Some cars can take a while to really get to grips with and, in the road test world, that is a luxury that can’t always be afforded. Others simply shine from the instant you turn the key and press the button.
The Frazer Nash Mille Miglia, which will be on track twice each day during Flywheel on 17-18 June, is one of the latter. The distance is only from the Paddock to the sublime Pendine showroom in the Blast House. If only it had lasted for hours.
A few laps in the famous ‘Choc Ices’ Morgan racer later (more on that soon), it and the Frazer Nash needed to be returned. And before Johnny Shears of Pendine had even finished the words: “Can you drive that back?” the Frazer Nash’s door was being opened.
Instantly you're greeted with a curious combination. The door is shallow and low but the floor is high, so you step up and in but the door is still a reach down. The seat, mercifully and unlike the Morgan, moves but a few moments later the overriding feeling is that you could drive this by telekinesis, whether the seat it is positioned.
There’s no need for any choke, just turn the key and press the button with the red arrow pointing to it. The process gets no harder.
The Frazer Nash fires instantly and pulls away with the ease of a car you’ve known your whole life. A feat in itself for a 1950s machine. The clutch is light, and there's no need for and nervous glances to the selector when sliding towards the gate. It’s only when we arrive at Pendine, when asking where reverse is, that you realise how close this could be to disaster at any point: reverse is snugly beside with no protection.
Yet this gearbox is so smooth, so easy, and so intuitive that it instantly breeds confidence.
Just 11 of these Mille Miglias were built by Frazer Nash, originally known as Fast Tourer, over a four-year period from 1949. Only two, including this one, had its wheel moved into the boot and the cabin is a roomy place to be. The only challenge is getting out past the handbrake between the seat and door on the way out.
Luckily, you’ll rarely want to get out.
YMC 81 had a brief life with its first owner but the second, Jack Broadhead, was rather busier. In 1953 he entered the car into the Goodwood Nine Hours, his drivers Peter Reece and G Tryer finishing well adrift of the works racers in true race cars, but a finish nonetheless. Its driveability meant Broadhead won his class in the ‘London Rally’ a month or so later, while Reece took it to a fine seventh place in heat two of the Empire Trophy the following spring at Oulton Park ahead of future Le Mans winner Ron Flockhart. Dodgy plugs cut the final short.
British Saloon Car Championship winner Frank Sytner was among a series of later owners, before the car headed to the Continent to compete with its owner in Germany. It returned to the UK in 2022, and now awaits its new keeper via Pendine.
Pick up the Flywheel programme for a full feature on the Frazer Nash Mille Miglia