Pub a lucky find for Talisman fans

| 27 Sep 2011

The Talisman Public House is already on the road to enjoying good luck but this local near Southampton has gone one step further by capitalising on the lucky moniker in its name being shared by a 1960s British sports car.

Staff at the pub in Park Gate recently dedicated a room to the products of low-production car-maker Tornado Cars after a chance encounter with the Tornado Talisman in an online search.

Management at the pub’s owner, Hall & Woodhouse Brewery, were so taken with the pictures and information they unearthed on the Tornado Register & Fairthorpe Sports Car Club, that they asked the club’s permission to celebrate the four-seater GT, despite the pub having no historic connection to the Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire-based marque.

To thank the pub for its efforts, members of the Fairthorpe Sports Car Club drove down to the pub on 12 September for a pint and a yarn – and a chance to admire the various prints, photos and racing quotes that now adorn the walls.

The turnout included a Tornado Tempest, Turner Sports and Gilbern GT – along with Tornado Cars co-founder Bill Woodhouse and his wife Ann in their Talisman (below), which they drove down from Dorset.


The couple met when Ann joined the sports car manufacturer as a secretary in the 1960s.

For more on Tornado cars see the book The Winds of Change.