FRISKY FAMILY THREE

Built in 1959
Bench seat
Villiers 197cc single cylinder four-stroke engine

Frisky cars had an interesting history rooted in the Egyptian Phoenix project. Raymond Flower and Gordon Bedson were involved with the Cairo Motor Company to build a range of cars, including a lightweight microcar. Before the project could be finalised it became a victim of the 1956 Suez conflict, Flower and Bedson returning to England and persuading Henry Meadows' company at Wolverhampton to offer production facilities, christening the car Frisky.

As Frisky, the car originally featured radical styling with gull-wing doors, but a pre-production re-design resulted in more conventional features. Early cars were all four-wheelers, with rear track narrower than that at the front. Villiers twin cylinder engines were the norm, though Excelsior power units were fitted to some cars. Both hard-top "Coupe" and open-topped "Sport" cars were displayed on the Frisky stand at the 1957 Earls Court Motor Show. A new and specially prepared Frisky Sport undertook the journey to Monte Carlo, following the rally route, though not actually taking part, towards the end of that year, piloted by Gordon Bedson and Jim Saunders of Villiers.

Two new models announced in 1958 were the Frisky Sprint, very low and sleek, and the Family Three, of which the car shown is an example. Whereas the Family Three became the most successful model in terms of sales, only a handful of Sprints were made before the project was disposed of to the Australian Lightburn company, who persevered a little longer, fitting FMR 494cc engines in place of the Villiers ones originally favoured.

The fortunes of the companies involved with Frisky manufacture were not always the best, leading to production faltering from time to time. A final model, the Frisky Prince, appeared in about 1961, but the final curtain fell before it had a chance to prove itself.

Remaining Frisky cars can be found as far from home as the U.S.A. Generally accepted as being one of the prettiest, if not the most successful of microcars, survivors represent all models - even an incomplete Prince is being restored. A gull-wing bodyshell made on the original tooling nearly fifty years ago exists in the hands of John Meadows, grandson of Henry, whose company made the first cars. John also runs the Frisky Register, offering assistance and advice to owners wishing to restore and maintain their Frisky cars in the best condition.

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