A RARE car that was saved from the scrapheap is set to wow visitors of a vintage car show this year after undergoing a comprehensive restoration.

John Meadows will be taking his recently-restored Frisky Coupé, one of just six known remaining in the world, to Penallt Vintage Car and Bike Show next month, after restoring the car that his grandfather’s company built.

John, whose grandfather Henry Meadows was managing director of the company behind the cars, recently finished the restoration.

Everything has been restored to its original condition, with the process taking months of effort and made-to-specification parts.

Now the car is in remarkable condition, and together with John’s FriskySport, they take pride of place at his home.

Meadows in Wolverhampton were a company known for a range of products. The Frisky was only a very small part of Meadows, who made engines and gearboxes for multiple uses all over the world such as cars, lorries, coaches, boats, army tanks and trains.

In 1955 Meadows entered an entirely new area with ‘micro car’ production.

Raymond Flower, an international racing driver, approached Meadows with the idea of producing their own light weight car and by 1956 a prototype had been built and tested.

Launched at the 1957 Geneva Motor show it was called the ‘Meadows Frisky’.

The original gull-winged car was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and built by Vignale of Turin. It caused a sensation but problems with the doors made it too expensive to produce.

In September the car was re-launched at the 1957 Earls Court show as the ‘Meadows FriskySport’. The car enjoyed a brief success along with other microcars but they were eventually overtaken by the popularity of the Mini in the early 1960s.

The Frisky Coupé was launched at the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show.

Production of the coupé was due to start in August 1958.

Towards the end of 1958 about twenty five cars a week were reported to be produced with plans to increase this to fifty.

The Coupés are now by far the rarest of the production Frisky cars.

Keen to protect the cars and find other like-minded owners, John started The Frisky Register in 1978 to find fellow owners of these cars who could help him restore his own FriskySport.

Over the next 30 years, with the help of good friends, it developed into much more than that. 

John, with his Frisky Coupé, will be attending Penallt Vintage Car and Bike show on 14th August.