Friary Motors

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Friary Motors was a British coachbuilder . It became famous in the early 1960s for converting Vauxhall and Ford sedans into station wagons , one of which ended up in the Queen's fleet . Friary was closely associated with the established bodybuilder Abbott of Farnham .

Company history

Workshop and service company

Friary Motors was an auto repair shop in Old Windsor , Berkshire , before World War II . Aston Martin took over the business in 1946 . Friary should serve the sports car manufacturer as a service department. Gordon Sutherland , then owner of Aston Martins, ran both companies from 1946. After the sale of Aston Martin to David Brown in 1947, Sutherland initially remained in the management. Initial considerations were to make Friary a preferred Aston Martin dealer. Nothing came of it. In 1949 Sutherland separated from Aston Martin, but remained the owner of Friary Motors. In the 1950s, Friary did maintenance and repairs for Aston Martin; Sutherland also sold other brands of luxury vehicles through Friary and eventually also took over a Vauxhall agency. In 1952 Sutherland bought the well-established body shop Abbott of Farnham, which at that time was designing and manufacturing bodies for Jaguar , Healey and Bristol in small series .

Body conversions

In the 1950s, Abbott gave up building complete custom bodies. Instead, the focus of activity was the conversion of mass-produced sedans into station wagons (in the British-speaking area: Estates ). Abbott worked almost exclusively for Ford of Britain and quickly gained a good reputation. Since 1959 Friary Motors was also active in this segment. The trigger for this was the idea of ​​Ford's competitor Vauxhall to have Abbott convert their own sedans into station wagons. Because of the competition between Ford and Vauxhall, however, it should be avoided to market the Vauxhall station wagons as Abbott models. Instead, Abbott passed the Vauxhall contract on to Friary. Sutherland rented a workshop in the southern English town of Hatch near Basingstoke , Hampshire , relocated the headquarters of Friary Motors there and had the Vauxhall station wagons designed by Abbott produced there under the Friary brand. After the Vauxhall contract expired, Friary continued converting compact Ford sedans for a year, after which the company ended under his own name. Friary Motors has not been active since the early 1960s.

Vauxhall Velox and Cresta

Vauxhall Velox PA Estate from Friary Motors
Queen Elizabeth II's Vauxhall Cresta Estate

Friary's first order was for station wagon conversions of the Vauxhall models Velox PA and Cresta PA , which, like the Ford Zephyr officially converted by Abbott, were in the upper middle class. One source names Abbott designer Peter Woodgate as the responsible designer of the Vauxhall station wagons.

Friary's work included raising the roof of the Velox and Cresta sedans. The lines of the station wagons are antithetical; that is, the newly installed rear side windows are shaped like a parallelogram , their straight lines contrasting with the deliberately rounded shapes of the doors. The D-pillar is triangular. In the interior, the cars were given foldable rear seat backrests, which made it possible to lengthen the "already large loading area" by 22 inches (55 cm). The doors remained unchanged; The rear fenders, including the tail fins, also match the shape of the sedans.

Friary's station wagons were sold through the Vauxhall factory dealers. Prices were £ 1,258 for a Velox Estate and £ 1,348 for a Cresta Estate in 1960 , making them about 25 percent more expensive than the underlying sedans. The cars were successful. At times, Friary achieved an output of 20 vehicles per week.

Friarys Vauxhall station wagons received special public attention from the British Queen Elizabeth II, who took over a specially equipped Cresta Estate painted in Balmoral Green in 1960 . The car, registered with the registration number “MYT 1”, had, among other things, fishing rod and rifle holders in the interior. It was considered one of the Queen's favorite cars. Their Cresta Estate operated for many years at Sandringham House , the private country estate of the British royal family . The Queen drove it herself until the early 1980s and often transported her Corgis in the hold . This particular car is still known in the classic car scene in the 21st century. There are still model cars from the royal Cresta Estate .

When Vauxhall replaced the Cresta PA with the newly designed PB in 1962, Abbott and Friary no longer received an order to convert the sedans into station wagons. Instead, the order went to Dormobile manufacturer Martin Walter in Kent .

