British F1 team Williams is suing a garage owner for £1million after a historic Grand Prix car they loaned to him vanished.
The £750,000 FW23 – driven by 2001 World Championship drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya – was lent to Autotech Performance Ltd in 2015 to become a showpiece at the firm’s garage in Telford.
But Williams received no response when it asked for the car – only one of nine manufactured – to be returned six years later.
Autotech has since gone into liquidation and been dissolved.
The iconic racing firm is now demanding that the garage’s former owner and shareholder, Peter Thorpe, either return the car or pay £1million in a High Court lawsuit.
Lawyers for Williams claim that the businessman has had the car removed from the garage, having wrongly claimed to his company’s liquidators that he is the owner of it personally.
But Mr Thorpe, 58, who says he now lives abroad, is fighting the claim, insisting in his defence that he never told anyone that he owned the car, ‘because he knew this to be untrue’.
He claims that he doesn’t know where the car is and has a poor memory after suffering a stroke.
Williams’ £750,000 FW23 – driven by 2001 World Championship drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya – was lent to Autotech Performance Ltd in 2015
The F1 team is now suing the Autotech’s former owner Peter Thorpe (pictured) for £1m after the car ‘vanished’. Mr Thorpe is fighting against the claim
Mr Thorpe added that he cannot remember speaking to liquidators and that the car was still on site the last time he went there in the summer of 2021 before the company was dissolved.
Setting out the claim in its case papers, Williams’ barrister Richard Clegg said: ‘The car is part of the claimant’s unique collection of its own heritage cars, the use or sale of which it strictly controls inter alia to ensure so far as possible that they are preserved.
‘In 2015, the claimant agreed to loan the car to Autotech on the terms of a document entitled “Historic Car Loan Agreement” which terms were known and agreed to by Autotech.’
He said Autotech had been allowed to keep the car until October 2021 when Williams wrote to the firm seeking to inspect it and terminating the loan, but received no reply.
He said Mr Thorpe had ‘wrongfully claimed’ to a valuer involved in Autotech’s liquidation that he was the rightful owner of the car, having bought it himself.
‘The car remained at the premises at all material times until the voluntary liquidation of Autotech…On a date unknown after the commencement of Autotech’s voluntary liquidation, or thereabouts, the car was removed from the premises,’ he continued.
‘When the liquidators contacted the defendant about the whereabouts of the car, the defendant claimed that he had moved abroad to work and would refer the matter to his legal representatives in the UK.’
However, Duncan MacPherson, for Mr Thorpe, said the business leader does not know where the car is and denies claiming to own it, since he cannot now remember speaking to the valuer.
‘He does not know who in fact owned the car then or now. The defendant closed the business of Autotech on 30 June 2021. The defendant suffered a stroke on 7 October 2018 that caused him cognitive impairment,’ he said.
‘The defendant admits that the car was at the premises on 8 August 2021, but does not admit whether it remained there until December 2021, because this lies outside his knowledge.
‘The defendant did not return to the premises after 30 June 2021 except to attend for the valuation of Autotech assets by C & K Recoveries Ltd on 8 August 2021.’
He said he ‘believes that he has not told anyone that he owned the car, because he knew this to be untrue’ and that the car could have been removed at some point after he last attended and before the liquidation.
He said Williams is not entitled to any order against him, while also disputing the alleged £750,000 value, claiming that the vehicle was a show car without an engine.
Williams’ claim against Mr Thorpe was filed at the High Court in London, but the case has not yet gone before a judge for a full trial.
A Williams spokesperson said: ‘We have initiated proceedings to recover a car that was lent to a third party and not returned to us. As the proceedings are active we will make no further comment but have full faith in the legal system to resolve this matter.’
