c1932 Frazer Nash Ulster 2-Seater

Description

Established by Captain Archibald Frazer-Nash in 1922 following his resignation from GN (a company he co-founded with H R Godfrey), Frazer Nash Ltd was initially based at Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey and sold overhead-valve conversions for Rovers before building their own cars in 1924.  The earliest ‘Nashes closely resembled their GN cyclecar predecessors, using separate chains and dog clutch system for each of the three forward speeds (reverse had its own chain), along with quarter-elliptic springs, lightweight bodywork and no front brakes.  Early cars were powered by proprietary Ruby and Power Plus engines, but the collapse of the latter saw Frazer Nash switch to beautifully engineered Anzani powerplants between 1925 and 1929.  Four-wheel braking was introduced around 1926, four-speed transmission the following year and a lower chassis frame in 1928, featuring wider front and rear axles.  Amongst the myriad of different models catalogued in the 1920s and 1930s, the Ulster was as close to standard model offered by Frazer Nash, with simple two-seater bodywork on a lowered frame, either without doors or a single door on the passenger’s side, along with a rounded tail section sitting above the fuel tank.  The Ulster was catalogued with either side-valve Anzani or overhead-valve Meadows engines and in blown or unsupercharged form.  Captain Frazer-Nash left his eponymous company that year, with control falling to the Aldington brothers, although Archie remained a shareholder until his death in 1965 aged 76 years.  Already renamed AFN Ltd, the company relocated to Isleworth, Middlesex and production of the chain driven Frazer Nash cars continued to the end of the 1930s.  Regarded as one of the finest sports cars of the vintage period, any chain driven Frazer Nash is now a highly desirable piece of machinery, supported by a close-knit community of Chain Gang owners around the world and eligible for numerous classic events and rallies.