Alan Fraser - 1963

Painting, Rootes calendar '67. (suppl.: J. ten Hoeve) Text on the calendar with this picture: Record-Breaking Imp, Easter, 1966, at Britain's Brands Hatch circuit when Bernard Unett of the Alan Fraser Racing Team, set a lap record of 59.8 secs. and Imp thus became the first ever in its class to lap Brands in under the minute. Graham Coomber, 29 Jul 1999 Frank I have just gone on line, found your site very interested as I was Ray Calcutt's mechanic. Still see Ray once a week. If you would like more info would be happy to chat. By the way the picture of Bernard Unett was in fact Ray Calcutt taken at the chicane at Snetterton. We still have the original Roots Poster which is the size of the car. Ray Calcutt told Robin Human that it's actually him in this picture, not Bernard. Stuart Kennedy, 21 May 2006 I was intrigued when I found this site for the fact that I am Bernard Unett's grandson. [...] The picture that shows the sub 1 minute lap of Brand's Hatch is in fact of Bernard Unett. I can clarify this since we are in possesion of the painting and it is definitly of my late grandfather - not Ray Calcutt.

Alan Fraser's Motor Business (Hildenborough, Kent)

Alan Fraser Racing Team

Alan Fraser had already had a successful competition carreer with Sunbeams when the Imp arrived on the scene in 1963. By that time he was le patron of a racing team. He himself did still turn out whenever possible with one of his own team cars to "have a bit of a go".
He was president of the Brighton and Hove Motor Club, and in 1965 he won the Brighton Speed Trials, driving one of his Tigers.

In 1963 Fraser was racing Rapiers, and though he had had considerable success with them, the appearance of the Lotus Cortina seemed to mark the last of the Rapier's racing days.
Fraser, as many others, looked at the Imp with some interest, impressed by the car's specifications and design. In the second half of 1964 he entered a virtually standard 875 Imp, with rally-modified suspension, for a couple of meetings with Rosemary Smith as driver - purely for test purposes.
In October Fraser and company devoted their time to the development of a 998 Imp for racing. They were sure that such an Imp could beat the Cooper 'S' and they were determined to prove it. Just eight months later the team had its first win !

Alan Fraser Racing Team - Hillman Imps

Development is a continuous proces, and as there were troubles to overcome, a few more things got changed. But the Imps remained surprisingly standard. The rear suspension was not altered at all, only stengthened. Drive-shafts from the Imp Van were used, as those are stronger. They fitted stronger springs and adjustable Armstrong dampers, but the design and layout remained unchanged. (Summer '66 they tested a rear anti-roll bar - they may have kept it on...)
At the front, the pivot point was dropped, to keep the wheels more or less upright. Stronger springs were fitted and a stronger anti-roll bar is used.

In 1965 the Fraser team cars got 31 awards, including 9 first, in 27 events.

Late 1965: Bernard Unett in a 998 c.c. Fraser Imp at Brands Hatch was showing a 1299 c.c. Mini the way round on occasion of the 'Motor Show 200' meeting.

February 13th 1966, Jacqui Smith was third in the All Saloon car meeting at Brands Hatch in one of the Fraser Imps in the first race. The journalist, John (married) Miles wrote 'Jackie Smith' and 'Frazer Imps'. In the third race for up to 850cc cars resulted in an initial dice between Bernard Unett in Alan Fraser's car (which Jacqui drove in the first race) and Tony Lanfranchi (who drove a 1300cc Mini in the 2nd race) in Paul Emery's lower roof line 'lot'. Soon Bernard taking things quite easily strode away from the opposition to win and set an new class record of 62.4 which broke the existing record of 65.8! Obviously these Imps at such an early stage of their development are going to be the car to beat. [CCC 1966, April, p.602]

At the beginning of 1966 Rootes decided that they would like to enter Hillman Imps in saloon racing, but as their Competition Department was heavily involved in preparing rally cars, they had to use an outside tuning firm. Their choice fell upon Alan Fraser.

Rootes Motors Ltd. PR photo RL2668 "A Hillman Imp of the Alan Fraser Racing Team in its 1966 colours - white and blue with a cross of St. Andrew on th roof."

By August 1966 the team had got 16 first places; 2 second places; and 7 class lap records ! Imps held an overall lead in this British Championship series.
One of the Imp's strongpoints is its cornering power, they have always been able to outcorner the Coopers.

The Racing Team got off to a distinguised start in March, winning all four races in which they were entered that weekend. At Goodwood, Nick Brittan won the 1,000cc class, and at Brands Hatch, Ray Calcutt won the 850cc and up to 1,000cc classes, and Bernard Unett the 1,000cc.
The Imps are running in the Free Formula club events, and bear the Alan Fraser racing colours of Scottish blue and white with the white diagonal cross of Saint Andrew across the roof.
Rootes Foam White or Polar White for the lower section and the closest match for the blue on the later cars is Ford Gentian Blue.
Also check out the flag of Tenerife.

