motor company back in 1969.

Don Loughlin and Alan Goodwin found a niche market when suspension parts incorporated into Alan’s own racing cars were sought after by fellow competitors and enthusiasts and the pair set up Aldon and utilised a part of Alan’s father’s business premises in Smethwick to work from.

Long-term Midland Automobile Club member and competitor Alan, recalls: “As soon as the vans had gone out for the day from my father Alf’s electrical contracting business, we moved into the garage to begin production of parts and then cleared out quickly before the vans returned late in the afternoon, servicing the company vehicles as well to earn money at the same time.

“We started off specialising in Sprite, Midget and Mini suspension modifications as that is what I raced at the time and that is what we knew, with Don being the ‘brains’ of the operation on the design front and I simply did the marketing and everything else!”

From such humble beginnings the pair went on to rapidly expand the business and move to larger premises in Halesowen, going on to design from scratch their own Aldon sports racing cars, fabricating the complete fibreglass body, the aluminium chassis and the suspension system entirely in house.

This came about when John Webb of Brands Hatch fame came up with the idea of Formula F100, similar for Formula Ford, but with two seats and using either a cross-flow or A-Series engine, so the pair decided to build their own car and Don excelled by coming up with a radical monocoque design, as being experimented with by F1 teams of the day.

To mark a special birthday, Alan’s wife Joan and family convinced him to buy back one of these original cars which had been sold to America, which he did, and he still races that car with great success in speed hill climb events across the Midlands.

Keeping things in the family, upon reaching the age of 18, Alan’s daughter Deana had expressed an interest in competing which, following a visit to the Jim Russell Racing School, saw the preparation of a rally specification Ford Escort in which she was the navigator at several single venue events with Alan at the wheel. A completely new aspect for him having competed at all levels including sprints, autotests and even Formula 3 over four decades.

Deana then went on to compete as a driver in a Talbot Sunbeam, Suzuki Swift and Rover Metro, where she won the 1600cc class in the Rally 200 Tarmac Championship.

After moving to its current premises at Breener Industrial Estate at Brierley Hill, Aldon Automotive ran its own highly successful series of cars to form a team, with drivers winning awards competing in all disciplines of motor sport.

Aldo expanded in the late 70’s and early 80’s into two other premises, one at Hartlebury which Don ran to specialise in the engine reconditioning side of the business, including crank balancing and boring, and following Don’s retirement, is now run by an ex-employee. A small retail shop and fitting bay was situated in the middle of Worcester city centre, to cater for customers in the Worcester and Herefordshire area.

The firm however, has moved on and built an enviable national reputation as a centre for tuning, particularly competition and classic cars, having made major investments in rolling road technology and diagnostics equipment, together with being a specialist on Weber carburettors, together with producing their own competition distributors and electronic ignition units.

Alan, continued: “We seemed to have come full circle, starting off all those years ago modifying Sprites and Minis, now working on those very same cars as ‘classics’ in the modern age, which is simply fantastic.”

Following a medical scare, Alan finished circuit racing - still holding records at several tracks – to concentrate on the more social side of things with sprints and hill climbing, preparing an all conquering lightweight Lotus Elise in which he and later owners had great success.

Looking to the future the firm reports an expanding and healthy business with continued expertise in all forms of competition cars, parts and servicing, together with the greatly increasing interest in classic cars of all sorts.

Aldon Automotive can be contacted on 01384 572553