Frazer Nash

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Frazer Nash BMW emblem
Frazer Nash company logo
Frazer Nash BMW from 1937
Frazer Nash Targa Florio
Frazer Nash Le Mans Coupé from 1955

Frazer Nash was an English manufacturer of sports cars and Formula 1 vehicles.

history

Archibald "Archie" Goodman Frazer Nash (June 30, 1889 - March 10, 1965, only from 1938 he wrote himself with a hyphen, ie Frazer-Nash) founded Frazer Nash Ltd. in Kingston-on-Thames around 1924, after his automobile company G.N. (Godfrey Nash) had to be closed. Initially, the vehicles he produced were based on the old GN design . The former officer had brought the idea of ​​a chain drive with him from his previous cycle car production that could be shifted exceptionally quickly.

The company was taken over relatively quickly in 1926 by the brothers HJ and WH Adlington in Isleworth , who renamed AFN Ltd. renamed. They built very popular, but also quite spartan vehicles for sports car races . The sports two-seater consisted of the unmistakably British style almost entirely of the chassis and engine. Motors from Plus-Power, Blackburn, Anzani , Meadows and Cough were used . From 1934 AFN was the BMW general importer for the entire British Empire. The racing drivers HJ Aldington, AFP Fane , Prinz Bira , Dick Seaman etc. were very successful in many races with the Frazer Nash BMW 328.

After the Second World War , the company was renamed Frazer Nash again and worked closely with the Bristol factories. The BMW 328 engines were further developed at Bristol, which enabled the cars to achieve considerable success in sports car races with drivers such as Roy Salvadori , Tony Crook and Stirling Moss .

In 1952, some of the so-called Frazer Nash Le Mans replicas were “freed” from their bodies and single-seaters were built on their basis. In addition, the company also agreed to construct thoroughbred monoposti .

Peter Bell's Scuderia Franera bought one of the first models with a Bristol engine : Ken Wharton started the racing car during the 1952 Formula 1 season and finished fourth at the Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten near Bern - even if he had already completed two laps lagged behind. A week later Wharton even achieved third place in the Eifel race at the Nürburgring, which is not part of the World Cup . These results, which are remarkable in view of the economical use of financial resources, and the sensational Targa Florio victory in 1951 by Franco Cortese , did not convince the privateers that there was more potential in the car and so one had to accept the changed technical features of the Ultimately retreat from racing in the 1950s, so that another Formula 1 model was never used. The third model that Tony Crook drove privately at the Grand Prix at Silverstone came in a disappointing 21st place.

The production of Frazer-Nash cars stopped in 1957.

"Frazer Nash" has been registered as a European trademark since 2007 with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market and has been registered since 2008.

Successor company

Today (as of 2013) Frazer-Nash is a group of companies owned by the Kamkorp holding. The group of companies includes:

The group of companies specializes in particular in electrical drive types. The vehicles from Bristol Cars and Metrocab, whose production was initially discontinued in 2011 and 2006, respectively, are to be converted to electric drive.

Web links

Commons : Frazer Nash Vehicles  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Homepage of the Frazer-Nash group (Eng.) ; Retrieved February 9, 2013
  2. ^ New owner spells out Bristol's Future ; Classic and Performance Car online, accessed February 9, 2013