|
By
DAVID PIKE
It was in 1924 when Frazer-Nash introduced two versions of their sports
cars. One of these was a Fast Tourer and the other a Super Sports with
two and two/three seater aluminium bodywork.
But to learn about these we have to go back to
1910 when Archibald Frazer-Nash had been involved with a partner
in the manufacture of cyclecars using a two cylinder air-cooled
vee twin engine with a chain drive. After a period of time
however, the cyclecar concept became outmoded as more conventional
cars as we know them began to appear. Frazer-Nash decided to build
sports cars to compete but these would use an adaptation of the
cyclecar transmission.
His sports cars had a solid rear axle and
separate drive chains, with sprockets and dog clutches for each of
the three forward speeds and reverse, which made for a light
quick-change system accessible for ratio changes. However he
realised it would be necessary to use a more powerful engine to
avoid the cyclecar image. In the end he chose a four cylinder
1.5-litre engine produced by Plus-Power.
To start with he introduced three versions of
his sports car, each using the same engine but in different stages
of tune. For the Tourer he used a 28kW version. In his Sports
version the engine developed 39kW whilst the Super Sports model's
engine was tuned to develop 45kW. They were installed in a light
simple frame, with quarter-elliptic suspension front and rear.
With a light body to complement the rest of the car, performance
was good.
However after only 16 cars had been produced the
Plus-Power company failed and Frazer-Nash had to look for another
engine. He chose the Anzani side-valve engine for what was the
first well-known Frazer-Nash, the Boulogne of 1925 and this was so
popular that 50 cars were produced that year, the best ever for
Frazer-Nash. In 1926 the Boulogne Vitesse became available, with a
supercharged Anzani engine.
Even though they had some important racing
successes the company was not in a very healthy position and the
Adlington brothers took over at the end of 1928 just before
Frazer-Nash had added a fourth speed to his chain gears. In a new
range they first introduced a Meadows 1.5-litre engine, and
following this for 1930 they brought out a new generation of cars,
with the most notable being the TT Replica which was capable of
reaching 130km/h. The Meadows engine was pushed up to 41kW and
then in 1933 they introduced a six-cylinder TT Replica powered by
a twin-overhead-cam Blackburne engine which came in 1499cc and
1660cc forms.
Through the mid-1930s the cars performed well in
races and rallies, but by 1934 the 'chain-gang' cars were
increasingly pushed to one side as they concentrated on a new car
distributorship with BMW. The last chain-drive car was delivered
in 1939, but production had not reached double figures in any one
of the preceding three years. A total of 323 chain driven sports
cars were built between 1924 and 1939.
|
