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Friday, 8 July 2011

Wanted: ABC Tricar

A rare ABC Tricar has turned up on eBay this week, but unfortunately the Mini based three-wheeler is in a terrible state and has a non-original repro 'Clubman' nose. However, it made me wonder again if somebody knows of a Tricar that is slightly more photogenic, as I'd love to shoot one on my next visit to the UK. In my own archives I found details of five cars (you may note that they all come with local - Brierley Hill, Dudly - registration numbers!) and you can find out more about these below. Any help in tracking down a good example of the breed would be very much appreciated.

AFD 95J - Yellow, the works demonstrator, on sorn since 1986
LFD 504L - Yellow, now in Minnesota USA, too far for me at the moment!
EFD 654K - Green (originally white), on sorn since 1990 and very rough, Cardiff
HFD 601K - Red, on the road, seen in Leek at car show in 2008
XFD 90H - Blue, on the road, but where?

An ABC Tricar as seen in Leek, Staffordshire in 2008. Who knows its whereabouts?
Picture courtesy John B./classic-car.y2u.co.uk

The eBay ABC. It's non-standard and very rough. Too bad for the book, unfortunately

UPDATE 6 september 2011: Trevor Powell, son of ABC Tricar designer Bill Powell, has a wealth of information about the Mini based three-wheeler that he is willing to share. See here

UPDATE 2 November 2011: Nothing heard of the man who reacted to this article, but by now I am in touch with the owner of the red car.

GRAND UPDATE 7 January 2021: Click here.

op

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous13 July 2011 at 14:49

    hi xfd 90h is my car in storage in a bad way and not on the road ,it needs a full restoration , the car is in nottinghamshire

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maximum Mini13 July 2011 at 15:07

    Thank you very much for your message. Would you get in touch with me on jeroen@jeroenbooij.com ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous14 July 2011 at 15:34

    hi will do ,this car xfd 90h seems to be on a lot of web sites and its in a mini book as well . i will get in touch

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maximum Mini14 July 2011 at 16:10

    Thank you. I look forwards to it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous29 June 2013 at 11:33

    I owned an ABC tricar in the early 1970's.Its Registration number was EFD469K.I bought it from the company for £400.You could provide your own mini for conversion at a cost of £200.
    I wished I had done that as the mini they used for mine was clapped out and I was always having to do jobs on the original mechanics.It was red and I will try to get a polaroid picture of it sitting in my front garden in Hornchurch,Essex from my ex.The local paper did a piece about the car and me which may be available on microfilm if its still in their archives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maximum Mini4 July 2013 at 08:24

      Thanks very much for coming in! It would be great to learn a bit more about your car and see something of it - definitely worth an article here. You can e-mail me on jeroen@jeroenbooij.com

      Delete
    2. mark langford20 February 2014 at 21:27

      to anonymos 29 june 2013 ,I dont know if this is the same car as you owned but I bought a ABC tricar in 2013 reg no EFD 654K which is the green ABC car in the photo,I'm restoring it and have welded in a new floor and new chassis rails

      Delete
  6. Anonymous27 December 2013 at 19:55

    Hi.
    There is a Tricar coming up for sale very soon in the London area.
    The current owner has had it for over 25 years, but it has been stored outdoors for a long time, so in need of lots of TLC.
    I have only seen a photo of the back end sticking out of a bush(!) and the number plate is partially obscured, but can definitely make out EFDxxxK, so it would appear to be the car mentioned above.
    We should have more information in a couple of week's time if anyone is interested in saving/restoring it.
    Berkeley Enthusiasts Club

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maximum Mini28 December 2013 at 11:50

      Very nice, please do keep me posted. This may be a good contender for Find of the next year!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4 November 2014 at 11:29

      Hi what about that picture ;-)
      Would like to see lots of them as not many available online.
      cheers

      Delete
    3. Maximum Mini4 November 2014 at 19:07

      Lots more pictures of the ABC in my new book, for sale here: www.jeroenbooij.com/books

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15 May 2021 at 17:24

      Hi, I snapped BFD 131J this week, buried in stuff!
      OK to use my picture but please credit me/link to pic!
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/72582258@N04/51180566141/in/dateposted-public/

      Delete