As a babysitter for all things Mini based I receive pictures of cars lost and found every week - keep them coming! One car that has intrigued me from the first time I saw it is a particularly sad looking Fletcher GT. With just four made the Fletcher GT is a real rarity - three of the four have been described here before.
But this one - number four - was even more of that, having been converted to electric power and three wheels! The first pictures flashed over to here came from Paul Ogle, who'd spotted it in a scrapyard in the Midlands in November 2006. Paul and I tried to set up a rescue but it was to no avail.
Then I didn't hear from the car until new photographs of it emerged in April 2016. It had moved but was certainly still not being cared for. And from then on more pictures followed every few months or years. And every time it looked worse. The last one I received came in in August 2019, when the car looked to have been replaced once more - to a pile of scrap. I wonder if that spelled the definitive end of this car..?
November 2006. A Fletcher GT is found in a scrapyard in the Midlands
Picture courtesy Mark Butler
November 2006. But unlike the other Fletchers it is converted to 3 wheels and electric power
Picture courtesy Mark Butler
Odd conversion can be seen through where the rear window originally was. Why and by who?
Picture courtesy Mark Butler
April 2016. First appearance after 10 years. That beam didn't do body any good
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
May 2016. Moved over to another place in Wednesbury. Nose section broken off
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
May 2016. Restall seats still there but car is looking sadder then ever before
Picture courtesy Mark Butler
November 2017. Everything can be repaired but this is going to be a mighty challenge
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
November 2017. Broken body gives insight in three-wheel conversion at the back
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
August 2019. Last sight of it, dumped. Is this car now really gone forever..?
Picture Craig Perry
This Fletcher GT has 4 wheels. There are 2 wheels at the front mounted close together on either side of a central pillar which also holds the electric motor, so the motor swivels with the wheels when making a turn. I do not know if the motor drives both wheels or just one.
ReplyDeleteI think it could also have tyre scrub when turning corners.