Up to a couple of weeks ago i was under the impression that there was only one surviving complete Fairthorpe Electrina, that car sold on ebay a couple of years ago and went to a guy in Hungry. The car was in a very poor state but had it`s original body on although it had been damaged over the years. FSCC club stalwart Willie Simpson (now sadly departed) had built an Electrina but in later years had disposed of the body shell and fitted an Electron Minor body as the chassis wheelbase is only slightly longer on the Electrina. Whilst doing my sweep of the Fairthorpe club web page one evening i came across a message from a chap named Frank Oak advertising a 1963 Electrina, needless to say the phone was busy for the next 30 minutes and i made him an offer on the car. Frank had a couple of other people who had expressed an interest so he said he would like 24 hours to mull the offer over. As you can tell from this blog post Frank called me to ask when i would like to collect the car from the Devon/Cornwall border and the trailer was hitched up the following Saturday. Frank had owned the car from new, having built it from a kit and used it every day for 10 years, been touring in France and even done a grass Autocross race with it `no one could keep up with it, i had several bags of cement in the boot to help traction on the grass`! Eventually the car needed a head gasket replacing and it was put in to his Garage pending repairs and a Sunbeam Alpine replaced it. As in so many cases the years rolled by and the car stood there eventually getting covered by the usual things that get flung into the front of a garage. Now in retirement Frank had hoped to be able to spend some time on the car and return it to the road and it`s former glory but following heart problems he has now devoted his spare time to charity work and raising money to help people in ill health. He has raised a large amount of money with sponsored cycle rides in various far flung places of the globe and is going away again shortly. So sadly he decided to part with the car which is remarkably original in it`s pale blue gel coat finish having never been painted and there is hardly any crazing on the bodyshell. The engine is a 948cc Triumph unit with twin S.U carbs although this is currently seized, the drivers side window is broken due to the poorly designed lifting mechanism (apparently it has done this before) and the interior trim has crumbled away with age.
The chassis is in the usual condition after years of storage and will need new outriggers and siderails once the body shell is removed, but i am looking forward to getting my teeth into it once 789 ERO has been painted this spring. I am hoping to use the Electrina as my daily transport once finished and look forward to letting Frank get behind the wheel of her once again.
Needless to say i will be blogging about the rebuild on this site as the restoration progresses. For those wanting to have a look at her i will be taking the car as well as 789 to this years Fairthorpe Gathering in August , for details of the meeting see the blog post below. If anyone has contact details for the owner of the other car i would love to hear from them.
Up to a couple of weeks ago i was under the impression that there was only one surviving complete Fairthorpe Electrina, that car sold on ebay a couple of years ago and went to a guy in Hungry. The car was in a very poor state but had it`s original body on although it had been damaged over the years. FSCC club stalwart Willie Simpson (now sadly departed) had built an Electrina but in later years had disposed of the body shell and fitted an Electron Minor body as the chassis wheelbase is only slightly longer on the Electrina. Whilst doing my sweep of the Fairthorpe club web page one evening i came across a message from a chap named Frank Oak advertising a 1963 Electrina, needless to say the phone was busy for the next 30 minutes and i made him an offer on the car. Frank had a couple of other people who had expressed an interest so he said he would like 24 hours to mull the offer over. As you can tell from this blog post Frank called me to ask when i would like to collect the car from the Devon/Cornwall border and the trailer was hitched up the following Saturday. Frank had owned the car from new, having built it from a kit and used it every day for 10 years, been touring in France and even done a grass Autocross race with it `no one could keep up with it, i had several bags of cement in the boot to help traction on the grass`! Eventually the car needed a head gasket replacing and it was put in to his Garage pending repairs and a Sunbeam Alpine replaced it. As in so many cases the years rolled by and the car stood there eventually getting covered by the usual things that get flung into the front of a garage. Now in retirement Frank had hoped to be able to spend some time on the car and return it to the road and it`s former glory but following heart problems he has now devoted his spare time to charity work and raising money to help people in ill health. He has raised a large amount of money with sponsored cycle rides in various far flung places of the globe and is going away again shortly. So sadly he decided to part with the car which is remarkably original in it`s pale blue gel coat finish having never been painted and there is hardly any crazing on the bodyshell. The engine is a 948cc Triumph unit with twin S.U carbs although this is currently seized, the drivers side window is broken due to the poorly designed lifting mechanism (apparently it has done this before) and the interior trim has crumbled away with age.
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