Blakeney Motorsport Ltd

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In early summer this year whilst the shop was in full swing, in between a couple of race meetings, a rather tall and very keen chap called Mike walked in and asked us if we could service his Austin Healey 3000. We were absolutely flat out and after telling him that we were too busy to consider any more work he casually mentioned another company, set up by a couple of ex-employees of mine who were happy to do the work. Bullseye. The car duly came in to the shop a few days later and was sorted. After popping in a few times, usually at highly stressed and inconvenient moments he told me that since being a young lad, he’d always wanted a chain drive Nash and were there any good cars for sale. Having concluded that this was clearly going to be another wistfully hopeful tyre kicking exercise, I suggested we test drove Roger Newtons ex Ivo Peters short chassis TT Rep MV3357 to which we had done some work recently. Having done the obligatory demonstration, Mike then drove the car like he had owned it for years and further impressed me by insisting we stop at my favourite pub for couple of pints on this perfect balmy summers evening.

Towards the end of the second pint he suddenly slammed his hand on the table and instructed me to ask Roger if he would sell it. I was gobsmacked. After much deliberation, Roger agreed and I had a new local Frazer Nash mate. Having now met up a few times on lazy Sundays, both in our TT Reps howling around the Herts and Cambs lanes, its reminded just me how much fun these cars are on the road. The last trip was to one of Mike’s mates who lives just south of Duxford. He led us through a few lanes to sit precariously on a bank at the end of the runway and watch the final Summer Airshow. Whilst speeding back towards home I was reflecting on the happy coincidence that I have contemporary photos of my TT Rep BMP850 and MV3357 competing together in the 30’s with Tony Law & Ivo Peters. The Gough engine exercise is finally coming to fruition and the first new engine for Reinhard List and the Ex Fane single seater has so far seen 175 hp on dyno. A few more tweaks will produce a little more. This is clearly going to put the Frazer Nash engined Frazer Nash right back where it belongs and I’m looking forward immensely to seeing the Fane and Aitken (Geraint Lewis) single seaters really performing again after so many years of relative stagnation. On the competition front, Charles Gillett kindly asked me to share his Nash at Portimao and we produced a couple of hard fought 2nd OA up against some pretty stiff competition. Despite the sad loss of Rosemary only weeks before, Dick Smith – resilient as ever, had the Nurburg Frazer Nash on solid form in the HGPCA race until the mag drive packed up. When Andrew and Dick fired the car up before the race I can honestly say it was one of the most exciting noises I have heard any racing car make! Paul Baker has taken the plunge and bought the Richard Bolster Special from Paul Smeeth. It really is a fabulous car and I am delighted that it is staying in the UK and will continue to be raced extensively. Next year is the 60th anniversary of the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy and it would be great to secure a Frazer Nash ‘lock out’ of the top ten at this brilliant event. If you have not done this event before, feel free to give me a call to discuss the form.  BMS will be on hand to offer free mechanical assistance and support to any Frazer Nash or derivative thereof. With the race season now over, we have been hoping for a little respite during the winter months but the workshop is absolutely flat out with some mega restoration and race projects for next year. Although we are very clearly Frazer Nash biased the projects in the shop include 8C Alfa, Bugatti, BMW ‘Batmobile’ CSL, E Type Jags, Ferrari & WO Bentley amongst others. There are currently over 45 cars in our shop receiving attention so if you want to visit, you’d be welcome and would be given a tour of the works and almost certainly a good lunch at the Sword Inn Hand.