Oay "replica" to most people today although, since it's taken from a model ERAZER and they'll probably think of a D-type that's already been raced, it may not be Jaguar or AC Cobra recreation, or else quite up to the mark of the latest works one of those kit products with a plastic cars by the time it's delivered. NASH look-a-like body and bits of These Replicas are generally christened Volkswagen chassis sticking out at the after the event where the original car EE MANS corners. There are replicas and "replicas". showed up well; Ulster, Alpine, Monza, REPLICA The best of the replicas can come Sebring, and so on. Frazer Nash was pretty close to the real thing. British D- one make which produced at least its type replicas can have genuine Jaguar share of competition-founded Replicas, XK engines and mechanical parts, with and the pictures here present the likeness subframes made to the original of the best known postwar Frazer Nash by specifications and body shells correct to sports racer. . Geoffrey Bewley the last rivet. The maker and the buyer The Frazer Nash 2-litre Speed Model can end up with a car looking and going Le Mans Replicas, to give them their so well that the chassis plate is the only fullest possible name, were definitely big- proof of its true origin. R Replicas. In fact the design was largely These cars are replicas with a small German, an Anglicised assembly of 1945 r. In the earlier sense of the word, Replica war loot. There was a BMW-derived takes a capital R. This is far from a Frazer Nash chassis powered by a BMW- minor semantic point of argument. Mix derived Bristol engine, under Frazer Nash's up the two, in practice, and you're likely own elegant cigar shaped body with bullet to find yourself in all sorts of costly headlamps and cycle fenders. trouble. Frazer Nash links with BMW went A big-R replica is an allegedly exact back to the Thirties. When Captain Archie copy of a specially modified car which Frazer-Nash yielded control of his has done well in competition. If it came company to the Aldington brothers, they from the works which produced the kept on building his tough, eccentric, original car, it's a true Replica. Otherwise, chain-drive vintage sports two-seaters. it only counts as a copy. The true Replica Presently they found the market for these counts as a serious competition car, totally sporting machines was saturated,

24 Vintage Motorsport Mar/Apr 1990 and the machines themselves were 5-inch cross members, with independent becoming outclassed by more modern front suspension by an upper transverse designs. leaf spring and lower wishborfcs. Impressed by the performance of the Longitudinal torsion bars were used with latest on the Alpine trials in Europe, the back axle. Steering was by rack they'd made a deal in the middle Thirties and pinion and stopping was provided Representing an example of to sell the German cars in England, by big hydraulic drum brakes. a small " r" replica is the car modified and rebadged as Frazer Nash - In , the engine produced in the collection of BMWs. After the war, they raided the about 85 bhp. After Frazer Nash treatment, Australia's York Motor Museum BMW works and collected engineering it gave 120 bhp. The engine was placed (car #73 - above & opposite) stores, plans, a new BMW engine, a BMW well back in the chassis for good balance, photos by Geoffrey Bewley 2-litre Mille Miglia racer, and the designer and with a dry weight of about 1500 Dr. Fritz Fiedler. pounds, the Frazer Nash's power-to-weight This loot was shared with the new ratio was excellent for the time. HJ. Bristol company. Bristol was to make Aldington and Norman Culpan drove one the engines which would be used in Bristol in the first postwar Le Mans 24-hour high-performance grand tourers and the race finishing third behind a new 2-litre A genuine, or big "R" Replica new Frazer Nash sports racers. . The V12 Ferrari and a 3-litre Delage. The is represented by the 1951 model kidnapped 1940 BMW Mille Miglia car production cars were called Le Mans owned by Robert Fergus. was refitted with right-hand steering and Replicas from then on. photos by Art Eastman a new Frazer Nash radiator grille, and it Frazer Nash built about 60 Le Mans appeared as the new Frazer Nash 2-litre Replicas, and for several seasons they Speed Model at the 1948 London Motor did very well in serious sports car racing. Show. In the hands of the Italian veteran Franco The 2-litre Frazer Nash, ex Bristol, Cortese, one became the only British ex BMW engine was a long-stroke six car ever to win the . Stirling with an aluminum head and two overhead Moss used one to win the 1951 British valves per cylinder, worked by vertical Empire Trophy on the Isle of Man. and cross pushrods, and fed by triple Another won the Sebring 12-hour race SU carburetors. The chassis was a welded and scores of out-right and class wins frame of 5.5-inch steel side tubes and in shorter events, sprints, and hillclimbs.

