MEET THE OWNER – CHRIS WILSON AND HIS FRAZER TICKFORD METRO

Forty-one years ago, the Sloane Range motorist searching for a town car in the spirit of the Radford Mini Cooper S De Ville needed to look no further than the ‘Frazer Tickford.’ The GRP body kit, alloy wheels, tinted glass, sunroof, and four (!) Marcal fog lamps proclaimed this to be a hatchback of distinction. While inside, there was Wilton carpeting, tweed-cloth headlining, seats and steering wheel trimmed in silver-grey leather. So naturally, the specification included electrically operated windows and doors. The driver benefited from Veglia oil pressure, battery charge, manifold vacuum gauges and an Uher radio-cassette player with a graphic equaliser - the latter was essential for those Dire Straits albums.

The Frazer Tickford also featured stiffened front suspension and a rear anti-roll bar, while the A-Series engine from the 1.3S had a modified camshaft, a Weber twin-choke carburettor, and a gas-flowed cylinder head. As a result, the power output was 80bhp, as opposed to 63bhp for the standard unit, which helped compensate for the 2.2cwt of extra equipment. Best of all, the F-T featured enamel Aston Martin badging in place of the familiar Metro logos.

This rather splendid vehicle was the product of a collaboration between Frazer of Northamptonshire and the Tickford Coachbuilding division of Aston Martin Lagonda. Autocar raved, “There was something rather opulent about the leather trim and that unmistakable smell. I felt very secure in the high-back bucket seats, and the smaller, padded leather steering wheel, reduced the trucker-style feel of the Metro driving position.” Furthermore, “After exiting the first roundabout, it dawned that I was nowhere near the limit of adhesion; the Tickford turned in beautifully and moved around the curve as if it were on rails – a worn cliché that really does apply.”

The Tickford-bodied Metro understandably caused a sensation at the 1981 London Motorfair. However, at £11,608, it cost more than a Citroën CX Prestige or a Saab 900 Turbo and was over £7,000 more expensive than the 1.3S donor car. Just 26 examples found a home, and only 13 are believed to have survived. Today Chris Wilson is the proud owner of one of the world’s most exclusive Metros. In his words, “I have always hankered after one after seeing one in a used car dealership 20 years ago, it was just by chance this car appeared at an auction recently. She drives really well! We have had a few Metros, and they are all fairly similar but this 1,300cc engine being tuned by Aston Martin is really good, even after 40 years and all the extra weight.”

In other words, YLB 632 X more than lives up to the claims of the brochure - “The owner of the Frazer Tickford Metro can be confident that everything about the car reaches standards of excellence that are second to none in the motoring world.”

With Thanks To – Chris Wilson