Fairthorpe `The good old days`

I have been in contact recently with a couple of past Fairthorpe owners who have kindly sent me some pictures taken when Fairthorpes were the competition car of choice. They have given me permission to post them on here for posterity and i`m sure you will get as much enjoyment as i have from looking at them. The picture above was taken at what looks like a grass Autocross and was probably taken in 1959 as the Fairthorpe on the right looks like it might be registered 100 UMY which is Peter Butt`s EM. This car was supplied in light blue gel coat but Was painted crimson red at a very early stage of it`s life, it is still in it`s gel colour here. I think the centre Fairthorpe might be John Green`s car SBL 88 as there is a red hardtop in front of it which John had, his bonnet was later changed to a one off Lenham style as you can see in another picture in this post. The Fairthorpe on the left is an Atomota which may have been driven by Don, Torix or Noreen Bennett. The picture below was taken at Snetterton race track and shows Peter`s Electron Minor 100 UMY ( now in red )on the start line waiting for the flag to be dropped. Both these pictures were taken by former Fairthorpe owner Graham Butcher.

Graham has also sent a picture of himself competing in an Autotest in the mid sixties, Graham`s car was registered 9 AXU and was painted Black. The car was a regular at Autotests and Autocross events for several years before being sold on.

The final picture for todays post was sent by another former owner Ken Coad, his car was registered 100 HX and was generally acknowledged to have been one of the better finished Fairthorpes at that time. Ken`s car was also light blue and is on the left of this picture taken on Ealing Common, probably in 1960.

In the picture from left to right are Ken Coad, John Green who was then also the Fairthorpe works manager, Peter Butt, Gerald Golding and Eric Coad. As mentioned earlier John`s car was now sporting an Ashley style bonnet and was powerd by a Ford Anglia engine as opposed to the original Standard 10 engines in the other cars. Peter Butt still owns his car to this day and for the first thirty years it was campaigned in races, sprints, hillclimbs, Autocrosses and Autotests, i was given my first drive of a Fairthorpe at a Denham grass Autotest in Peter`s car and promptly won the class! There is also an interesting story attached to Ken`s car which i will write about shortly so watch this space!