Centenary Extraordinary Drive, March 2019

"My chassis 54 has been in the Fry family since 1933, and although I've been driving it for 20 years. I've only just bought it (Feb 2019)!

Now that I've got all the paperwork, history and photographs, I note that some of the details previously submitted are incorrect. I'm also struggling to see where Clare Hay got some of her details re the first owner - W W Richards, March 1922. I'm certain that the first owner was J H Clay, who competed at Shelsley Walsh in the car in Sept 1922 and '23, and 24'.

In the meantime, I've attached a couple more recent photographs (last weekend!) when we took part in the start-off of the BDC Centenary Extraordinary Drive at John O' Groats, and also the original of it when it was a fire tender in Chichester."

This car was purchased by Ian Murray in February 2019.

Glamis Transport Extravaganza, July 2013

Uig Scotland, June 2013

Glamis Transport Extravaganza, July 2009

The tail of a fuel tank...
Since the mid 1930s, Chassis 54 has always been known as a "Bitsa", but built from the bits of some Bentley thoroughbreds.

The magneto switches, clock, hand-pressure pump and handbrake lever (removed in the late 1930s and given to John Lander when Jack Fry sold him chassis FB3301) all came off Old Number 7. And in Jack’s words, “The so called silencer, is I’m ashamed to say, an expansion-box made for the Birken single seater – and a thundering good silencer it is too! It was one of several I spotted at a private view of the wreckage while it was languishing at Welwyn Garden City after Sir Henry’s tragic death. Somehow it managed to stow away in the boot of my Brookland’s Riley”.

Although Chassis 54 was ordered by W W Richards it was delivered new to J H Clay in March 1922 and competed at Shelsley Walsh hill climb in the hands of Clay. Sometime in the late 1920s, possibly still in the hands of Clay, the car was damaged in an accident and eventually ended up in the hands of Tom “Scrap” Thistlethwaite.

In the mid 1960s, Jack Fry wrote of chassis 54:

“During the last forty years, I plead guilty to having gradually reconstructed from bits and pieces removed from “Three, four and a half, and six litres”, what must surely be one of the most comprehensive “Bastards” extant, as the only original items remaining are the frame (chassis no. 54), the bulkhead, the rear axle “banjo” – now fitted with a 3.3 speed six differential squeezed into it with some difficulty by Marcus Chambers in 1938. The basis of this long drawn out operation, was a very early three litre tourer bought from the late “Scrap” Thistlethwaite for a “tenner”, conditional on his retaining the wings, which he needed for a homemade test body on his new Rolls Bentley... Having laboriously stripped what remained to the carcass, I thought I had better start by working forwards – and as Sir Henry Birkin’s book for boy racers had given me ideas above my station, I was not content with a petrol tank containing less than twenty five gallons capacity with a bung hole large enough to enable me to rescue the rolls of loo paper put in by the bright young things of the day, in their gay abandon. I was therefore overjoyed to discover lurking amongst an acre or so of vintage dropout near Weybridge, a “genuine team car, Old Boy” – and it was too! None other than “Scrap’s” bulbourtailed 100mph three litre – a private entry in the vingt quatre heures du Mans of 1926. It was in terrible condition, but concealed within the wind-cheating stern, was exactly what I needed. A “Le Mans” tank supported by the tie-rod that ran right through it. As it had been protected all these years by the body, it was in perfect condition”.

Unfortunately, in 1962 at Oxford University, “a drunken oaf spotted the car late one night while it was parked in the T.A. Barracks Yard and somehow managed to start it up – in reverse – and pushed a small army hut off its concrete stalks, flattening the tank so completely that Tony Townsend and all his merry men were quite unable to extract the bent tie-rod and had to remove it in pieces”.

Jack had not only built but maintained the Bentley on a shoe string budget, and a quotation of around £36 from Elmdown Vintage Automobiles, led to many months of negotiations and something of a stalemate between Jack and Tony Townsend. Eventually the tank was repaired in November 1964 at the cost of £33/9/4d.

With the exception of 2 years in the 1960s, the fuel tank from chassis 1179 has been married to chassis 54 for 85 years, and if petrol is still available, will hopefully see another 85 years service!

"Purchased by Jack Fry in 1934. (J Fry was manager of the HRG racing team and knew various members of what had been the Bentley racing team).

Chassis number 54 was a competition hill climb car in the 1920s (Clare Hay's Publication).

