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"Sure, I know what kind of car that is..." But almost no one ever really
does know. News - 2012 More progress on the Frazer Nash Digital Library Project. A list of all the Frazer Nash cars - prewar and postwar - was assembled in Excel and successfully imported to use as the meta-tags in the Greenstone digital library software. A sample/trial collection was sent to the Frazer Nash Archives. This is a general description of the project and the progress through mid-January 2012. For specific information on the Frazer Nash collection, go here. News - 2011 Full Membership Great
news in December, as announced by James Trigwell, the Post-war
Registrar
after
the December 10 Frazer Nash Car Club meeting:
"I am pleased to
inform you that last Saturday, at the club’s AGM, the membership
(i.e., the chain-drive owners) voted overwhelmingly in favour of
admitting post-war owners into the club as Full Members with full voting
rights. The only point where chain-drive and post-war owners now differ
is that The Captain of the club must be the owner of a chain-drive Nash.
After so many years of being associate members (similar to any member
with any car other than a chain-drive Nash or GN) this is quite a
breakthrough. I believe the only dissenting voice was one proxy vote. ....Currently,
out of 75 remaining post-war cars, 50 are owned by club members."
With this new membership status, there's little
reason for the remaining 25 owners not to join up! Raid
to New England Also
announced, though percolating for a while, is a Raid and a tour.
The Raid, to New England in the fall of 2013, is being planned by John
Sheard and Alstair Pugh. As of December 16, 25 Club members have
signed up to participate in some manner. This should be the largest
group of Frazer Nash cars, especially the chain-drive ones, ever seen in
the United States. Contact me or check this site, or that of the
Frazer Nash Car Club, for more news. Return
to New Zealand Also being planned, though not an
official Club event, is a mid-February 2014 tour in New Zealand, starting
in Auckland and promised to "seek out more by-ways and lesser-known
destinations". The planners are now John St. Julian, Bob and
Andrea Mellors, Bill and Melanie Fone and John Snook. I've signed
up! The Frazer Nash Digital Library Project What
to do with hundreds of photos, documents, Internet references, etc. about
the postwar Frazer Nash? And the many still in paper or other
physical format (for example. a Frazer Nash and/or spare parts)? A
database is one computer-oriented approach, but with many caveats.
Doesn't a Frazer Nash "digital library" sound like a great idea?
Especially using open-source (free) software from New Zealand, a country
that has done so much for my Frazer Nash? The digital library has
been started and it works! Also a database that can tie all the
cars, all the owners and all the events together. Here's
the progress for 2011 and Frazer Nash will be the exclusive focus for
2012. But our plans already exceed our talents and we would like
volunteer help both with the Greenstone and Access software (technical)
and digital-age library skills, which implies knowledge of terms
such as "Dublin-Core" and "controlled vocabulary". Two Le Mans Replica replicas For Sale
In October, another Le Mans Replica
"replica" was listed as for sale by John Peter Crowson. He is the
owner of "WOK 7" registration number FNA 436, having owned
the car for two years. He writes: "I intend to sell the car
having retired from racing (Chevron B40 F2 and Abarth PA1). The Nash
was never raced, just used as a fun car." Email me for more
details or Mr. Crowson's contact data. We
had a note in June from the owner of a Le Mans Replica
"replica" that the car is being offered for sale. It is a
stunning car, as you can see on
these photos. Inquire directly to the seller list on that web
page. In May,
Coys auction house sold the ex-Briggs Cunningham Targa Florio for a
"very resonable" price. The
Bristol Car company was acquired by Kamkorp Autokraft, part of the Frazer-Nash
group, on April 20, 2011. As noted above, this company does not
have any relation to AFN, Ltd, which manufactured and sold Frazer Nash
cars from 1929 to 1957. In
April, there were three postwar Frazer Nash cars on offer - two Targa
Florio models and one Le Mans Coupe. This is a link to a Le
Mans Coupe in California and this is link to a Targa
Florio MkII for sale in Germany. A Targa Florio being offered in
London has been sold. In
February. the Frazer Nash Mille Miglia
421/100/168 was driven (by me) from Invercargill, New Zealand to Auckland to join the
Bristol Owners Register at the Intermarque Concours on Sunday, February
13at the Ellerslie Racecourse. On February 12, it was (mostly) on the "fun run" #5 to
Matua Valley with many other classic cars. For an early and partial
report on this adventure, just click here!
