When I first saw this I thought it was either a mistake or a joke. A standard Metro with a bodykit. But no. That couldn't be further from the truth. This car, for sale on eBay right now, is a bone fide Aston Martin Tickford.
A little history. In 1981 Aston Martin created an engineering service subsidiary and chose the name ‘Aston Martin Tickford’. They helped to create a few mainstream cars such as the MG Maestro and Ford Sierra Cosworth. Obviously both of those were sold under their original manufacturers names.
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| Aston Martin Tickford Frazer Metro - taken from Tickford Owners Club website |
But they also created some specials under the name Aston Martin Tickford. The Frazer Metro is one of those specials and only 26 were made. This car is number 15. The Tickford Owners Club describes the Frazer Metro thus:
The first production run of the Metros done by Tickford used the Metro 1.3 as the basis for the Frazer, which increased the cost from approx. £4000 to £12000. There were only 26 of these cars produced, one Bronze, one Blue,and one Black. the rest in silver. The cars were very striking as the colour darkens into a dark grey/black towards the bottom of the car. The Frazer had a full leather interior, usually grey with or without red piping. which included the door panels, rear parcel shelf and the much modified wrap-round dashboard. Wilton carpets covered the floor and bottom of the door panels. The dash had a stack stereo, electric window switches and extra instrumentation along with cruise control. Some came with various other extras to order, including electric sunroofs, mirrors and tailgate remote release, one vehicle no 4 was fitted with air conditioning. The cars were fitted with Porsche style ARC 5.5in wheels shod with 175/50 VR P7 tyres. The car was lowered slightly and fitted with a twin choke webber carb, gasflowed cylinder head with larger diameter valves, new camshaft and a revised inlet manifold, which raised the output of the engine to 80bhp. A full bodykit was added, within which were mounted 4 fog lights at the front and 2 in the rear.
The second production run used the MG Metro or MG Turbo as the base car. No modifications were needed to the engines of these and there was a full set of optional extras that could be specified, which could take these cars further up the scale than the Frazer.
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| Aston Martin Tickford Frazer Metro - this and subsequent images from eBay advert |
There is a photo of this actual car on the Tickford Owners Club website - with the paintwork in a rather sorry state - which I've included for reference.
It's currently up for £1,995 with no bids. It doesn't look to be in fantastic condition - indeed the paintjob looks rather amateurish. Notwithstanding that the price would buy you an extremely rare collectors car that bears the moniker Aston Martin.
That is cachet you can't buy.
Full advert reproduced below.
Here we have a very rare Tickford Frazer Metro, number 15 of 26 made. These were fitted with full leather interiors including the rear parcel shelf, cruise control, electric windows and a lots more, to justify the almost £12,000 purchase price. The Tickford club know of 9 survivors. I purchased this as a bit of a wreck and have brought it almost back to life. My circumstances have changed and my storage is going along with the job!! I have done all the welding to the floorpans, replaced the wrecked engine with a 38000 mile from an Mg Metro. The calipers, discs etc are all new. The seats are good but not so the carpets. Electric sunroof works albeit slowly, the electric windows not working at present. Minilight wheels are fitted with good tyres, but needs tracking, rear exhaust replaced. The engine runs well, new battery fitted. Car still needs the washers fitted and the bodywork still needs a bit of work and a repaint. Most of the hard work done but no time left to finish. Get yourself a rare car .
For more information on these cars check out the Tickford Owners Club website
