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dsl ◊ 2015-04-27 19:06	A complicated history for this car: Quote 1: "No.85297 left the Frazer-Nash works in Sept 38 as a classic black 328. It was registered KHX 173 and had been ordered by a Lieutenant H. Aldenhoven. After the war Raymond Way acquired it and began racing it. The car then passed on to another sportsman, Gillie Tyrer, who stripped the 328 down and competed in various events (Shelsley Walsh, Goodwood etc.). His new registration number bearing his favourite lucky Nine: NKA 9. The present owner acquired NKA 9 in 1994 and has since participated in numerous events such as Nürburgring Oldtimer GP, Mille Miglia, Eifel Klassik, Italia Classica and further competitive motoring events throughout Europe." - http://www.heroevents.eu/Events/1000MT/2015/CP/ , with a photo of it restored to its ex-factory 1938 body etc (but see next quote). Quote 2 (several paragraphs)".... November 1938 with the number KHX 173 (chassis number 85.297) and appeared in one of the earliest post-war speed trials in the hands of a new owner, Raymond Way, the north-west London used-car dealer Raymond Way ...... competed regularly with the car in those immediate post-war days, taking in almost anything that was available — the versatility of the 328 being demonstrated adequately as it took part in mudtrials, speed hill-climbs, driving tests and aerodrome racing. By 1948 the competition scene had become quite serious and ... Raymond Way attacked KHX 173 with lightening tools, removing the complete body and mudguards and substituting a lightweight two-seater with the bare minimum of road equipment, the resulting rebuild looking not unlike a Le Mans Replica Frazer Nash. He reduced weight wherever possible and tuned the engine in line with Bristol development. So KHX 173 was endowed with a lot more performance, though it suffered from lack of rear grip due to its rigid axle mounted on half-elliptic leafsprings and insufficent weight over the rear. By 1950 it passed to the northern 328 exponent Gillie Tyrer, who had competed successfully with two different 328s before acquiring the Raymond Way special. Tyrer had excellent workshop facilities at his garage in Liverpool, and got even more performance out of the car. He replaced the heavy steel BMW wheels with Elektron wheels made by Ron Willis, who tuned BMWs at his garage in Essex. Apart from being much lighter, these Elektron wheels saved more unsprung weight over the standard wheels as they were retained by four small nuts on simple studs, whereas the standard arrangements had knock-off hubs and heavy steel hub centres. Having a fetish about registrations with the number 9, ... Tyrer re-registered the can with the Liverpool number NKA 9. During the winter of 1952-53 Tyrer attacked 85.297 about as drastically as Raymond Way had done, until apart from the chassis frame tubes and the suspension, little of the original 328 remained. The 6-cylinder BMW engine was replaced by a 4-cylinder Fiat engine, as used by Cisitalia, and a supercharger was added. A new smaller, lower and lighter body was made of aluminium, but the Willis Elektron wheels were retained. In this form it was virtually a pure racing car, though retained its NKA 9 registration and could be used as a sports car. In this form Tyrer did a lot of competition with the car in northern events, from airfield sprints to sand-racing. After he pensioned it off it passed to Harry Sutcliffe, who did little with it; it began to deteriorate.... From the mid-1950s the car disappeared and was believed to have been broken up or destroyed. In fact it had merely been left in a shed to quietly rot away, its useful competition life being over. In 1983 the derelict remains were acquired by a German BMW enthusiast, together with another Frazer Nash-BMW 328, and the two lots went to Germany. A year later the remains of 85.297 (alias KHX 173 and NKA 9) came back to England, acquired by a member of the Vintage Sports Car Club. The intention was to use the chassis frame and such bits as were salvageable to build up a 328 for VSCC racing, and to have the chassis put back to Fraser Nash-BMW specification. A BMW engine was built up from parts to replace the Fiat engine, and a new 328 body. Naturally, there were no original 328 bodies available, so an entirely new one had to be created from scratch. As it was intended to be a pure "racer" with little or no idea of using it as a road-car, it was decided that all the body