ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Frazer Nash tailored its cars to be the ultimate do-it-all machines, and wrapped its Mille Miglia in an exceptionally handsome body

- JULIAN BALME

There's a much-used phrase: they were far simpler times back then. A fine illustration of that is this Frazer Nash Mille Miglia. Imagine owning a car today that was capable of competitively contesting not one, but two sporting disciplines. Half Toyota GR Yaris, half Aston Martin Vantage GTE - they simply don't exist.

Yet back in 1954, this particular roadster took on both the RAC Rally and the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park within weeks of each other. It wasn't alone, either. In the early '50s, mass-produced sports cars such as the Jaguar XK120, TR2 and Healey 100 were all expected to be equally at home charging up Rest and Be Thankful or dodging the oil drums dotted around Silverstone's airfield circuit. There was certainly no need for a two-car garage.

Not that the average austerity-ravaged British driver of the post-war era could afford such a high-ticket item as the tailor-made Nash. If a TR2 at £900 all-in was seen as an indulgence, then the £3307 (£2250 less 10% ex-works, plus 66% Purchase Tax) price-tag of the Mille Miglia was a sign of good fortune beyond the wildest imagination of the majority of the nation. The fast and glamorous XK120 roadster was barely £1500; could a handbuilt car from Isleworth really be twice as good?

To be fair, it's not dissimilar to comparing a suit bought on the high street with a bespoke item from Savile Row and, truth be told, the Frazer Nash was probably closer to a Jaguar C-type in its attributes, value and scarcity. You can almost envisage the company's owners, the Aldington brothers - Harold, known as 'Aldy', Bill and Donald - dressed in beautifully cut, double-breasted pinstripe suits with tape measures draped around their necks, enquiring: "Would Sir prefer his Frazer Nash to be a High-Speed, or a Fast Tourer?"