The Frazer Nash Car Club has
organized a "Raid" to Sicily in early May for the 60th
anniversary of the outright win by a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica of the
Targa Florio. More than forty prewar and postwar cars will drive
through France and Italy before taking the ferry to Sicily. Great
fun! The FN club has also
started a project to digitize (or digitise) the archive files, starting
with volunteers reviewing and organizing the material before professional
scanning. An excellent project and we hope to report progress in the
future.
News - 2010 The postwar Frazer Nash
again appears in the October 2010 issue of "New
Zealand Classic Car" magazine, but perhaps not so glamorous!
The last page has a cartoon by artist Steve Richards, in which the
"brute American muscle cars" are kicking sand in the face of a
Mille Miglia and its driver! It seems to have used my car for the characterture. Great
fun! Also in September. we
heard of two cars coming up for sale, a very historic Le Mans Replica now
in England and a well-known Le Mans Replica "replica" (WOK2) now
in Belgium. Contact me for further information. Scheduled
for July was the "1000 Miles in 24 Hours", Saturday and Sunday,
July 10-11, with great participation by GN and Frazer Nash cars! See
the "News" page of the Frazer
Nash Car Club web site for
details. Although
there are regular Frazer Nash email exchanges and research on nearly a
daily basis, my highlight of May was meeting Frazer Nash owner Robert
Yung twice while vacationing in Honolulu. Mr. Yung was the original
owner of Mille Miglia 421/100/124, which was built to his specifications
in 1951. After several years of extensive east coast racing and use,
he sold the car and (probably) instantly regretted the sale. This
was remedied in 2001 when he found the Mille Miglia at an auction in
England and bought it back. Mr. Yung has great stories of his east
coast and European automotive adventures, so check again in a few weeks
for a few stories and rare photos.
Michael Elsom sent a status report on the "Ring project" in May,
see it here. And
a few
interesting bits of news items from January and February... First,
Michael Elsom is looking gauge interest for the "Eifel Raid 2010",
as announced on the Frazer Nash Car Club website
news:
"... the plot is to spend
approximately a week in the area - including the weekend at the Ring.
Plans include taking a tour of the circuit at Spa - the original version
not the modern one and viewing the area generally which would needless
to say take in a vineyard or two on the Mosel. Travel to and from the
region is easy - a day's drive from a Channel or North Sea port. The
arrangement whereby everyone found their own way to Reims seemed to work
well and I would think that should be the aim here as well. ...The
international Vintage Nürburgring will take place on either October 2-3
or 9-10. You will be heartily welcome with your troop. We have added
your address to our distribution list and will keep you up to date. As
soon as entry details and timetable are in place we will send you these.
News can be found also on the internet under www.vintage-nuerburgring.de"
Contact Michael Elsom by e-mail
at michael.elsom "at" btopenworld.com Next,
we heard from Matteo Bosisio, director of the Historical department of
Ruote Borrani in Milan, "I’m approaching you
because we are evaluating the manufacturing of special wheels for the
BMW 328. Recently, we received several requests from Frazer-Nash and BMW
owners, that are experiencing some difficulties in finding replacement
wheels for those vehicles. In the past, we used to
manufacture wire wheels for BMW 328 as aftermarket options to the
original steel disc wheels, but always keeping the original studs-drive
and not our traditional spline-drive. The reason why I’m
contacting you is to understand if there is a real need for this item,
and I’m not talking about wire wheels (that we still are offering to
the market), but for a bi-metal wheel. To be more clear about it, we
are studying a replacement wheel with a little improvement,
consisting in adding a light alloy in the place of the traditional steel
one. So, the project will consist
of re-manufacture the original centre-disc in steel with the addition of
our traditional “Record Rim” in alloy 6082 - this will improve the
quality of the wheel by less rotating mass and adding a more elegant
look given by the Hi-polished alloy. We just achieved a success
with the re-edition of our historical bi-metal wheel for the Lancia
Aurelia, this project was coordinate with the Lancia clubs world wide.