Easter Monday 1966 Bernard Unett set a lap record at Brands Hatch circuit of 59,8 secs. and the Imp thus became the first ever in its class to lap Brands in under a minute. He clipped a second off the lap record for special saloon cars up to 1,000cc, and averaged 72.63mph.
Unett won the Edward Lewis Trophy Race

Nick Brittan had 6 wins and the Oulton Park lap record.
On 7th May 1966 at Oulton Park he finished first in his class in the Spring Grove Saloon car Championship race. His speed of 82.01 took two seconds off the existing lap record for the up to 1,000cc class.
On August 29 1966 at Brands Hatch, Nick Brittan won his class (saloons up-to 1000cc).
Classic Cars Who dares, wins

Ray Calcutt, the chicane at Snetterton

Their Group 5 engine at that time delivered 106bhp @ 8200, and 100bhp @ 7000. The club engines gave about 95bhp.
The Development Engineer at Fraser's, John Griffiths, kept many of the standard Rootes parts of the Rally Imp engine: standard block, standard liners, rods and crankshaft. Fraser specials are the camshaft, head and pistons. The heads for the Group 5 were made from a larger casting which had been made available to the Fraser team. The bottom end is pretty well standard (the flywheel is balanced and lightened).
Club cars ran with oil and water radiators in the front. Group 5 Imps had to maintain the original water radiator, but they also had a supplementary radiator at the sharp end which got its air through the heater intake. (In Group 5 cars you're not supposed to cut any holes where they don't belong.)
Other Fraser Team solutions

• Broken distributor drives:
  The gear drives had a weakness, so Fraser's Team made their own
• Fan belt kept leaping off when revving it up:
  They used special jockey wheels and extra deep pulleys
• The head gasket:
  They made their own, finding the right material and type by trial and error

Even the Group 5 regulations permit more than was done to these Imps (Sept. '66), so there was room for improvement.

The Fraser 850 Imp got its smaller capacity by sleeving down the block, and using a small valve head. For the rest it was just about standard. It kept on winning races, despite the fact that no development work was done to it at all !

The team acted as the official Works entry when it came to motor-racing. But while it did get Works support, most of the development was done by themselves. Rootes used their results in adverts:

Imp proved again !
Alan Fraser Racing Team

position: Place and date: Event: Class: Cars: Drivers:	1st and 2nd Brands Hatch, 12th March, 1967 International Saloon Car Race Up to 1000cc 998cc modified Hillman Imps Bernard Unett and Tony Lanfranchi
HILLMAN ROOTES

from a photo by P. Harper

History on the Group 5 Fraser Imp: Date: 2008-02-23 From: Robert Waid [...] In the Fraser competition part there is a photo of the Tiger and two Imps on the docks at Teneriffe - the Tiger was subsecuently driven by Peter Harper to a win in the '4th GP'. I can't remember who drove the Group 5 car, but I drove the 'Rallye' (Group 2?) and had a ball! After I wanted to buy the 'Rallye', but Alan Fraser would have none of it - he wanted me to have the Group 5, and so it was. I ran it in several races in Tenerife and Gran Canary, and took it to Madrid and ran Jarama, tho DNF'd with a broken half-shaft. My wife took it to Jarama later, but also DNF'd, blown head gasket. [...].

In 1967, Alan was invited by Rootes concessionaires in Tenerife to take a team of Imps and Tigers to the fourth Gran Premio de Tenerife. Peter Harper finished in first place, driving a Tiger.

Team manager Ray Calcutt was off the tracks in 1967. That year Alan Fraser's team stars were Bernard Unett and Tony Lanfranchi. They won three times. The racing against John Fitzpatrick in his Broadspeed Anglia had been very close and could easily have gone the other way. As it was, the 1967 British Saloon Car Championship Class D (Up to 1,000cc) went to Fitzpatrick (62 points). The two Hillman Imps were next: W.B. Unett (54 pts.); A. Lanfranchi (34 pts.). The two Fraser Imps were distinguisable from each other by different paint schemes. The one with the all blue front was usually driven by Lanfranchi. But the photo above shows two with that front, nor do they seem to have crosses on the roofs...

With three more races to go in the BRSCC 1967 season, Unett was only two points behind Fitzpatrick. At that time the two Fraser Imps of Tony Lanfranchi and Bernard Unett had scored three class wins, 6 class seconds, 2 class thirds and 2 class fourths.

In one and a half seasons, John Griffiths (by the end of 1967) had the power increased from 95 to almost 120bhp.
The power came from
• a large-valve high compression cylinder head
• a racing camshaft and
• Tecalemit-Jackson fuel injection.
It could safely rev up to 9,000rpm.

Rosemary Smith drove one of the Fraser Imps in the Martini Trophy of 1966 or '67 (?)

1968, perhaps at Snetterton:

The March issue of CCC shows a photo (by Dave Gray) of a Fraser Imp on p. 234 in an article on how to start racing. The driver is stated to be "Keith Holland, about to smash the 850 c.c. Brands club lap record in a Fraser 'Frimp'." The Imp has competition number 76.