and the mudguards could be of thin-gauge aluminium, whereas a standard 328 had steel mudguards and aluminium body panels. No doors were fitted, in the interest of body stiffness; a single aero-screen would suffice for the driver; and the engine was set up with the highest compression-ratio possible, in order to run on methanol fuel. This last decision affected the body finish, for methanol is a great eater of cellulose paint, so the whole car was polished to a high degree, with no protective covering for the aluminium. The mechanical work and bodybuilding was undertaken by John Giles and Tony Hutchings at their TT Workshops at Westbury in Wiltshire, but before it was completed the London dentist who had commissioned the job pulled out. As there was little likelihood of finding a buyer to carry on the "pure racer" project, it was decided to continue the rebuild and make the car much nearer a normal 328 — the way it had been when it was new. With no drawings of a standard 328 available, TT Workshops rebuilt the body from its knowledge of other 328s, and from photographs of one of the original three prototype cars, built in 1936 by the BMW factory. These three cars differed from the production cars in not having doors, having a single-pane full-width windscreen rather than the production two-piece vee windscreens, and housing the spare wheel inside the tail — so the tail itself was completely smooth, with just a small central petrol filler low down at the rear just above the number plate. Production 328s on the other hand, had a deep recess with an aluminium cover in the tail, in which the spare wheel sat, while the fuel filler was a much larger affair and protruded from the tail to the right of the number plate. The TT Workshops special followed the prototype cars in general shape and detail, with the spare wheel mounted internally, a single-pane windscreen and central filler. In deference to usability, a door was fined to the passenger's side of the cockpit and the car was then painted dark green, very similar to the three works cars which ran in the 1936 Tourist Trophy. Such things as wheels and hubs were acquired from Germany, where the German BMW Club is getting parts made, and the engine was built up on a BMW cylinder block, with Bristol internals and three down-draught Weber carburetters, together with a 12-volt electrical system replacing the original 6-volt, and a free-flowing six-branch exhaust system. A contemporary four-spoke spring steering wheel was used, rather than the rigid three-spoke wheel of the standard 328, and new seats were made. While the finished job is not KHX 173 as it was built, it does represent an acceptable Frazer Nash-BMW 328, though of somewhat bizarre specification, being a mixture of 1936/1938/1985. As an "entity" it is still Frazer Nash-BMW chassis number 85.297, delivered in November 1938 and registered KHX 173, but it now retains its 1952 registration NKA 9, which had been part of its history. To the casual viewer, or to someone unversed in BMW 328 lore, it looks to be a rather nicely restored car, which in effect it is: but to the connoisseur of the 328 it is a question of "Here, hold on a bit. Why only one door? Where is the spare wheel? Why no two-piece vee-screen, and why is the petrol filler in the middle?" Though some people might be excused for thinking it is one of the three 1936 prototype cars, the chassis number 85.297 tells the truth. It left the BMW factory in September 1938, a standard black two-seater sports Frazer Nash-BMW, and was sold by AFN Limited of Isleworth on November 8, 1938, with the registration number KHX 173." - all taken from http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/february-1988/40/resurgram (which is misbehaving and an unstable page and impossible to view properly, so have quoted much of the text; if you can get it to work, the reproduced magazine pages have photos of its different bodies/incarnations) So in 1953 when filmed, this probably had the second rebodying (by Tyree), Elektron wheels, and the Fiat engine; only the "chassis frame tubes and the suspension" were still original F-N 328. Then 30 years later it was all put back together to an approximately original F-N 328 incarnation which survives today.
Pierre ◊ 2016-05-15 00:34	It was in 1938, gracesguide.co.uk reminds, us that Archie Frazer Nash (1899-1965) put a hyphen in his name to become 'Frazer-Nash'. Thus, it may be said both forms are correct, depending on the reference period.