We would like to repeat this wonderful experience with the BMW clubs to
see if working together with enthusiasm, we will be able to offer a
service that could help to keep safely on the road those beautiful
vehicles. Looking for your kind answer." Contact Mr.
Bosisio directly by email.
News - 2009
Frazer Nash on Magazine
Cover! "New
Zealand Classic Car" magazine has 1952 Mille Miglia 421/100/168 on
the cover of the September 2009 issue. This issue can be ordered
through the magazine website. "New
Zealand Classic Car" has extremely high production values -
high-gloss, heavy stock and equally high-quality photographs. The
story is very good and accurately describes this car and its
history. Many thanks to writer Mark Wright, photographer Sean Craig
and editor Allan Walton. "New
Zealand Classic Car" also is offering "wallpaper" of this
Frazer Nash, a
high-resolution photographic collage - highly recommended for a download!
New Frazer Nash Book!
Announcement in mid-August from
James Trigwell:
...for the last few
years I have been working on a book on the post-war Frazer Nashes. It is
now completed and will be published in November. Apart from covering the
development of the cars and their racing history, half the book is
dedicated to the Register of Cars, where each of the 86 chassis produced
from 1948 to 1957 has a 2-page spread giving the individual history and 2
or 3 photos. The publishers, Palawan Press,
are well known for their high quality, limited edition productions on
Aston Martins and other cars. Unfortunately the price reflects the high
quality and limited quantity and all their books are similarly
‘exclusive’. The price is £300 for the clothbound edition, £700 for
the leather-bound number. A saving of £50 can be made if the book is
ordered and paid for before October 15, 2009.
A
description from the publisher's website is here. If you are interested in buying a copy, please contact Palawan Press
via www.palawan.co.uk Another book includes the Frazer Nash British Sports Cars, by Rainer W. Schlegemilch and
Hartmut Lehbrink includes a 4-page segment on the post-war Frazer Nash,
with Mille Miglia YMC 81 as the example. Excellent photographs and a
good short summary of this marque. The book is a great summary of
British cars and a good value in the high-quality paperback edition, 440
pages. (ISBN978-0-8416-0276-2) Arnolt-Bristol Racing Tips Bill Watkins, who owned and raced four different
Arnolt-Bristols, assembled a collection of recommendations, primarily for
the Bristol engine. Either click directly on "Preparing
and Racing Arnolt Bristols" or look for this in the index under
"Frazer
Nash Technical Data - items with tuning and technical
specifications." These tips are applicable to any car with a
Bristol engine (all the post-war Frazer Nash cars except one!) Thanks,
Bill!
Archibald Frazer Nash - his
120th Birthday If my
sources are reliable, Archibald Frazer Nash was born in India on June 30,
1889. A toast to the man who made all these wonderful cars possible,
if not in deed, certainly in spirit!
Errol Flynn's 100th Birthday
June 20, 1909 was the date when
former Frazer Nash owner Errol Flynn was born in Hobart, Tasmania.
Here's a great tribute from Wayne Chambliss at coilhouse.net
"We all know the tales of
Errol Flynn’s excesses (the man had his own chapter in "Hollywood
Babylon", after all). We all know how he wound up: flabby, dissolute,
and dead of a heart attack at fifty. But for his hundredth birthday,
let’s choose to remember him at his acme: swinging from ship to ship
with a sabre in his fist, England on his lips, and a sparkle in his eye.
There has never been a worthier object of matinee idolatry."
His
car, a Targa Florio, is missing and we miss his heroic style!
