(first posted 8/7/2011) What’s Niedermeyer been smoking? We all instantly recognize this for what it has to be. What else could it be? It’s one of the most distinctive shapes ever, an icon. Moving right along…
I’ve been wanting to do this post for over forty years, ever since I first came across this shot of the elusive Frazer Nash Continental coupe. Holy Erwin Kommenda! Your distinctive design for the Porsche 356 has been pirated. And guess what’s under the long hood of this handsome coupe? A BMW 3.2 L V8.
Just to confirm what we’re seeing truly is believing, here’s the real thing (top) with the FN. It obviously wasn’t cribbing in the usual sense; FN needed some parts to make their hand-built Continental a reality, given that most of their tiny output was roadsters.
Well, the source was as they say “readily at hand”; AFN, the company behind the FN, was the official Porsche importer in Great Britain from 1954 through 1965. That was the year the company was sold to Porsche, which then set up its own distributorship. Explains it all. And the number of Continentals built can probably be counted on one hand.
Here’s the Continental in a different pose. Makes the Porsche in it harder to see.
The Frazer Nash story is one of those classic English cottage industry tales, started in 1922 by Archibald Frazer-Nash. Re-organized (via bankruptcy) as AFN, the company become importers and assemblers of BMWs, particularly the very legendary 328.
After the war, AFN and Bristol Cars actually imported Fritz Fiedler, the designer of the the BMW 328, and cooperated in reviving the design jointly. Bristol ended up actually building the engine for what began its almost immortal line of coupes. AFN used the engine in a series of sports-racers, that enjoyed some success. But in the whole post-war period, only 85 Frazer Nashes were built, and the number of Continentals likely just a couple or so. But it kept showing up in all those Auto Parade Annuals, where I found it, and wondered, until today, just how it ended up with a Porsche roof section. Mystery solved.
Here’s a page on post-war Frazer Nashes, but barely a word on the Continental
I have also been similarly fascinated by this car, since I aquired a car book ( “The Sports Car”) in around 1961 that featured this red car on its’ cover. It took me a few years to realise they had borrowed some Porsche bodyparts to build it, and only recently went looking for the history. It looks like they built the red car and one other. The problem in the 1950’s was that Jaguar started building the XK120 at a price nobody could compete with. Allard died a slow death with their Ford based cars, and Frazer Nash with far more sophisticated and expensive cars couldn’t hope to compete. AC only survived as long as it did because someone put a V8 into an Ace and called it a Cobra.
Great post Paul the link if a fascinating look into car Ive read about before The NZ cars have been featured locally but the page sort of ties it all together I see a lot of MGA in the AFN maybe powering a FN with an Austin motor spurred the design team to copy the whiole thing I owned a 2.6 litre Austin Westminster with tuned engine very quick in its day in a light body it would have been fast
My brother in law has a kit-built Frazer-Nash roadster like the dark green on in the photo, except built on a VW chassis. I believe that the car was done in the early 70s. My wife’s father ran a VW service facility and i believe that he was going to sell these, but he only built the one. There are probably more of them out there, and more of interest to VW collectors than FN people.
You sure it was a FN wanna-be and not an MG wanna-be? I’ve never heard of someone doing a VW kit based on that extremely rare and obscure car, but stranger things have been built, especially on VW platforms. MG/VW kits were quite rage then.
http://www.empireautos11.com/vehicle-details/1968-replica-kit-frazer-nash-circa-1930-s-convertible-1b6e7b690d7146b5a2dbbcd8b815e3ce/
I remember seeing ads for these in magazines throughout the late ’70s, early ’80s. I suspect it was Popular Mechanics, since I subscribed to them for years.
Here’s an original broadside that’s on ebay right now. There might have been higher quality kit cars made elsewhere, but this company from Buffalo, NY was the heaviest advertiser in the ’70s. They came out with the Bugatti version first, I believe. Their ads were often on the back cover of the less well funded old car enthusiast mags so they could take advantage of the opportunity to use spot process colors for borders and such.
I had forgotten they made an Alfa kit. Note, it seems to use Ford Model A wheels… a bit scary!
Aha; thanks for enlightening me.
Paul, if as a child and teen your automotive library consisted primarily of rare and obscure British car books from the ’50’s and ’60’s, like mine did, you wouldn’t consider the Frazer Nash to be obscure. Extremely rare, yes; I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen one outside of the grainy black and pictures in my books. By the way, in some of my books Archibald Frazer-Nash is familiarly described as Archie.
Very interesting Paul. I think I have a rear-3/4 shot of the Continental coupe where the rear end slopes down to the bumper between a couple of fins – overall body shape is not a million miles from the 356 either. I’ll try to unearth it for you if you like.
The other thing about the earlier Frazer Nashes is the chain-drive gearbox, where each ratio has its own chain & sprockets, connecting a solid rear axle in the true sense of the word solid – no differential! Rear track is a bit narrower to compensate, but oversteer is apparently the natural pose. Supposed to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
Only FN listed for 1960 was the Sebring 2 seater 3259 pounds 9shillings 2 pence or 3 MGAs not a cheap car at all.
Just goes to show a good line is a good line where ever it appears. IMO, same for the roof line of the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.
Yeah, and those Karmanns (Karmenn?) shared that roofline and overall shape with a number of Ghia showcars, many for Chrysler.
Yeah I thought it was a Karmann Ghia as well. “Missed it by THAT much.”
My first inkling, like most, would say Porsche 356…
My next would be 1960 Alfa Romeo Giuletta.
* Guessed, with initial CC email, before reading entire article, too. 🙂
Somewhat ironically, there is a Bentley coupe called the Continental from this same time period that looks quite a bit like this car….if blown up to 1 and 1/3 scale.
Wow ~
I looked and of course thought ‘ 356 ! ‘ as I owned one and have driven plenty .
This looks like a really fun little Coupe , too bad it never made it .
-Nate
Well, those are actual 356 body parts. They used a Porsche body, and turned it into a FWD Frazer-Nash.
Front engine or FWD?
Great spot and photo match though. I was all set to type “Porsche 356”
Ooops; typo. Front engine, rear drive, of course.
Porsche
I, too, also thought Porsche 356 on first sight. Thank you for the explanation of the history behind it, now it makes sense!
Unbelievable! I’ve long lusted after this shape, it’s like a British version of the postwar Talbot Lago with its long body and short cabin, but I have never seen the similarities with the Porsche. Amazing.
Paul, is that shot from one of the early International Auto Parades? I recognize that typeface.
This reminds me of present day China, where small automakers take parts of JV cars and fabricate their own design around them – I remember seeing a couple of Citroen ZX doors wrapped by decidedly homegrown front and rear clips back in the early oughts.
Yes.