Ford Anglia Touring Saloon

Anglia Touring Saloon by Friary
For comparison: Anglia 105E Estate with Ford factory body

In 1959, Ford of Britain brought out the "New Anglia" (series 105E) , whose design, influenced by American models, was met with controversy mainly because of the overhanging rear window. Initially, Ford only had the New Anglia as a two-door notchback sedan in its range. The three-door station wagon (Estate) with factory body was only added in autumn 1961.

Before the introduction of the factory station wagon, Friary designed its own station wagon version of the New Anglia, which was available from spring 1961 under the name Touring Saloon. The Friary version differs significantly from the later Ford factory station wagon. Unlike Ford, Friary kept the upper roof section of the New Anglia sedan unchanged; the rear fins also correspond to the series sedan. The C-pillar on the Touring Saloon has been redesigned; with it the roof structure now forms a trapezoidal shape. The rear side windows differ from those of the sedan. The one-piece tailgate is hinged at the top. For the lower part of the tailgate, Friary took over the sheet metal from the sedan. The conversion cost £ 89, roughly one-sixth the price of a standard Aglia Saloon (£ 606 in July 1961). In total, Friarys Anglia Touring was around £ 20 more expensive than the factory station wagon (£ 679), which was available from October 1961. Converting a car took about five to six weeks.

In the spring of 1962 Abbott took over the conversion of the Anglia itself and then marketed the station wagon as the Anglia Sports Saloon. The construction tried and tested at Friary was largely adopted, but Abbott did without the newly made rear side windows, which, according to a source, had significant sealing problems. Instead, the regular side windows of the Anglia Saloon were installed, which made it necessary to adapt the rear side panels. Abbott's conversion was slightly cheaper than the friary version; it was only £ 75. The Sports Saloon was almost as expensive as a Ford factory station wagon.

literature

  • Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Commons : Friary Motors  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Dowsley: Aston Martin. Power, Beauty and Soul . The Images Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-1-86470-424-2 , p. 7.
  2. ^ Andrew Noakes: Fascination Aston Martin , Parragon, Bath 2006, ISBN 978-1-40547-900-4 , p. 26.
  3. ^ A b Nick Walker: AZ of British Coachbuilders 1919-1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 201.
  4. ↑ Motor Sport, January 1949, p. 14.
  5. ^ A b Nick Walker: AZ of British Coachbuilders 1919-1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 74.
  6. ^ Abbotts of Farnham history with detailed information on Friary Motors on www.transporttrust.com (accessed April 17, 2020).
  7. ↑ Heon Stevenson: British Car Advertising of the 1960s , McFarland, 2015, ISBN 9781476611303 , p 132nd
  8. ^ WB: The Vauxhall Friary Velox - an excellent estate car , Motor Sport, April 1960, p. 272.
  9. ↑ Sales advertisement for Friary's Vauxhall station wagons. Photo by Heon Stevenson: British Car Advertising of the 1960s , McFarland, 2015, ISBN 9781476611303 , p. 134.
  10. ↑ History of the Vauxhall Velox and Cresta on the website leroux.andre.free.fr (accessed April 17, 2020).
  11. ^ Report by a former Friary employee on the website www.anglia-models.co.uk (accessed April 16, 2020).
  12. ^ Giles Chapman: Vauxhall Cresta PA. www.independent.co.uk, March 15, 2005, accessed April 17, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Queen Elisabeth II at the wheel of the Vauxhall Cresta Estate (accessed April 16, 2020).
  14. ^ Ian Coomber: Vauxhall: Britain's Oldest Car Maker , Fonthill Media, 2017.
  15. ^ History of the Anglia Touring Saloons on the website www.anglia-models.co.uk (accessed April 17, 2020).
  16. ↑ Reproduction of an article on the Friary Touring Saloon from Auto Car Magazine (accessed April 17, 2020). The article supposedly dates from July 1966. That might not be correct. He reports on the launch of the Friary Touring Saloon. This took place in the spring of 1961.
  17. ↑ Abbotts Anglia Sports Saloon on the website www.anglia-models.co.uk (accessed April 17, 2020).