Following an accident in the late 1920s it was bought by “Scrap” Thistlethwaite who sold it, along with various other parts to Jack fry.

Over the years it's had three engines fitted. The original 3 litre engine was replaced by a later model with hour glass pistons, and in 1935 the current 4 ½ litre engine was installed which I understand was made up of two separate engines. The top half of one and the bottom half of another being happily amalgamated by a Bentley mechanic of the day named Don Chance.
At about this time a significantly lightened fly wheel was installed. The engine, somewhat modified, is still in the car running contentedly today. It bears the number UK 3292.

Gearbox
Originally the car had and an A box. This was replaced by a very quiet D box, but this was changed for a C box at the start of the war when the car was used as a towing vehicle to pull a fire pump. (See photo, J.F Fry at the wheel, City of Chichester Auxiliary Fire Service 1939).

After the war the car worked on a market garden in Sussex towing a trailer and the C box was retained.

Body
The body came from an early 3 litre Sunbeam and is narrower than most Bentley bodies. The 4 ½ Litre radiator has been reduced in height to improve the line and sits happily with the 3 litre bulkhead. She really is a two seater with a limited amount of space in the back for luggage or a couple of Labradors!

Petrol Tank
This came off the 100mph 3 litre car which took part in the 24 hour Le Mans Race of 1925 or 1926. It was entered privately and driven by Thistlethwaite. The car had an enclosed streamlined tail which contained the petrol tank which was original and in excellent condition. Capacity 25 gallons and a genuine Le Mans tank with tie rod support running through the centre. Although damaged when the car was reversed into a concrete pillar in the early 1960s, it was restored and is still fitted to the vehicle.

In the mid 1930s Jack Fry joined forces with Marcus Chambers (of 30/98 notoriety), working together on a number of cars including CPX 755. Carious modifications were carried out including the fitting of a speed six differential inside the 3 litre banjo. The prop shaft was replaced with one from an 8 litre model and the compression was significantly raised.

It was more or less in this form that the car went to Le Mans in 1938 as part of “L’ Equipe Lapin Blanc”. The team comprised of Jack Fry as manager, Marcus Chambers, Peter Clark and a mechanic named Gibson. A certificate presented to L'Equipe Lapin Blanc is still attached to the inside of the passenger door.

In 1950 the family moved to Wiltshire and another chapter of renovation and modification began. Over the next three decades a significant amount of work was done on the car by Tony Townshend and his very able team at Elmdown Vintage Automobiles, Ramsbury Wilts. Following an encounter with a sturdy thorn hedge in 1957 a heavier front axle beam and Speed Six brake drums were fitted. A 4 ½ litre steering box replaced the original which improved the steering considerably. Later Tony Townshend fitted a 3.3 to 1 crown wheel and pinion, speed six connecting rods and pistons, more recent SU carbs and a Bosch starter.

The magneto switches and hand pressure pump handle came from “Old Number 7” as did the hand brake lever. The latter, Jack Fry subsequently gave to Jon Lander when he sold him the well-known 4½ UL 4471.

The car also carries the clock from “Old Number 7” and the exhaust silencer from the wreckage of the single seater Birkin Car removed after the fatal crash.

The car has been in the same family (Jack Fry & John Fry) ownership for 85 years Engine rebuilt by Ewan Getley, Autumn/winter 2017."

Various photographs of the car, prewar and during the 1950s

"Please find attached six photographs of chassis 54. It had previously been 86 years in the ownership of three generations of the Fry family, and as of the 27th of Feb, 2019, is owned by myself. It's a car I've known for many years and driven for the past 15."

This image is taken from a book I edited some years ago, 'Motor Mania' by Richard Sutton published by Collins and Brown (1996). The vertical crease is from the book's gutter. The original caption described the car as a 4.5 in use with the City of Chichester Auxiliary Fire Service during World War II.

(The image was supplied by Quadrant Picture Library which no longer exists.)

Motor Sport - Page 5, May 1941

Peter Clark’s Easter Monday
... A day spent much as it would have been in peace time, with certain differences.

On Sunday afternoon we loaded the little Fiat with all the usual equipment — tools and petrol cans and batteries and wheels and thermos flasks. Loaded it until the level rose high up into the roof and then wedged things with our greatcoats and overalls to prevent, or rather delay, the inevitable avalanche when the brakes are hurriedly applied. Then we blew the back tyres up some more and went to bed.

