RIGHT & BELOW: Having started his training at a very young age, Sam now plays an important role in the business.
ABOVE: As well as running Grace Engine Developments and his Snap-On Tools franchise, James is also a regular competitor in the Pickup Truck Racing series.
P... Now in his early Forties, he served his early working apprenticeship with
Midland Engine Services in Shepshed near Loughborough, from 1993 to 1998, and then moved to Newbury and started working with Oselli in Oxford from 1998 to 2001. In 2001 James started working for Snap-on Tools and carried on building engines from home, and the rest is history.
Along the way, James has owned a whole host of cars too many to mention, mostl� modified, with the current stable including a Mk 2 Ford Escort with a Honda S2000 engine, a 454 SS Supercharged Chevy pickup truck and a 1964 MGB Roadster as well as his racing Pickup Truck.
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The family connection also extends to his son Sam, who is also found working with his father today, having picked up the knack for engine building at a very early age; indeed, James tells us that he was helping out in the workshop �rom the age o� fi�e or si�. Now aged 21, Sam worked for a while with Gould Engineering and Exclusive Services before now spending most of his time in the Grace Engine Developments workshops. Outside of the business, Sam also runs a modified 400 hp Astra van and a Ford Focus as daily drivers.
As if two busy professions aren’ t enough, James is also an active competitor in the Pickup Truck Racing series, which uses purpose-built
US-style pickup trucks based on a lightweight space frame chassis, weighing just 900 kg and powered by either the four cylinder 16-valve Vauxhall fuel-injected 2.3-litre red top engine or a Ford Duratec 2.3 engine. The series races at venues as diverse as Brands Hatch, Lydden Hill, Thruxton, Pembrey and Magny Cours and, until recently, Rockingham Raceway.
Both James and Sam were busy finishing o�� the rebuild o� a couple of fellow competitor’ s Vauxhall red top engines, to be ready for dyno testing and delivery the same day that we visited, but the engine room was also full of plenty of other projects in progress. These included three... P