Owner Steve Colling tells the story:-
Fairthorpe Elecron Minor WAY 327 was despatched as a complete kit 0n the 29th July 1960 to Mr A Hawley of Leicester, who impressively managed to register the car on the 17th August 1960, only 19 days later.The kit included: chassis, body, screen, hood, side screens, carpets, wipers etc. The car was fitted with a Triumph Herald 948cc engine and gearbox, twin SU carburettors, a 4.11:1 differential, independent front and rear suspension, rack and pinion steering and drum brakes all round. Once built the car was driven by Mr Hawley until his children were born and the car was left to collect dust in a garage for about 13 years until I purchased the car in November 1980. Basic repairs were carried out on the car mainly using second-hand parts, the car was resprayed and a new hood made. I drove the car as daily transport until 1986 when one evening travelling home the electric fuel pump caught fire; the results can be seen in the photos.
Now was a good time to make WAY 327 faster and handle better. With lots of help from Martin and Frank who were running Motorville at that time, a new body was made from the original moulds and a new windscreen and aluminium frame were sourced. Then the fun began. First a Ford 1600cc Kent engine was sourced, this was completely rebuilt, lightened and balanced and fitted with an Kent A2 camshaft kit, GT cylinder head, Webber 40's, lightened flywheel and a competition clutch all bolted to a Lotus bullet gearbox. A four branch stainless steel exhaust system was manufactured and installed by a company in London who make racing exhaust systems. The propshaft had to be custom made to take the extra power and to mate with the Lotus gearbox and Triumph differential. The diff has a new crown wheel and pinion to take the ratio to 3.63:1. The output shafts were also changed to the stronger larger Triumph Spitfire items. All this has the benefit of less wheel spin in first and second, better acceleration, increased top speed and lower revs at motorway cruising speed. The rear brakes are drums and work fine but discs and callipers are fitted at the front, along with stainless steel braided hoses, kunifer brake pipes and new hydraulics.All four shock absorbers were replaced by gas Spaxs with adjustable dampening and height, 180lb competition coil springs were fitted at the front and 360 lb at the rear. Both front and rear suspension has been lowered a little and the geometry modified to improve the handling further. The rear suspension arms were remanufactured in solid bar (the originals were hollow tube) and larger TR6 ball joints fitted to cope with the added loads. The chassis out-riggers were replaced with 25mm box section and steel floors; the rest of the chassis has some extra bars and bracing for strength. The loom has been replaced with a Triumph Dolomite sprint item that has a fuse box as the original loom had no fuses which contributed to the fire. Inside the car has been updated with new carpets, a three piece walnut dashboard with extra instruments, glove box, heater with demister vents, bucket seats and a new roof and side screens. A new aluminium fuel tank has been manufactured with a 13 gallon capacity and reserve feed to extend the cars range when touring in Europe; the extra weight of fuel on the independent rear suspension has the added benefit of improving the handling as the car was originally too light at the rear.
The car was completed in about 8 months and then displayed at the classic car show in 1987 when the show was held at the Metropole hotel in Brighton. The cars had to be driven onto a dodgy looking wooden platform on the ground floor and whilst sitting in the car the platform was lifted up to the first floor by a forklift, the car had to then be driven off onto the first floor, needless to say the reverse journey was a lot more scary, you can't do that now with health and safety.
WAY 327 has been driven to France and southern Spain by me along with many trips in the UK and I can confirm the work, effort and modifications have all paid off, the car is great fun to drive and the performance and handling puts lots of modern sports cars to shame.
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.
