Wood & Pickett

Wood & Pickett has a rich history dating back to 1947 when it was founded by Bill Wood and Les Pickett, both former employees of Hooper & Co., a renowned traditional coachbuilder. That’s where our story starts.

Wood & Pickett came to public attention in the 1960s and 1970s with the release of the  company’s luxurious conversions of the classic Mini – the “Margrave” model, as a response to Radford’s Mini de Ville.

The Margrave was known for its bespoke craftsmanship, its walnut dashboards, leather or Draylon upholstery, nudge bars, and a wide array of custom options tailored to wealthy clientele. These included various royal figures from around the world along with celebrities such as Elton John, Twiggy and Peter Sellers. Many potential customers will remember these cars from the first time around.

Under Eddie Collins’ leadership as managing director the Mini remained the main focus of Wood & Pickett’s attention throughout the 1970s, although as the decade progressed they also became well known for their many Range Rover-based models and would later assist BL in creating the influential “In Vogue” special edition. Alongside this regular work, the company continued to take on one-off and low-volume commissions. Towards the end of the Seventies, the company moved to larger premises in Victoria Road, South Ruislip, and in 1980 they added the upmarket Rover SD1 Prestige to their repertoire.

1980 also saw the launch of the Metro and Wood & Pickett wasted little time in devising two uprated versions, known as the Metro Plus and the Laser. The following year (during which Messrs Wood & Pickett left the company) saw the completion of the one-off TR7-based TRZ for a competition being run by the Sheaffer pen company, and during the mid-Eighties they also produced and marketed interior upgrade packages for the Montego. In 1986 the company was purchased by Henlys, one of BL’s major franchised dealership chains, and relocated to St Albans in Hertfordshire. Under Henlys’ ownership, greater emphasis was placed on the highly-profitable Range Rover conversions, with many commissions being taken from Middle Eastern customers in particular, until Henlys sold the company to entrepreneur Mike Bush in 1989.

Operating from new premises at Epsom, Surrey, Wood and Pickett continued to undertake bespoke conversions during the 1990s, and also established a Parts and Accessories division which was initally operated under franchise by Moss International. Later that decade the company was acquired by “custodian” Mike Standring, who again initially ran the company from an office based at home in Leatherhead.

Since 2016 Wood & Pickett has been owned by Motaclan Limited in Birmingham.

Motaclan are the experts in sourcing, manufacturing and distributing of classic car parts for the trade and consumer. With our roots deeply planted in the British classic car community, we have supplied original equipment classic British car parts to the trade for almost 40 years under the names Leacy Classics and the iconic mini brand Wood and Pickett. Leacy Group acquired MG Rover parts supplier XPart in 2017 and Racing Green’s TVR assets in 2022 and so Motaclan was born, bringing these companies together under one name.