Palliser-Winkelmann WDB3 history

Sadly the best picture we have of Ray Mummery's Palliser-Winkelmann is this picture of it next to Dave Yoder's Chevron B15b at Palm Beach. Copyright Michael Yoder 2014. Used with permission.

Having continued to sell Winkelmann WDB2s for SCCA Formula B in 1970, the Palliser company produced a prototype WDB3 in August 1970. It appears to have been built using WDB2 components but with new front suspension. After the prototype was sold in Florida, a further evolution of the design was put into production as the WDB4 for 1971.

The Palliser WDB3 differed from the company's earlier models in having a trailing arm (radius rod) from the top of the front suspension back to the dashboard bulkhead. It shared this development with the WDF3 Formula Ford car produced for 1971, and with other derivatives for 1971: the WD3-2 Formula 3 car, WDV1 Formula Super Vee and WDH1 hillclimb car. The WDB3 also used new magnesium front uprights replacing the Alford & Alder components used on earlier Pallisers. The WDB3's bodywork appeared broadly the same as the WDB2, with the addition of front wings, and it is possible that it was actually built on a WDB2 chassis. In an Autosport feature on the car, it is possible to see the leftover suspension pickup from the earlier arrangement of the WDB2.

Team principal Hugh Dibley tested the car in England in a series of Formule Libre races and then took it to Florida in late October for the ultimate test against the regulars in the SCCA's Continental Championship for Formula B cars. Here it was up against the popular Brabham BT29, Fred Opert's Chevron B17b, the March 705 from an even newer and even more ambitious racing car constructor, and also the Crosslé 18F from Northern Ireland. Far from Bob Winkelmann's centre of activities in the southwest United States, Dibley chose to enter the car as a Palliser-Winkelmann. Dibley was competitive in the race, but not sufficiently quick to produce a slew of orders. According to Locke de Bretteville of the Palliser Registry, Bob Winkelmann did not regard the change to the front suspension as an improvement and was quite disdainful of it. The prototype was sold in Florida and quickly disappeared into regional SCCA racing. Designer Len Wimhurst continued to develop his spaceframe chassis design, and produced a further evolution, with 'V'-shaped bracing and the mounting points required for the new front suspension, which would be the basis of a new Palliser WDB4 for Formula Atlantic and Formula B in early 1971. The WDB3's new magnesium uprights would be used on the WDB4 as well as the 1971 Formula 3 WD3-2 and WDH1 hillclimb cars.

If you own one of these Palliser-Winkelmanns, or have photographs that we can use, or can add to our understanding of the marque, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.

The converted ex-Formula 3 Palliser

As well as the August 1970 Dibley car, another Palliser was associated - incorrectly - with the WDB3 designation. In mid-December 1970, Motor Circuits Development held an open day at Brands Hatch where six new Formula Atlantic cars were demonstrated from Crosslé, Dulon, Lotus, March, Palliser and Royale. As the WDB3 had gone to Florida and the WDB4 was not yet complete, Palliser converted Roger Keele's 1970 Formula 3 WD31 to Formula Atlantic specification by fitting a BRM twin cam and painted it in the D.J. Bond livery that Vern Schuppan's WDB4 would use in 1971. The car did not run that day, and Autosport caused some confusion by calling it a WDB3, which it wasn't. What happened to this car next remains unclear. Comparing photographs of the Brands Hatch car with the smart WDB4 that was shown at the Racing Car Show in early January, it is hard to imagine that they are one and the same. Apart from the completely different bodywork, the car at the Racing Car Show had the new 1971 front suspension, which the Brands Hatch car did not. Furthermore, the WDB4 would have had a Hewland FT200 and the F3 car a Hewland Mk 8, which had different suspension mounting points. So the idea that the ex-Keele car became the "new WDB4-1" that Schuppan drove in a Formule Libre race at Brands Hatch at the end of February 1971 has to be dismissed. Therefore it was not the car that Schuppan started the season driving, which was then sold out to Singapore. But that leaves the question - where did the ex-Keele F3 car go?

Acknowledgements

Renny Watt (Canby, OR) and Robb Pierson (West Linn, OR) founded what was then called the Winkelmann Registry in the 1990s. Andy Antipas took over the registry from Renny Watt in February 2006 and renamed it the Palliser/Winkelmann Registry. Andy inherited all Watt and Pierson's files and used those as the basis for his pallisercars.com website launched a few months later. Locke de Bretteville then took over from Andy in 2012 and has continued the work of his predecessors. My thanks to all these gentlemen for keeping this flame alive, but particular thanks to Locke for all his help as I constructed OldRacingCars.com's pages on this marque.

My thanks also to Ian Hebblethwaite, who researched the relationship between the WDB3 and his own ex-Schuppan WDB4, and to Chris Townsend, who has carefully studied the way the WDB3 design was replaced by the WDB4 in early 1971.

If you own one of these Palliser-Winkelmanns, or have photographs that we can use, or can add to our understanding of the marque, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.

These histories were last updated on 17 Oct 2025.