E-bay does have it`s uses!

Last week i spotted a Fairthorpe coffee mug up for auction on ebay, in the sellers description of it he mentioned that he had bought it in the 70`s when he owned a Fairthorpe. Being the inquisitive type that i am i e-mailed him asking if he could remember what the registration number of the car was as i would like to add the number to my records. I received a reply from the seller which said his family had owned two Fairthorpes at that time, 4346MV and 915PTT and he would be interested to know if either had survived. The sellers name was Chris Harré-Young and i was pleased to be able to give him some good news 915PTT is alive and well and now living in America in the capable hands of Rich Campbell, i was very pleased to be able to put the two of them in touch as their ownership of the car was 30 years apart. Several emails have been swapped over the last week with various bits of information on the car, here is Chris`s memories of it`s time spent with them.

`The car was owned by a Devon farmer & my father came across it not sure how, may have been whilst caravanning down there. The farmer has had an accident in it & the bonnet was trashed & as a result he decided he needed some roll protection. He made up & fitted the 2 "hoops" you can see in the pics. It then stood in a barn. The farmer agreed to sell and in order to get it home they removed the engine there & then & that was brought back to Kent. The farmer made a bracket that bolted to the front of the chassis so it could be towed as a trailer & it was then brought back to Kent.
The bonnet was replaced with the one in the pics from another enthusiast as Roehampton and the car was run for a while but then left. My elder brother then took it over removed the ford lump & fitted an 1147 Triumph Spitfire engine & overdrive box. This engine & box was from my own Fairthorpe as I had fitted a 1600 Fiat twin can with 5 speed box.
As far as I can remember it was then run for a time & then sold. Having thought about it I believe my brother ran it until mid 1981.`
Rich then takes up the story`The history I was given on the car was that John Heseltine had the car restored by Beaufort Restoration Services in Kent back in the early 1980s. Heseltine raced another Fairthorpe with the HSCC, and put this one together as a racer -- but then sold it to a young man in California. It was driven as a street car in California for a number of years -- then was parked for 10 or 15 years. I bought it a couple of years ago and brought it to the East Coast, and I plan to race it with the Vintage Sports Car Club of America.`

The car is fitted with a Spitfire 1147cc engine with an overdrive gearbox and whilst in Chris`s familys ownership had a single large SU carb fitted which has a purpose made stainless inlet manifold & is apparently a very effective setup, better than the twin smaller SU's in Chris`s opinion.

The car is shortly due back from the paintshop and Rich is aiming to be out racing it this year in Historic events.
915PTT in America before the visit to the paintshop.

As a foot note to the story the mug didn`t sell! So if you would like a 70`s Fairthorpe coffee mug follow the link and contact Chris through e-bay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fairthorpe-Mug-/200580736961?pt=UK_Car_Parts_Vehicles_Automobila_ET&hash=item2eb38b27c1

I`m sure many of the surviving Fairthorpes have interesting stories to tell so if you once owned a car drop me a line and i may be able to piece together some more history!