25 JVlost Frazer Nashes of the Fifties poor pedals, no provision for wipers, no REPLICA were reworkings of the same theme — Frazer Nash badge (hopefully), and only 151 br the trusty tubular chassis and Bristol engine one support lug under the spare wheel. under more stylish bodywork. Frazer Otherwise they are very nice cars." Nash car production wound up in 1951, The car shown here is one of these. Two Frazer Nash Le Mans and the firm concentrated on imports However, it actually does carry a Frazer Replicas currently active in and sales of . As the years passed, Nash badge of sorts. This looks like U.S.vintage racing events the Le Mans Replicas picked up the same one of the circular, blue-and-white are pictured above. sort of cult following Archie Frazer-Nash's quartered Frazer Nash - BMW badges Both are most definitely original "chain-gang" cars had earned a used in the Thirties, with both names of the big "R" variety. removed and 'Frazer Nash' lettered in No. 17 is a 1951 example couple of decades earlier. They were fast, fun, pretty, and there were no more again. All the genuine postwar Frazer owned and driven by where they came from. Nashes appear to have worn the diamond- Robert Fergus. Many people thought this was a great shaped badge inherited from the vintage No. 21 is of 1950 vintage pity. Some years ago, Dick Crosthwaite, chain-drive cars. owned and driven by a British motor engineer, decided to do This car's appearance is good enough Ned Curtis something about it. He'd been given to fool anybody who doesn't own a proper the job of rebuilding a Le Mans Replica Le Mans Replica, or hasn't worked on from an original chassis hidden under a one, or hasn't one handy for comparison. Swallow Doretti body, using a proper This covers rather a lot of people. It engine and a collection of correct parts. certainly covered the patron, curator, and Then he bought the last spare genuine associates of the York Motor Museum Frazer Nash tubular chassis from the club, in Western Australia, who bought it a and built a second car for himself. few years ago under the impression it Then, with a real Frazer Nash and a was the real thing. half-breed behind him, he went all the The York Motor Museum exercises way. He produced a small batch of many of its sports and racing cars in the duplicate tubular chassis, and collected York Flying 50, a round-the-houses event engines and running gear from scrapped held on the streets of York each year. Bristols. A set of cars were finished A photo of this car in action there appeared with copies of the Le Mans Replica body in a British motoring magazine. John featuring correct instruments and generally Aldington of AFN Limited, the heirs of correct trim. These were definitely small the Frazer Nash company, noticed the r replicas. photo. He wrote to Peter Briggs, the "The replica Replicas are very well Museum's patron. made," another British motor engineer "As the original Frazer Nash wrote, "but suffer from cooking Bristol manufacturer, we are very anxious to engines, cooking Bristol gearboxes with keep a record of all Frazer Nashes still free wheel in first gear, wire wheels in in existence, and therefore, request your place of the original perforated discs, help in letting us know the engine and flimsy wing stays, thin gauge alloy panels, chassis numbers of the car along with

26 Vintage Motorsport Mar/Apr 1990 good original. Peter Harbin, an experienced Western Australian sports racing driver, has used it often in local events where the Museum's cars are exercised. "It's a magnificent little car to drive," he said. "It's very forgiving. You can throw it into a corner and it just sits there, and if it does get out of line it comes straight back. It takes a while to get used to the driving position, but the pedal arrangement is first class, and it has a very simple gearbox. I've probably given it more scares than its given me." Naturally, as a close copy it must share most of the good qualities with the real thing. Unhappily, this isn't what decides its value. At a Sotheby's auction in London in July, 1989, a genuine 1950 Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, in good condition, was sold for £209,000 ($335,000). A copy, in like condition, any previous known history. Of course, have a Bristol engine number beginning might be worth $40,000, but probably upon the receipt of this information, we '85A but I cannot find a reference to 85/ not much more. can advise you of any history of the car 1374 in the Registry. This is probably Perhaps the replica Replica used a as is known to us from our archive an engine from a Bristol car." few original Frazer Nash parts, or at least, records." "It seems likely that your car is one parts of original specification, but does The Museum sent the details; Le Mans of several replicas built some years ago this make any difference? Some people Replica body, 2-litre Bristol engine number which may have used some original parts. call this sort of car a clone. In medical 85A 1374, chassis number 400 1566. These were not produced by the works terms, a clone is actually a group of This drew an unsettling answer, in an so their degree of originality is in some individuals reproduced asexually, from entirely different tone. doubt " fertilized eggs. A parallel with motor "According to the information in my The York car's engine number is given cars can be drawn, so it's a fairly useful possession, this car is not a Frazer Nash," on the engine plate as 88A/1374, but on term, as long as we understand it's really wrote John Aldington. the body plate as 85/1374. The chassis a warning. A clone isn't a rebuilt car "It reportedly was built to as close a number is given as 400/1566, not exactly which should at least have the foundation copy of a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica like a real Frazer Nash number, but not of the original chassis if not the engine. design as possible within the limitation too far off. Somebody went to a lot of Carburetors, instruments, and a wheel of non-accessibility of Frazer Nash trouble to make the false plates, and they or two aren't enough to prove it's the components." look just as you'd expect them to look real thing. "As such, I would ask you to ensure if the car were the real thing. The question Some rebuilt cars are not rebuilds of it is not promoted as a Frazer Nash, nor, now isn't whether you'd count the car as the right cars. Lots of small r replicas if selling, should it be inferred that the a big R Replica or a small r replica — of competition cars have been made up vehicle has any Frazer Nash origin it's whether or not to count it as a forgery. on the bones of road cars, where the whatsoever, as this could be grounds for I don't know if it was Dick Crosthwaite two share common origins. Skillful legal action." or a later owner who had the false plates engineers have turned 1929 Morris Minors "I regret that I could not have given made and fitted. In any case, the fake into imitation 1929 MG M-type Midgets, a more pleasant reply." Replica project apparently came to an and 4.5-litre Bentley tourers into pseudo Another letter came from Dr. Lionel end after John Aldington and the Vintage Le Mans pattern sports racers. The finished Stretton, writing on behalf of the Frazer Sports Car Club came to hear of it and article is always more attractive and more Nash Section of the Historic Sports Car legal action was threatened. Crosthwaite valuable than the original donor, with Club. This was milder in tone and more moved on to less controversial projects. only an expert able to quickly determine informative. The fake Replicas apparently remained. its true origins. "Many thanks for your letter with There doesn't seem to be any ironclad Dishonest painters have been forging regard to your Le Mans Replica Frazer register of the 2-litre Frazer Nash sports old masters for a long time. According Nash," he began. racers, because of the number made and to many reports, the world's art galleries "All original cars bear a chassis number many of them have been crashed, and museums are full of these fakes. beginning with '100/ or '200/1 according dismantled, rebuilt or rcbodied. It seems The top cars at current auctions, rare to whether they had the early tapered the Crosthwaite cars are already losing sports racers in particular, can fetch prices chassis frame or the later parallel tube themselves in the crowd. in the old master class. From now on, frame and this prefix number was followed There's nothing much wrong with them obviously, this temptation will always by three further numbers; for instance mechanically, and the example at York be present. We can expect more cases my own car is 200/162. A few cars did is certainly a rather good copy of a very of real life, once again, imitating art

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