1952 Frazer Nash Targa Florio
British manufacturer Frazer Nash produced only 14 examples of the Targa Florio model, making it one of the rarest sports cars of the early 1950s. The model name honored Franco Cortese’s victory in the 1951 Targa Florio race driving a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, the only time a British manufacturer won the famous Sicilian endurance event.
Introduced in 1952 as the successor to the Mille Miglia model, the Targa Florio featured a parallel-tube chassis wrapped in a full-width aluminum body. The design incorporated rack-and-pinion steering, torsion bar rear suspension, and twin-leading-shoe brakes.
Power came from a 1,971cc six-cylinder Bristol engine available in two configurations: the Gran Sport variant producing 125 horsepower or the Turismo version with 105 horsepower. Both versions could achieve speeds exceeding 110 mph.
After World War II, Frazer Nash returned to building competition-oriented sports cars, choosing Bristol engines partly due to their BMW origins, as the company had previously built cars under license from BMW in the late 1930s.
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