1933 Frazer Nash TT Replica

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION

From its adventures on the Alpine Trial during the 1930s to its long-term ownership in the hands of the same enthusiast family, this Frazer Nash TT Replica wears its illustrious history with pride. 

First registered on 4 February 1933, its original owner was Lionel Butler-Henderson – grandfather of former Top Gear and Fifth Gear presenter Vicki. It was a short-chassis model fitted with a maroon body by Elkington – which it has retained ever since – and the engine benefitted from the Albert Gough-designed ‘deflector’ cylinder head. Its registration number was the same one it wears today: AHX 617.

Butler-Henderson entered his new TT Replica on that year’s Alpine Trial, and at the last minute became part of a three-car Frazer Nash team alongside the factory entry of HJ Aldington and another privately owned car driven by TAW Thorpe. 

They would be part of a 132-strong entry, with their main opposition in the 1500cc class coming from Riley. The route covered 1193 miles and made its way from Merano in northern Italy to Nice, and included the Stelvio, Pordoi and St Bernardino passes. With co-driver RRK Marker alongside him, Butler-Henderson lost only four marks throughout the gruelling event – a superb effort, but on this occasion the Frazer Nash trio had to give best to the Rileys. 

Butler-Henderson took AHX 617 back to the Alpine Trial in 1934, this time with the Honourable W Feilding as his co-driver. The event started in Nice and covered 1800 miles through France, Switzerland, Italy and Yugoslavia before finishing in southern Germany. 

Butler-Henderson did even better than the previous year, finishing the event without dropping a single mark. He climbed the challenging Stelvio Pass in 23 minutes 26 seconds, against a standard time for the class of 30 minutes. 

Manufacturers always gained great publicity from their successes on the Alpine Trial, and Butler-Henderson’s efforts were celebrated in the adverts that Frazer Nash took out following the 1934 event, trumpeting the fact that six of its cars had taken part and all of them reached the finish.

AHX 617 then passed through two other owners before being acquired by Manchester-based Peter Higgins in 1937. It remained in the Higgins family until it was bought by a Mr Blackford in 1956, and then passed in short order to a Mr Tacon. He kept the TT Replica until 1968, when it was bought by a notable motoring family who had historic links to AHX 617 and who have retained it ever since.

They took the car on the Frazer Nash ‘Raid to the Alps’ in 1969 and 1973, and have always kept it in fine mechanical fettle. In later years, it has been looked after by noted specialist Jeremy Brewster, with recent work including adjustment of the gear linkage and a rebuild of the twin carburettors. 

With period success on the Alpine Trial and a continuous ownership history, this is an extremely well-known car in Frazer Nash circles. Now being offered for sale for the first time in more than 50 years, it must be one of the best and most original TT Replicas in existence.

MODEL HISTORY  

Frazer Nash was well known for appealing to the enthusiast driver, and in June 1931, The Motor tested a new chain-drive model with an overhead-valve engine. ‘To say that the car handles delightfully is to give a poor idea of the sheer joy that one derives from driving it,’ it said, adding that it ‘will satisfy the most fastidious and experienced motorist’.

That car was HX 3863, which was entered into the 1931 Tourist Trophy and became, in effect, the prototype TT Replica – a model that would become the mainstay of Frazer Nash production during the 1930s. 

While previous cars from the Isleworth marque had mostly used Anzani engines, the TT Replica used a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder, overhead-valve Meadows engine. It cost £445 when officially introduced in 1932 and its narrow body could easily be stripped of wings and windscreen for competition use. 

Producing 55bhp on twin carburettors, the Meadows engine gave the TT Replica a top speed of over 80mph. A power increase of more than 10 per cent could be gained by fitting the factory’s ‘deflector’ cylinder head, which was designed in-house by Albert Gough. Characterised by sloping carburettor manifold faces and separate inlet ports, it also featured larger valves.

As production went on, the TT Replica was also offered with Frazer Nash’s own Gough-designed overhead-cam ‘four’, or a six-cylinder Blackburne engine of either 1498cc or 1667cc. A longer chassis – 108in rather than 102in – was designed to accommodate the Blackburne engine, and was also used for some four-cylinder cars. 

The chassis itself was underslung at the rear, and quarter-elliptic springs were used all round. An extremely precise rack-and-pinion steering system was fitted, although on later TT Replicas this was replaced with a Bishop steering box. The distinctive Frazer Nash four-speed chain-drive transmission was used throughout production, and the TT Replica was a popular choice for trials, rallies, hillclimbs and circuit racing until production finally came to an end in 1939.