John Grist Fairthorpe racer has passed away

I have received notification from Simon Grist that his father John has sadly passed away at the age of 80 following a short illness.
John first raced a Lancia Fulvia in the Classic & Sportscar Novice championship 1987  which resulted in 2 Class wins.
He then moved on to a Fairthorpe EM1 registered 589 DUP in the 1988 Road Sports championship, results included 3 class wins against the current championship winning Fairthorpe in 1989.

John raced until 1993 including FIA events at Brands, Zolder, Zandvoort, Dijon and Montlery.
His funeral will take place on December the 8th at Thorverton in Devon, if you require the full funeral details please contact me through this blog site.

Picture of the week: A Sprightly Fairthorpe from the past.

 

A recent email from Chris Marriott was interesting in several respects, firstly Chris lives only 15 minuets from where I am typing this and also that he owned two Fairthorpes in the late 60`s to early 70`s. The first EM was registered 442 WPP, according to Chris it had a tuned A H Sprite 998cc engine with an alloy aquaplane head and aluminium flywheel. Unfortunately the car was written off in an accident so a second EM was bought to replace it. Both cars had the early short Mk1 bonnet with the curved `mouth` although Chris cannot remember the number of the second EM, this one had a 948cc Standard  Ten engine which was then replaced with the Sprite engine from his original car. Chris still holds a soft spot for the cars and is hoping to meet up with some of us in the New Year.

Picture of the week, Fairthorpe and Fairtravel.

This picture was used by Fairthorpe in some of their adverts in the mid 60`s, it was taken in the field adjacent to the Fairthorpe works at Denham and shows the then new EM 111 parked in front of another of AVM Don Bennetts creations. This
Fairtravel Linnett aircraft was built in 1965 and happily is still airworthy, it was one of three produced. The Linnet was licence built by the another of the AVM`s companies Fairtravel and it was in essence a slightly modified Piel Emeraude, here is a link to a current image of this Linnet.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Fairtravel-Linnet-2/1201495/&sid=9a323e67ab346ab28c0dbc06eb7dc01a

Fairthorpe Pathfinder V8 for sale on Ebay

Martin Souster has decided to part with his Fairthorpe Pathfinder V8 and the car is currently for sale on Ebay  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fairthorpe-Pathfinder-V8-Rover-Engine-Convertible-Kit-Car-1990-Taxed-MOT-/131338747540?ssPageName=ADME:SS:SS:US:3160
This is a LOT of performance for the money with a Rover V8 engine and 5 speed gearbox fitted. It would benefit from a respray but has a current MOT and tax so would make a great project or use as is.