An Interesting Car from the 1980s with a strange history… What started as a standard Austin Metro was fettled with by Frazer who teamed up with Aston Martins company Tickford, to produce one of the most ‘out-there’ Metro’s ever known!

You could order the interior in ‘standard’ Connolly Leather of any colour, just about everywhere, dashboard, steering wheel, headlining, parcel shelf, you name it and some of the cars were. Also, the floors were finished in Wilton Carpeting throughout, this really was a special car from an era of when velour seats were classed as luxury.

However, a lot of the luxury items became an option on later cars. In the original brochure price list, most items from the unique wheels to the leather trimmings were all options. The Air Conditioning was, remote tailgate release, alarm, electric steel or glass sunroof, cruise control, rear spoiler, electric door mirrors and the choice of either wool or leather headlining and sun-visors. Cruise Control was standard. The dashboard was a special feature, with a binnacle of dials and a ‘stack’ stereo system, which was quite powerful in its day.

The initial cars started with a base 1300 Metro, with a tuned head, this later became the same engine that went into the later MG Metro. Although you could later have a choice between MG & MG Turbo cars, these didn’t have the ‘Frazer’ spec finish.

The car we owned in the late 1980s was highly specced, with leather headlining, parcel shelf, glass sunroof and all the other tricks including cruise control! It was an amazing car in its day, an original real head-turner. It’s believed this was No19. If you know of the car or its destiny then do get in touch…

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The Tickford Metro were also marketed in the States with a sole importer, the adeptly positioned Ray Denwood of Wiltshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills California, for c$30,000! At least the image was right, however, just 3 in LHD form were sold. Two have recently returned to the UK. It was originally supplied in 1984 to the late Wendall ‘Rick’ McBridge, a well known official Ferrari photographer living in Beverly Hills, California.

The third is thought to be still in the Bahamas and possibly scrapped, being smashed up twice or very ill! Another LHD car is known in France too.

This special LHD car is at Auction with H&H… low mileage and a big estimate… https://www.handh.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-1982-frazer-tickford-metro/?lot=54922&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=504&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=48&pn=2&g=1

It’s good to hear that the Green Geneva car above is now being restored, so look out for that soon.

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It’s believed now a total of 20 Full Spec Cars were built in all guises, including LHD, but the initial 26 cars always thought, may appear to be the actual amount…

The main colour choice seemed to be Silver, which was the base colour. Some were red, blue, green, brown. Any colour was a choice at the time. The original cars were all numbered, later a handful was numbered on the small Frazer badge on the boot but only after build No 12, before then it wasn’t on the badge. This build number doesn’t include the aftermarket body-kit finishes which were later available.

This is the later brochure with MG specification, these weren’t the Frazer editions.

Of the number plates I’ve tracked down, there’s an odd sorting of colours and finishes. And the list isn’t complete yet;

FNG138Y / NUK1X (Silver) / TRH656W / 717VZO / DUR220Y / WMJ141X (Silver) / VUC4G (Silver) / A228VDA (Silver) / LAE103X (Red) / A432 LVG (White) /A501SUL / YLB632X (Silver) / UMM206Y (Silver) / A230JNG (Black) / TMD317Y (Green) / B101TYG (White) YKO585X (Brown LHD) VWK680X (Bronze/Black) B360OPG (Green)………..

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Here above, an original advert for an Arum White car at an official Aston Martin Dealer in April 1984.

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Here’s an advert for the Blue one with a red leather car, which is No17, this was an original Aston Martin show car. Here’s an advert when this came up for sale…

Here’s an advert below for the black one.

PLEASE DO GET IN TOUCH IF YOU HAD ONE, LOVED THEM OR KNOW ANY DETAILS ABOUT THEM, NO MATTER HOW SIMPLE IT MAY SEEM, ALL THE INFORMATION ADDS UP… ALSO GIVE HOWMANYMADE A MENTION IF THIS HAS HELPED.

Of Course, the Tickford Owners Club is a great source for all things Tickford Metro, Terry Wells is the specialist to chat with. But the site well worth a visit for all Tickford, have a look here

Keep watching…. more to follow!

©howmanymade