After Rootes had withdrawn their support from Alan Fraser's racing team, he terminated his business commitments and went to Tenerife.
The April 1969 issue of CCC says: in the lowest class, the Mini is still very much in the hunt, especially so as Alan Fraser seems to have moved on to better and very much bigger things.

These days Mr. Fraser resides less than 30 miles from Aberdeen, and now runs the Mountains Animal Sanctuary, which he founded in May 1982.

Photo of a Fraser Imp on the Hillman Imp Web site (N.B.1: Japanese! N.B.2: the link goes to an overview at Wayback Macine, since the site has disappeared) by Kazunori Yokoo (Papachi)

Fraser Imps and replicas

The Imp Club
Model Registrar for Fraser Racing Imps: Robin Human (Surrey SM4)

Murray Hart from Auckland has been building (for quite some time now) a replica of one of the original Fraser Imps.
ImpWerks NZ understand the car is, quite simply, magnificent. [newsletter Feb 1999]

Chris Ledbury raced his 998 Hillman Fraser Imp in the Class SK: Special up to 1000cc, competition no. 9. - Castle Combe, Monday 17th April 2006, Easter Monday Race Day

Robert Waid bought a Group 5 racing Imp of Alan Fraser in 1967.
He and his wife Gloria ran it in several races in Tenerife, Gran Canary and Madrid.

Goodwood Revival, 6-7th September. - Impressions 2003, December
Was shown on tv, too. Three Imps appeared of which two Fraser Imp replicas:

• the Fraser Imp driven by Ray Davies and Tony Jardine, prepared by Ron Aspinwall
• Rosemary Smith in her (Fraser ?) Imp, (built by Clark Dawson ?)

Jim McKenzie, Aug 2007, The Imp Club forum
building a Fraser Imp replica over de last two years, nearly there now. It was built up for the HSCC series. Ron Aspinwall at Impspeed was preparing it. The car is the ONLY authorised repilca by Alan Fraser himself of a Fraser Imp I know off and the car is painted in the colours 1966. I did try and get some photos from the great man himself at the start of this project but he said all his race stuff is in storage
Colin Rooney: This car is a credit to Jim for his money spent and to Ron for his time spent on it. I cant wait to go to a track day with Jim next year to start setting her up for his 1st race
Grahame Pearson: A glance at the interior of Jim's car shows all manner of modern equipment (steering wheel, seat, fire extinguisher, etc) so it is clearly not a 100% faithful replica - that is not adverse criticism, my point is that the car is built to race (hence the modern equipment) and when doing so, it will perfectly conjure up evocative memories of the Fraser Imps of the 60s. That is the important thing, not whether the blue is absolutely spot on, or the shade of red for the seats, come to that!
Jim: 'trying' my best to make the car look as close as it can to what they did in 65/66. I have to have the modern safety equipment in able to race ! Red door cards and passenger seat are all original, just re-made and in the same colour red as was new. Can't do much about the driver seat!
Jim, Dec 17, 2007: Its getting there. Shell / car should be finished early Jan. '08 and then transported to Transimp in Hemel Hempstead to have a new 998 installed and a shake down off all the systems, prior to running in and some track day testing / fun ! Only thing I am a bit worried about is hole in the front panel for smart roadster radiator and fan assembly!

Chris Astley, Nov 09, 2007, The Imp Club forum
I am also building a replica of the late Tony Lanfranchi Fraser Imp.

Google cache

Toys: Vanguard VA26003

Literature

Motor Sport 1965, December
Fraser Imp article (not on cover)

The Fraser Imps. - Motor Sport 1965
test of the Hillman Fraser Imp

A storie in Autocar has a colour photo of a blue fronted Fraser Imp vs. a Ford Anglia. The Imp was driven by Ray Callcutt.

The Imp Club Forum: Fraser Imps (topic 3264)

"Down The Hatch" (Tony Lanfranchi's biography)

Alan Fraser; info not Imp related

Alan Fraser was born in 1930 of Scottish parents at Hildenborough, Kent. In the motorsport everywhere in the UK, he was known as 'The little hurricane', as he was likely to go through any competition circuit like a blast of wind. A particular style without compare.
At age 16, he was the owner of a Morgan 3-wheeler, and his first Sunbeam at 20. At 22 he drove with distinction in the arduous International Alpine Trials, his first competition appearance.

By fall 1963 he had competed in

• 8 Monte Carlo Rallies
• the Midnight Sun Scandinavian trial
• numerous R.A.C. international classics
• numerous R.S.A.C. international classics
• Goodwood races, regularly
• Brands Hatch, regularly
• Crystal Palace, regularly
• abroad, reguarly

In 1963 he managed his own personal sporting fleet of:

• 2 Sunbeam Rapiers for racing
• 2 Sunbeam Rapiers for rallying
• 2 Sunbeam Alpines for general sporting purposes

And he was selecting a new Fraser team of drivers.

Alan Fraser says it was George Hartwell who introduced him to the sport and encouraged him in it. And Norman Garrad's interest and support at all times meant a lot.

He was a member of the Sunbeam - Talbot Owners' Club.

He married in 1961 his wife Rosemary.