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◊ 2015-04-27 19:06

A complicated history for this car:

Quote 1: "No.85297 left the Frazer-Nash works in Sept 38 as a classic black 328. It was registered KHX 173 and had been ordered by a Lieutenant H. Aldenhoven. After the war Raymond Way acquired it and began racing it. The car then passed on to another sportsman, Gillie Tyrer, who stripped the 328 down and competed in various events (Shelsley Walsh, Goodwood etc.). His new registration number bearing his favourite lucky Nine: NKA 9. The present owner acquired NKA 9 in 1994 and has since participated in numerous events such as Nürburgring Oldtimer GP, Mille Miglia, Eifel Klassik, Italia Classica and further competitive motoring events throughout Europe." - http://www.heroevents.eu/Events/1000MT/2015/CP/ , with a photo of it restored to its ex-factory 1938 body etc (but see next quote).

Quote 2 (several paragraphs)".... November 1938 with the number KHX 173 (chassis number 85.297) and appeared in one of the earliest post-war speed trials in the hands of a new owner, Raymond Way, the north-west London used-car dealer Raymond Way ...... competed regularly with the car in those immediate post-war days, taking in almost anything that was available — the versatility of the 328 being demonstrated adequately as it took part in mudtrials, speed hill-climbs, driving tests and aerodrome racing.

By 1948 the competition scene had become quite serious and ... Raymond Way attacked KHX 173 with lightening tools, removing the complete body and mudguards and substituting a lightweight two-seater with the bare minimum of road equipment, the resulting rebuild looking not unlike a Le Mans Replica Frazer Nash. He reduced weight wherever possible and tuned the engine in line with Bristol development. So KHX 173 was endowed with a lot more performance, though it suffered from lack of rear grip due to its rigid axle mounted on half-elliptic leafsprings and insufficent weight over the rear. By 1950 it passed to the northern 328 exponent Gillie Tyrer, who had competed successfully with two different 328s before acquiring the Raymond Way special. Tyrer had excellent workshop facilities at his garage in Liverpool, and got even more performance out of the car. He replaced the heavy steel BMW wheels with Elektron wheels made by Ron Willis, who tuned BMWs at his garage in Essex. Apart from being much lighter, these Elektron wheels saved more unsprung weight over the standard wheels as they were retained by four small nuts on simple studs, whereas the standard arrangements had knock-off hubs and heavy steel hub centres.

Having a fetish about registrations with the number 9, ... Tyrer re-registered the can with the Liverpool number NKA 9. During the winter of 1952-53 Tyrer attacked 85.297 about as drastically as Raymond Way had done, until apart from the chassis frame tubes and the suspension, little of the original 328 remained.

The 6-cylinder BMW engine was replaced by a 4-cylinder Fiat engine, as used by Cisitalia, and a supercharger was added. A new smaller, lower and lighter body was made of aluminium, but the Willis Elektron wheels were retained. In this form it was virtually a pure racing car, though retained its NKA 9 registration and could be used as a sports car. In this form Tyrer did a lot of competition with the car in northern events, from airfield sprints to sand-racing. After he pensioned it off it passed to Harry Sutcliffe, who did little with it; it began to deteriorate.... From the mid-1950s the car disappeared and was believed to have been broken up or destroyed. In fact it had merely been left in a shed to quietly rot away, its useful competition life being over.

In 1983 the derelict remains were acquired by a German BMW enthusiast, together with another Frazer Nash-BMW 328, and the two lots went to Germany. A year later the remains of 85.297 (alias KHX 173 and NKA 9) came back to England, acquired by a member of the Vintage Sports Car Club. The intention was to use the chassis frame and such bits as were salvageable to build up a 328 for VSCC racing, and to have the chassis put back to Fraser Nash-BMW specification. A BMW engine was built up from parts to replace the Fiat engine, and a new 328 body. Naturally, there were no original 328 bodies available, so an entirely new one had to be created from scratch. As it was intended to be a pure "racer" with little or no idea of using it as a road-car, it was decided that all the body and the mudguards could be of thin-gauge aluminium, whereas a standard 328 had steel mudguards and aluminium body panels. No doors were fitted, in the interest of body stiffness; a single aero-screen would suffice for the driver; and the engine was set up with the highest compression-ratio possible, in order to run on methanol fuel. This last decision affected the body finish, for methanol is a great eater of cellulose paint, so the whole car was polished to a high degree, with no protective covering for the aluminium. The mechanical work and bodybuilding was undertaken by John Giles and Tony Hutchings at their TT Workshops at Westbury in Wiltshire, but before it was completed the London dentist who had commissioned the job pulled out. As there was little likelihood of finding a buyer to carry on the "pure racer" project, it was decided to continue the rebuild and make the car much nearer a normal 328 — the way it had been when it was new.