Bolzano Raid
As reported by the Frazer Nash
Car Club on their website:
"On 17th June, eighty-five
Nashes and one GN will be on their way to Bolzano, in the centre of the
Dolomites. The first great Raid took place in 1969, organised by David
Thirlby in commemoration of Frazer Nash achievements before the war in the
Alpine Trials, and was such a success that it has been repeated every ten
years ever since. Oldest participant will be Dorothy Geoghegan, tackling
the Stelvio and other great passes at the age of 93; youngest will be
Patrick Teague, aged five. Many passes will be stormed, much rubber will
be burned, and a good deal of wine will be drunk. Regular reports on the
Raid will be on the Frazer Nash website."
Frazer Nash Namir?
Always great to see Frazer
Nash in the news - especially on the April 20, 2009 cover of Autoweek!
It is the "Frazer Nash" Namir, an electric hybrid claiming
incredible performance, styled by Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro.
But the link between the current Frazer-Nash and the car made by AFN Ltd
(both pre and post-war) is not clear, though the sidebar to that article
helps a bit.
It states the Frazer Nash
"brand" came about because Frazer Nash Research Limited is owned by
KamKorp
(not spelled "Kamcorp" and
probably not "Group").
The Frazer Nash Research
Limited website states the company was "Founded in the 1920s by
Archie Frazer-Nash, a renowned engineer and innovator..."
It would be surprising if
either company started by Archie Frazer Nash after he sold AFN, Ltd. to
the Aldingtons retained the right to make cars under the Frazer Nash
brand. Here's a photo from Luc
Blokhuis, taken
at the Auto RAI 2009 in Amsterdam.
News - 2008
In November we received some
very nice photos of the "ex Dickie Stoop" Sebring and the unique
Austin-engined Targa Florio from owner Jonathan
Procter. These photos were added to "The
Postwar Frazer Nash Models" site page as great
examples. Thanks Jonathan!
We also updated ownership of Le
Mans Replica replica WOK 8 to Rob van Wegen.
James Trigwell, postwar registrar of the Frazer Nash Car Club, reported that he's organized 20 - 25 postwar FN cars to be on display at the
Silverstone Classic, July 25-27. This was mark the
60th anniversary of the 1948, first appearance of the postwar Frazer Nash car at
Geneva and the London Motor Show. An early report from James:
" ...we had 27 post-war 'Nashes and 3
chain-drive cars on display at the Silverstone Classic meeting,
celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Bristol-engined 'Nash. The
(formerly) Robert Richer Le Mans Replica was there of course and it was the debut of my
(formerly Frank Twait’s) Mille
Miglia. Frank Allocca from New Jersey
was there with his Targa Florio. It was a very good gathering."
Photos from James and Andrew Hall from both 2008 and 2009 are on this
album.
Although
it is news not normally within the "charter" of this website, in
July we heard from Dan Rose that he is selling his GN, the famous "Akela". Probably not best suited to US interstates, but
just the car for club events on single-track roads in Scotland or New
Zealand.
Also in July we learned of a
"barn-find" 1936 Frazer Nash-BMW 319/55 for sale in the Seattle
area. Send an email if you are interested. Andrew
Blow has a Le Mans Replica "replica", one of the Werner Oswald
cars, for sale at his business in Marlborough (UK) - a very
attractive car for an entry to the "Frazer Nash experience".
See other photos on the "replicas"
page and one for this car. The
Frazer Nash Car Club published "Chain Gang Gazette" issue #144
in April - always a great selection of stories, history and technical
advice. There
was an early February bulletin from the Frazer Nash Car Club postwar
registrar:
"This year is the 60th anniversary of
the Post-War Frazer Nashes, as built by the Aldingtons and designed by
Fritz Fiedler. The first public showing was at the Geneva Show in March
1948 and then at Earls Court in October 1948. It would be fun to
celebrate this milestone and an obvious opportunity to do this would be
at the Silverstone Classic weekend of July 25-27th where the
BMW 328s had such an impressive gathering two years ago for their 70th
anniversary. If you have not been to Classic Silverstone before, it is a
huge race meeting, mainly for Classic cars of the 50s and 60s, but also
for pre-war cars and 80s Group C cars. Motion-Works has been contacted (organisers of the club
sites for Silverstone) to reserve parking for 15-25 cars. Tickets booked
before March 31 are £5-10 less expensive than after that date and £15
cheaper than on-the-day prices. Also, if booked in advance,
"buy-one-ticket-get-one-free" tickets are available for those
bringing a friend or family member." Contact me or
the Frazer Nash Club if this is of interest to you! Click
for a Silverstone 2008 advertisement.
