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Fairthorpe 1952-1979 - not a mass product

Name: Fairthorpe Zeta 1960
Brand: Fairthorpe

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Created in 2008

Text:

Roger Gloor

Photos:

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Fairthorpe Zeta (1959) - compact roadster

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Fairthorpe EM 3 (1963) - at the London Motor Show in 1963

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Fairthorpe Electron Minor (1960) - with Triumph Herald engine in a full swing axle chassis

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Summary

There were around 10,000 car brands and designers - most of which have disappeared. One of these vanished brands is the English sports car manufacturer Fairthorpe. Home assembly of kit cars was popular in England, which was a boost for Fairthorpe. Fairthorpe had little regard for exports and never produced more than a few hundred cars a year.

Estimated reading time: 3min

Preview (beginning of the article)

A large number of individual sports cars had always been produced in England. They accommodated a certain aversion of the English to mass products. In the post-war period, lower tax rates also favored the "home assembly" of kit cars. The Fairthorpe brand, founded in 1952 by ex-Royal Air Force General D. C. Bennett, was also boosted by this circumstance, even though it offered most of its models fully assembled. The engines came from various English sources, primarily Triumph and Ford. At Fairthorpe, the proportion of in-house construction was high. An elaborate tubular frame and front suspensions with trapezoidal triangular wishbones were created.

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