We were about again at 4.30 a.m. on Easter Monday, and on the road by 5, the Fiat's Hartley-masked headlight providing an excellent driving light. It is hard to assess weight behind, but we were certainly reminded of it on hills, needing bottom gear to climb up from Berkhamsted on to the Chesham road, and thundering, down into Chesham at a most rousing gait.

Came the dawn and we stopped... to survey the landscape and each other. What were these queer figures in battle dress with shooting irons lashed to their waists? Why were we not at Brooklands, but near Chiddingfold and still moving south?

8 a.m. found us at Chichester confronted with the object of our visit, Jack Fry's 4½-litre Bentley "Panzer-wagen," lately in use by the Sussex Home Guard and now to be transferred to Herts for the same purpose. This versatile machine had already proved itself of real practical use, for with its truck body it can carry eight people and a host of equipment (as well as boasting machine-gun mountings and other "expensive sporting extras"), but it was regrettably motored into a concrete road block some months ago, thus proving the efficacy of such devices.

Thanks to a variety of circumstances, including delay in obtaining spares and loss of men at the garage where she lay, repairs had come to a virtual standstill, and we found her with chassis straightened but quite naked at the front and devoid of axle, springs and other necessary details. The proposal was to remove these items bodily from Marcus Chambers's 3-litre Bentley which reposed in a yard nearby, fit them to the 4½, and motor away not later than 5 p.m.

Having lain out for some weeks the 3-litre wouldn't start on the handle, nor, for some reason connected with the rear brakes or axle which we could not stop to investigate, could we manhandle her successfully. We therefore set about it on the spot and, urged on by lowering black clouds and the most terrible smell brought about by male specimens of the feline species, had the whole outfit— wheels, brakes, axle and springs—off inside an hour.

Narrowly avoiding an accident with two bicycles, we bowled it across the main road and proceeded to "offer it up," as they say in engineering parlance. We can only say in civilian parlance that the offer was not readily accepted and it was nearly 3 p.m. before we had everything buttoned on and ready for test. It is only natural when a chassis has been untied out of several knots for some of the holes to be a bit oval, and our efforts evoked from the garage proprietor the comment that he was glad we strangers seemed to speak the same language as Sussex folk in similar circumstances.

After one or two abortive attempts to start, due to fuel stoppage, disturbed magneto slip-rings, loose oil pipes and so on, the engine burst into its usual full-throated song after a ten-yard tow, and we set hurriedly about final details.

Attempts to couple up the batteries resulted in sparks and a nasty smell, so we resigned ourselves to no lights or starter. Incidentally we had no starting-handle either, for we had no time to straighten and refit the necessary front cross-tube which carries the intermediate pieces between the starting-handle and the nose of the crankshaft. Then we found that nobody had sorted out the smashed nearside wing mountings, so that a remarkable erection of string and rubber bands had to be contrived.

Nevertheless we were away not long after 5, the truck body piled high with wheels and brake-drums and broken wing-stays and all the many things we had no time to fit. Mechanically all seemed very nice, even the brakes, which we had not adjusted at all, being not too bad. A gentle pace was maintained, so as not to outpace the Fiat, but alas, Nemesis was already on our tails. Between Ascot and Windsor Great Park the Fiat lost a cylinder in circumstances pointing suspiciously to a broken valve-spring, and, after a brief and dismal attempt to carry on, there was nothing for it but to take her in tow. It was about the shortest tow-rope ever, and though the driver of the Bentley thought he was going Dreadful Slow, the poor victim in the Fiat swears he was going Dangerously Fast and is quite sure the front end of the Fiat was dragged bodily into the air on many occasions.

Be that as it may, the Shades of Night, etc., as we neared Beaconsfield, and it was thought wiser to jettison the Fiat outside Shade's Garage at Penn for Len Slade (who looks after Anthony Heal’s stable of veterans) to attend to later. Followed an exciting 20 miles in the Bentley, beating the blackout, and a final triumphant entry home not long before 9 p.m.

It was a wonderful day, with almost all the ingredients which always went to make a peace-time holiday—the early start, the unconquerable snags finally overcome, and even the breakdown of the tender-car on the return journey. For who does not remember that, while Donnington is but 120 miles from London, London is 1,200 miles from Donnington!

"Further information on Jack Fry's Chassis 54."

"Chassis 54 competing at Shelsley Walsh in 1922 when owned by J H Clay."