News - 2007
In mid-September, we learned that
the first post-war Frazer Nash, a High Speed (forerunner of the Le Mans
Replica) is for sale at Hall &
Hall. We also received photos from Robert van Wegen, racing his Le
Mans Replica "replica" at Speed on the Tweed in Australia.
The Frazer Nash Club's
publication, the "Chain Gang
Gazette", issue No. 142 arrived in mid-August. In addition to a great centerfold
photo of Archie Frazer-Nash in "Akela" (a GN) for the Centenary
of Brooklands, the "Post War Patter" column reported that 75 of
the 84 post-war cars are accounted for. 46 are owned by members of
the FNCC, so if you are one of the 29 holdouts, please join up! The
June issue of "Thoroughbred and Classic Cars" (UK) had a great
article on Mille Miglia S/N 421/100/166 in which author Glen Waddington
states: "The Frazer Nash is fantastic fun
to drive from the word go". I agree strongly and highly
recommend this article! In
February and March, we received great information on Frazer Nash cars and
owners from Tom Householder, James Harrington (a former Isleworth
resident) and William HP Meredith, a former AFN employee. Look for
their stories in April on the website pages about the AFN
"factory" and the Frazer Nash owners and drivers.
Mille Miglia 421/100/163 has been restored to its original glossy black
glory by owner James Trigwell and is expected to be fully licensed during
March. Here is an early
photo on a scenic lane.
Mr. Trigwell also sent me a short product of his
research on Mille Miglia 421/100/168 from Autosport, July 11, 1952 edition
("...no doubt written as a press release by Bill Aldington..."):
“J.Stuart Donaldson, owner of the Sebring 12 Hours
Race-winning “Replica” Frazer-Nash, has ordered a Mille Miglia model
as well. Car left these shores on 8th July on the Queen Mary.” New
Zealand's "Classic Car" magazine gave a fifth place award
to this same car in their "2006 Classic Car of
the Year" feature. See all ten cars on pages 28-29 of the
January 2007 issue. Total points awarded were 487.4, which was .4
points shy of fourth place. The
car below is this Frazer Nash Mille Miglia, at Arthur's Pass, New Zealand, February
20, 2005. Our trip with the "Frazer Nash Raid to New Zealand" included 1200 miles of driving on the South Island. Many thanks to
Barry Leitch, Leitch
Motorsports and Restoration, and the the Raid organizers. Here is the story, with
photos, and many more Raid
photos are posted here. Although there is no competition history for
this car, it is well-traveled, from England on the Queen Mary to New York,
later to Florida, then Hawaii. Much later to California, then
Arizona and finally back through California to New Zealand! We believe
it's been further south than any Frazer Nash when it went to Slope
Point in November 2005, the southernmost point of New Zealand South
Island.
For older news of Frazer Nash
cars and a history of this website, visit the "Frazer
Nash News" page.
The data on the ninety Frazer Nash
postwar projects show that all have a known location or
disposition except the following four cars:
Today! (The authors and
owners of all material on this web site retain all their rights to their
material.) The Frazer Nash - USA Table of Contents This page was last updated on February 2, 2012 (Happy Groundhog Day!) (This Frazer Nash site started in 1997 as a PacBell "home" page and segments of this Frazer Nash site were originally split between different subdirectories and ISPs. Unification to the "FrazerNash-USA.com" URL was completed in March, 2001 and we are now hosted by 1&1. |
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