With just seven AF Spiders being built by Alexander 'Sandy' Fraser in rural Lincolnshire, UK, it is a real surprise to learn that one of these wacky three-wheelers ended up in New South Wales, Australia. But that's what happened, or so I learned from Aussie car fanatic Duane De Gruchy.
It uses a 998 engine and in fashion with outback vehicles Down Under can be seen with massive front bumper and bull bar fitted at its front! Oddly, it is registered in New South Wales as 'Baston AB1 Convertible' and of 1948-vintage! Well, it may look vintage, but Fraser built these cars between 1969 and 1973, so that's a bit of an oddity.
AB1 is the only thing I do recognize in that description as Fraser told me himself that the first Spider that he built was named so because his then very young son called Aslackby - the village where they lived at the time - ‘Aby’. That very first one used a 1275 engine with Shorrocks supercharger and was built by Fraser in the kitchen. Could it really be this one? And what is that Baston name all about? At the time I interviewed him, Fraser wrote out the chassis numbers of the cars he built with notes to them, but he wasn't sure about some of them. It would be great to learn which one this exactly is!