With no drawings of a standard 328 available, TT Workshops rebuilt the body from its knowledge of other 328s, and from photographs of one of the original three prototype cars, built in 1936 by the BMW factory. These three cars differed from the production cars in not having doors, having a single-pane full-width windscreen rather than the production two-piece vee windscreens, and housing the spare wheel inside the tail — so the tail itself was completely smooth, with just a small central petrol filler low down at the rear just above the number plate. Production 328s on the other hand, had a deep recess with an aluminium cover in the tail, in which the spare wheel sat, while the fuel filler was a much larger affair and protruded from the tail to the right of the number plate. The TT Workshops special followed the prototype cars in general shape and detail, with the spare wheel mounted internally, a single-pane windscreen and central filler. In deference to usability, a door was fined to the passenger's side of the cockpit and the car was then painted dark green, very similar to the three works cars which ran in the 1936 Tourist Trophy.

Such things as wheels and hubs were acquired from Germany, where the German BMW Club is getting parts made, and the engine was built up on a BMW cylinder block, with Bristol internals and three down-draught Weber carburetters, together with a 12-volt electrical system replacing the original 6-volt, and a free-flowing six-branch exhaust system. A contemporary four-spoke spring steering wheel was used, rather than the rigid three-spoke wheel of the standard 328, and new seats were made.

While the finished job is not KHX 173 as it was built, it does represent an acceptable Frazer Nash-BMW 328, though of somewhat bizarre specification, being a mixture of 1936/1938/1985. As an "entity" it is still Frazer Nash-BMW chassis number 85.297, delivered in November 1938 and registered KHX 173, but it now retains its 1952 registration NKA 9, which had been part of its history.

To the casual viewer, or to someone unversed in BMW 328 lore, it looks to be a rather nicely restored car, which in effect it is: but to the connoisseur of the 328 it is a question of "Here, hold on a bit. Why only one door? Where is the spare wheel? Why no two-piece vee-screen, and why is the petrol filler in the middle?" Though some people might be excused for thinking it is one of the three 1936 prototype cars, the chassis number 85.297 tells the truth. It left the BMW factory in September 1938, a standard black two-seater sports Frazer Nash-BMW, and was sold by AFN Limited of Isleworth on November 8, 1938, with the registration number KHX 173."

- all taken from http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/february-1988/40/resurgram (which is misbehaving and an unstable page and impossible to view properly, so have quoted much of the text; if you can get it to work, the reproduced magazine pages have photos of its different bodies/incarnations)

So in 1953 when filmed, this probably had the second rebodying (by Tyree), Elektron wheels, and the Fiat engine; only the "chassis frame tubes and the suspension" were still original F-N 328. Then 30 years later it was all put back together to an approximately original F-N 328 incarnation which survives today.

Pierre

◊ 2016-05-15 00:34

It was in 1938, gracesguide.co.uk reminds, us that Archie Frazer Nash (1899-1965) put a hyphen in his name to become 'Frazer-Nash'. Thus, it may be said both forms are correct, depending on the reference period.

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Last completed movie pages

1938 Frazer Nash BMW 328 Special 'NKA 9' [85.297]

1938 Frazer Nash BMW 328 Special [85.297] in Heights of Danger, Movie, 1953

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