We have a winner!

[barrett]

... In the competition to find the worst car ever.

okay, so I'm hardly being original here, I believe this was the general consensus of the original Bad Car Club and later C&SC revival of that idea... and while it doesn't quite match all the criteria for that organisation ("Ugliness, complexity, expense, difficulty of repair, unreliability, low performance and inferior roadolding"), the Fairthorpe Atom certainly came as close as any car could hope.

 

Today, Fairthorpe are chiefly remembered for their very hardy range of budget GRP bodied sportscars that were sold in kit form throughout the 1950s and 60s. No surprise really, as they were successful racers in period and are still competitive today on the historic circuit, but the roots of the Fairthorpe company (if not it's success) lay in the rather more prosaic economy cars marketed in the early 50s.

Fairthorpe was the brainchild of Air Vice Marhsall Don 'Pathfinder' Bennett, a war hero and flight ace known for his incredible navigational skills (his Wikipedia page is worth a read). Once back on civvie street, Bennett formed three companies, Fairthorpe, Fairflite and Fairtravel, and created his own personal Airline business. Fairthorpe was the engineering arm, doing sub-contract work for larger aviation firms, while Fairflite and Fairtravel handled the airline and booking services respectively. After a few years it became clear the company was not a success, and Bennett turned his attention to car production, the Fairthorpe arm of the business becoming a motor rather than aviation factory.

Like many nascent car makers at the time, Bennett found there was a need for a small British-built economy car, and set about designing his vision of the perfect vehicle for shell-shocked Britain. Unfortunately, like many of the other small companies that tried to do the same thing, the resulting car was far from perfect - In fact it was far from being even satisfactory. The car was built over a box section chassis and used a 250 or 350cc BSA motorcycle engine mounted in the rear, and save for the aluminium prototype, all had a GRP body. The 'styling' (for want of a better word), was bizarre, bordering on obscene, with a huge bulbous nose with tiny headlights mounted atop the wings and tiny, crude side windows giving it the appearance of a sort of automotive gimp mask.

Unfortunately, the crude shell and lack of creature comforts could not even be called 'functional' as there was absolutely no provision for cooling the air-cooled engine, and the car was prone to overheating, and presumably to spontaneous self-combustion, though I doubt anyone drove one for long enough to find out.

 

Prototype Atom with a strangley proud AVM Bennett at the wheel

 

Without access to the company records, it's hard to say how many of this type of Atom were built before some general 'improvements' were made to the design of the car. The MkII & III Atoms used the same engine and chassis as the earlier cars, along with the Triumph suspension and various other proprietary bits and pieces, but had a redesigned body with more conventional headlight arrangement. Still no attempt was made to improve the cooling situation, and the grilleless front end gave the car a sort of sad-eyed puppy look. some people obviously found it cute - or perhaps it was the sub £300 price tag? - and many more of these types were sold.

 

Hardly a styling success, but certainly an improvement

 

Aargh! there's loads of the buggers!

 

Fairthorpe also branched out from the basic Atom with a range of different body styles, namely a convertible and a panel van, called the Wagonette. Not only were the Atom range basic in the extreme, they were also supplied only as kits available for collection from the Chalfont St. Peter works, hence the low prices.

 

Wagonette

 

Atom convertible with Electron Minor chassis in the foreground

 

In 1955, one year after Atom production had begun, Bennett realised the car was not selling as well as planned and drew up plans for a small sports car using as many of the same parts as the Atom as possible, but to be powered by a Triumph engine of 948cc, called the Electron. The car was fairly close to being ready when Bennett became aware of the Coventry Climax engine, at that point the power unit of choice for small racing/ sportscars, and the Triumph version was put on the back burner while the new car was put into production, again as a kit with a GRP body. The very first cars actually used the special body du jour, the Microplas Mistral, but production cars had a unique shell designed by AVM Bennett himself. He obviously had some sort of talent surge at the point as the car was - shock! - not only attractive, but once built a competitive and reliable little weapon. Shortly afterwards the planned Triumph-engined version was launched, called the Electron Minor, and became Fairthorpe's greatest success.

 

Early Microplas bodied Electron

 

Standard Electron

 

These sports cars became the backbone of the Fairthorpe company and continued to sell well for many years, in various different incarnations, but 'Pathfinder' hadn't forgotten the original aim of the company, which was to provide cheap basic transport for the masses. The Mini was still a couple of years off at this point and he now saw a market for a suitably re-engineered, restyled Atom. The new car, the Atomota, was launched in 1957 and proved Fairthorpe still had it in them to make a truly horrible car. The styling was once again improved on by the addition of bizarre bulbous fins at the rear topped with the ubiquitous Lucas lights, larger windows and - thank god! - a grille opening to provide some cooling for the engine, which was now a firebreathing 650cc BSA Gold Flash unit. The rear arches were reshaped though, naturally, not quite enough to actually provide access to the wheels. Total sales of the new car amounted to 20 units, and in 1958 Fairthorpe quietly dropped the range of economy cars to concentrate on the ever-increasing range of sportscars.

