Saturday, 20 April 2013

Mike Hahn, Fun with Farthorpes part 1

                             
                                                                60 Motor club Autotest

                        
                                                                    RAF Locking


I recently had a convesation with ex Fairthorpe owner Mike Hahn, over the years he has owned 5 1/2 Firthorpes, this is the first in a short series about Mikes Fairthorpes in his own words.
`The first was 3321HX which I bought in 1966 from a Kodak employee in Ruislip for £75. I ran it with a Standard 10 engine, then a Herald 1200 engine and finally a Triumph 2000 engine. The Herald 1200 with twin 1.5 SUs, raised compression and an SAH26 camshaft was the most successful of the three. I fitted rack and pinion steering, first 4.5J wheels then 5.5J Marcos wheels obtained during one of Marcos' fairly frequent post bankruptcy sales. After the 4.55 diff broke I fitted a Herald 4.11 diff.
 
                                                    
                                                         Great Auclum Hillclimb
 
In 1976 this one was sold to a chap who worked for Smedleys in East Anglia and bought back again in 1986 from a chap in Birmingham. I got it going again and then took it apart for the comprehensive restoration that never happened.

 
                                                         1986 as bought back
 
I eventually sold it via eBay at Christmas 2007 to a chap in Belgium. He chose a very windy day to collect it - the ferry took four and a half hours to get from Calais to Dover and he and his mate arrived looking very green!`
 
 
 
Motorville Denham Fairthorpe meeting 1989
 

No comments:

Post a Comment