Al, I have copied and pasted.
Jon Hunt
It is with great sadness the MEC has to report the death of one of its Area Reps.
Jon appeared on my radar in the Microcar scene some years ago. He came down from the Grimsby area where the family lived to view a Messerschmitt I was selling. He fell in love with the car and was most enthusiastic but in the final reckoning we could not agree a deal. He continued his search and found what he was looking for within the year. From then on when the feeling took him he attended events large or small. Not least a week before he died where he is reported to have been in fine form at Fireworks at the Bubblecar Museum. He was a great supporter of the Museum.
It seemed natural to encourage Jon to be part of the MEC as he had the independence of spirit that has always marked out those who offered most to the club. Jon represented the MEC at several meetings and even took it upon himself to organise what was afterwords reported as a hugely enjoyable Rally around the Louth area. True to form he applied the classic formula to create entertaining runs with some challenging roads and a ford that many might have shied away from.
Not a man to remain in awe of the established ways of doing things and armed with infectious enthusiasm and wit he forged his own path to enjoying his cars. He created an uproar at a Messerschmitt Rally, which is always the mark of someone worth knowing. Not that Jon was greatly bothered but to to see his rights respected. I can concur that not conforming does lead to sporadic attendance at events as you're not always welcomed with open arms. Instead much of his time was spent on the development and tuning the 'Schmitt and a Fiat 126 amongst others. I lost count of the various set backs and minor disasters but Mike Cooper was reporting at times that he had one of the fastest 'Schmitts he had been in. Mike himself is known to pep his cars up so I accept the fact. Sadly I never had the pleasure of seeing Jon in the car when it was in prime condition. I can imagine he was a little like Toad of Toad Hall.
Pulling Jon into the centre of Microcars was Jon's daughter Victoria and Graham Haddon, the son of the HTC Ltd spares manager, Nick Haddon, who having met at various Microcar Rallies, are walking out together. Jon even made the odd welcome surprise appearance in Worcestershire at our Bretforton club nights because of this. Graham is a dedicated Citroen BX driver and Jon had bought Victoria a DS which was to be put to the road. How is that not a surprise to anyone who knew Jon only slightly, he reflected the DS eccentricity of character in many ways. His Isetta was selected and filmed for Top Gear, see
www.microcar.org/blog/category/video/, you may agree it was as well the final cut was not used in the end as the script is crass. So perhaps without meaning to, Jon became known as a doer and part of the mainstream Microcar community.
It was uselessly ironic then at the recent Top Gear Classic Car show at NEC that news came through that Jon had failed to wake at home on Saturday morning. He had suffered and succumbed to a brain haemorrhage during the night so one assumes a very peaceful way to go, although a terrible shock for his family and friends.
In full flow Jon was simply irresistible. On one occasion I remember him bouncing into a marquee full of lost souls bereft of the notion of how to create their own entertainment wondering what to do next. Within minutes he animated this lot with buffoonery, searching questions and quips by turn. The quiz turned into a kind of lateral thinkers' delight of whimsy as the back of the class misbehaved wildly. I forget what the original active competition arranged was now but Jon took that over and more anarchic lunacy was led by our alternative Tiswas Tarrent with his trade mark long shorts and cockatoo of blond hair. Of the latter rallies I attended I think this was one of the best evenings I have spent at a rally. Off to bed to wake with sore torso in the morning having laughed so much. There are few enough characters active in micros these days. You will be missed Jon