 

 

And that, really, was the end of the story for the Atom/Atomota, Fairthorpe went on producing decent little open sportscars until the mid sixties including the Zephyr-engined Zeta, and the Vitesse powered Rockette with it's bizarre central headlight.

One curiosity during this period was an attempt to make a family-man's version of the Electron Minor, the Electrina. Standard Minor underneath and from the scuttle foward, it was fitted with an ungainly 2+2 body that looked like a stretched Atomota, and served as a quiet reminder that Fairthorpe hadn't always made good cars. Hardly a success, it vanished from the range pretty quickly and today there are only two known survivers.

 

Err, right, yeah, that looks great Don....

 

In 1965 AVM Bennett's son Torix took over the running of the company and set up Technical Exponents Ltd, a company within the company, to build the not-quite-handsome, not-quite-ugly TX range of coupes as a way of proving his unique suspension designs. These cars were built to a high standard and were well recieved on launch but were nowhere near as successful as their predecessors. The market for cottage industry sportscars like this was getting smaller by the minute in the mid-late 60s as customers demanded a level of fit and finish that the small firms just couldn't provide. Despite this, the cars were built for several years into the early 1970s

Original TX-1 roadster

 

Later TX GT and TX GTS

 

The company did produce one final bad car, although by the standards of the Atom it was positively brilliant, the beach buggy-cum sportscar TX Tripper of 1974, infamously created by Torix whilst he was in hospital suffering from a stomach ulcer. Like most later Fairthorpes this used Triumph TR6 chassis and running gear, and when the monocoque TR7 was launched it killed the car, and the company that built it.

 

 

Although Fairthorpe will, quite rightly, be remembered for it's brilliant no-frills sportscars, it's probably worth reminding ourselves that the company began - and ended- making some truly dire cars, and also to spare a thought for the poor sods who were convinced enough to actually own and drive an Atom - a car which is possibly best summed up by it's survival rate today, which is a sum total of zero....

[Tayne]

Thanks Barrett.

I've just bought Pathfinder's autobiography for £2.69 on ebay.

[Negative Creep]

Is it me or or does that Electron Minor have more than a hint of Alfa to it?

[scruff]

[carlo]

Great stuff barrett, I believe the Fairthorpe factory was in Denham Green, near where I used to live, so I'm presuming that the cars outside the shop parade is either Denham or Gerrards Cross.

[seth]

Fab Barrett!

 

I don't think Bennet snr was a natural born car stylist. I do quite like that TX GT that junior put out though. The photo looks like its just a shell sitting on a chassis though as I don't think there's any glass in it.

[mattblack]

I'll see your Fairthorpe and raise you...

 

 

The Rodley!

[barrett]

Hey I love Rodleys!

I've been planning to start a topic on them actually, but it'll only be about 2 paragraphs long as there is hardly any information available on them, and only about 4 pictures....

But yes, definitely another condender for worst car ever. It's good to know we were good at something in Britain once.

[messerschmitt owner]

I see your Rodley and raise you a Gordon and a Powerdrive

[AXrescuer]

Great stuff barrett, I believe the Fairthorpe factory was in Denham Green, near where I used to live, so I'm presuming that the cars outside the shop parade is either Denham or Gerrards Cross.

 

That parade of shops is Market Place in Chalfont St Peter village. Been there many times.

[Skut]

Its a pity this thread has lost all its photos but it still has some cracking info on the red hot subject of Rodleys & Fairthorpe Atoms. I found this reference to the Rodley in an online newspaper archive nearly a year ago.  If there wasn't so little information online about the great little Leeds enterprise it wouldn't really be worth posting, but as there isn't here it is.  From The Lancaster & Guardian observer September 17th 1954.

[HillmanImp]

Wonder where in Rodley that was, I used to live nearby.

[Volksy]

Wonder where in Rodley that was, I used to live nearby.

 

Near the Owl apparently.

[plasticvandan]

zero Rodleys and zero Atoms known to exist sadly

[Skut]

Included my own effort but I gave it a lower roofline than the reality as I ran out of paper.

 

Rodley 750 by Giacosa1, on Flickr

 

Wonder where in Rodley that was, I used to live nearby

 

 

 

Airedale mills as far as I can tell.   This article appeared in a free paper called the Pudsey Squeaker.  Almost all of it is cribbed from a lengthier Practical Classics article from 1988.