After
British Leyland decided to close the
MG Cars factory at
Abingdon in 1980, Wickins became involved with a group of businessmen aiming to finance
Aston Martin's purchase of the brand and factory. Led by Alan Curtis (Chairman of Aston Martin), the group consisted of Wickins,
Peter Cadbury,
Lord George-Brown and the Norwest construction. The consortia commissioned
William Towns to design an updated
MG MGB, which was produced at
Newport Pagnell in six days, ready for the publicity presentation. However, rejected outright by BL, this project failed to materialise. After the death of founder
Colin Chapman in 1982, Wickins became involved with
Lotus Cars in 1983, taking a 29% stake in the then troubled company. After bringing in other investors and negotiating with the
Inland Revenue, he oversaw a turnaround in the sports car manufacturer's fortunes, which resulted in him being called "The saviour of Lotus". Wickins oversaw the sale of the business to
General Motors in 1986. But civil servants, with advising merchant bankers and commercial accountants, considered that at least £1 million was required to save the company and reconstruct it. Despite briefly considering buying the bankrupt
Hesketh Motorcycles, and touting a 900cc prototype water-cooled twin at the 1983 National Exhibition Show to attract outside investment, the Conservative-led UK government refused to back the co-op, resulting in Triumph Motorcycles (Meriden) Ltd becoming bankrupt on 23 August 1983. By early 1983, Lord Ashcroft's Hawley Goodall Ltd had built up a 20% stake in pharmaceutical packaging manufacturer Cope Allman. Ashcroft offered to increase his stake to 29.9%, just below the 30% level at which a formal bid for the entire company must be launched. Ashcroft and Cope Allman fought bitterly over the purchase share price and current holdings, with Cope Allman reporting Ashcroft and Wickins to the
Takeover panel, after discovering that BCA had built up a 13.5% in the company. But the takeover panel found that the Ashcroft and Wickins were operating independently, so Hawley was able to increase its holding to 29.9%. At this point the combined holdings of Hawley/BCA in Cope Allman amounted to 43.5%, giving them the power to introduce sweeping changes without launching a full bid. In 1985 Ashcroft and Wickins bought car sales dealership
Henlys Group via a Canadian-registered company. Controlled by Ashcroft's Hawley Goodall, Henlys was merged with funeral
hearse makers
Coleman Milne to form a Motoring Division. In 1989, Hawley Goodall sold its Motoring Division consisting of Henlys and
Coleman Milne to the
Plaxton Group, the bus and coach manufacturer based in
Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Wickins became involved with
Charles Forte, Baron Forte, joining the board of
Forte Group to enable the family to sell-off the catering and restaurant business to concentrate on their hotel business. In the 1970s, Wickins bought "The Mariners"
public house in
Frensham, in an ill-fated attempt to turn it into a high-class restaurant. It was one of his many business ventures, not all of which succeeded, he commenting later that his motto was: "If you don't bet on a few losers, you'll never bet on a winner." ==Sports==