There is at least one of the Fraser
Imps still in Tenerife it belongs to a friend of stoc member Carlos hafner.in
the sixties fraser was under contract to rootes and although he and Marcus
chambers despised each other,fraser built up a very successful racing team .in
1966 his team of drivers included Bernard unett,ray calcutt and nick
brittan,gained30 firsts,19 seconds and 13 thirds. By half way through the 67
season it was 20 wins ,8 seconds and 3 thirds out of 29 events!!!!! To say
they stomped the bmc and ford opposition would be an understatement
Fraser ran 6 imps ,3 for club events and three for international meetings .the
cars developed 120 bhp from the 998c.c. engine-not bad for 1966
Two tigers were run the first being the group three car,the second the MONSTER
tiger.this ran lowered suspension by3 inches-Armstrong dampers front -konis
back -4.07 axle-special competition gearbox-4.2 block hi po 289 heads giving
325 bhp! Alloy bonnet boot lid and hard top-15inch wheels 11inch disks at the
front and 10 at the back-the whole car was painted blue and white with the
cross of St Andrew on the hardtop(fraser was a Scot! And we Scots are a very
patriotic bunch! St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and strangely
Tenerife! That's why the Spaniards went bonkers when the cars landed in
Tenerife)
During 1965 and 66 the monster stomped the competition with many outright wins
.It came 2nd in the autosport championship in both those years .
I'm a bit of a fan of Alan fraser I really think that if he'd been in charge
of the competition dept then the debacle at le mans would not have happened
.He told me that he entered 2 tigers for le mans 1965 but his entry was
rejected .fraser insists that the main objection came from Shelby who put
pressure on the French authorities.
It's a great story whatever the truth is .
Faser now runs an animal sanctuary in the highlands of Scotland having sold
his dealership business in hildenborough,kent
And to think that the two le mans cars sat in a field outside his garage for
nearly two years --------------but that's another story DSD
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net On Behalf Of Russell Maddock
Sent: 24 May 1997 04:27
To: david duncanson; Tiger List; Hillman Listserve
Subject: Re: F'tang, Yang, Kipperbang?-Eureka Auction!
david duncanson wrote:
> Now the owner (called ken dalziel) has got two tigers and a shell. I buy
the
> shell .This "tiger" did some serious racing in Tenerife and mainland Spain.
> The other two cars that Dalziel is selling used to belong to a guy called
Alan
> Fraser, one is what's called a group 3 racer, the other is called the
monster
> tiger and is fitted with some real trick gear.
David, you wouldn't happen to know would you what became of a couple of
rather special Imps formerly the property of one Alan Fraser and, I
believe, last heard of in the vicinity of Tenerife?
Russ Maddock
|