The first time we saw video of the famed Frazier-Nash Owlet circling a race track we thought it was some sort of a sped up gag. No car that looks like it was ripped from the pages of a Dr. Seuss book could be that fast. Nothing with tires no wider than a bottle cap could actually hang with other old race cars on the course. All of this was just too much to compute, and we were wrong. Built and raced by Patrick Blakeney-Edwards the car is a recreation of a car that Frazier-Nash built to go racing with in the late 1920s and it is called the Owlet because of the way that the car is trimmed and how it looks with the two round windows. It literally looks like an owl.
While specifics are not given on the engine, it is a powerful buzzy little piece that quite literally rockets this thing down the track or the road. Chain driven with a dog box style transmission, it is the height of mechanical simplicity. It is really fun listening to Edwards talk about how hard and weird the car is to drive, his concerns racing it without a cage, and how other that have driven the car have reacted.
We love stuff like this because it combines a man’s respect and knowledge of history with hot rodding, driving talent, and ultimately a cast of characters at Goodwood that we’d all fit right into. Sure this odd looking little car may not win a beauty contest but it has won plenty of races and shows no signs of slowing down right now.
