[1] The Frisky car project was conceived by Captain Raymond Flower, racing driver[2] and managing director of the Cairo Motor Co Ltd., Nuffield distributors in Egypt.
From February 1955, under the auspices of the Cairo Motor Company, a number of projects for the manufacture of cars in Egypt under the general name of Phoenix were mooted in the press,[4][5] possibly as a way of gaining favour with the government of President Nasser.
[7] Gordon Bedson, formerly a design engineer for Kieft Cars[8] and the Vickers aircraft company, had joined Meadows as Export Sales Manager in 1954.
[2] This small, four-wheeled, two-seater had a moulded fibreglass shell with gull-wing doors and a Villiers air-cooled 250 cc (15 cu in) two-cylinder engine fitted to a brazed ladder-type chassis.
[11] Whilst The Bug was under development, the Italian coachbuilding company Vignale of Turin was commissioned by Flower to design the bodywork for the production version,[12] a task they allocated to Giovanni Michelotti.
[13][14] Two of these bodies were produced by Vignale,[2] but it quickly became clear that the design would be too expensive for mass production and so work began on completely redesigning the car in time for the Earls Court Motor Show in October.
[20] This car, a saloon version of the Friskysport named The Frisky Coupe, went into production in August and made its public début at the 1958 Earls Court Motor show in October.
Early versions of the Friskysport are fitted with a separate chrome Reliant Sabre windscreen frame, and have a detachable tail section and dummy air intake scoops just behind the doors, whilst later cars have the same lower body as the Coupe.
[22] The Frisky Family Three was basically a three-wheeled version of the coupe fitted with a smaller Villiers 9E engine[2] and MacPherson strut front suspension.
Press reports stated that on production versions the front suspension and probably the chassis and running gear would be made at the Vickers–Armstrongs (Aircraft) factory at South Marston, Wiltshire.
It featured two bucket seats and a three-cylinder air-cooled 492 cc (30.0 cu in) Excelsior engine mounted transversely in the frame with final drive by roller chain.
[21] The Friskysprint never reached production and Gordon Bedson, who designed and built the prototype, left to join Lightburn in Australia the following spring to produce the Zeta Sports.
[2] The Friskysprint and Zeta Sports had some similarities in styling but were otherwise unconnected and despite Lightburn advertising to the contrary, Giovanni Michelotti was not involved in the design of either car.
Despite being in poor health at the time, Henry Stone vigorously defended the order and with the support of his employees and all the other creditors put forward an alternative plan.
[25] In August 1959, Mr C. J. Wright, a Wolverhampton business man with garage and haulage interests, bought the stock, jigs, tools, fixtures and fittings, along with the rights to manufacture and the trade name of Frisky from the Official Receiver.
Anthony Brindle, who had become joint managing director of Frisky Cars, took part in a publicity run, attempting to visit five European capitals, Paris, Luxembourg, Brussels, Amsterdam and London while not spending more than £5 on fuel.
[27] The Frisky Prince, with strong competition from the BMC Mini, was not proving popular and chassis problems meant increasing time was spent rectifying customers' cars rather than producing new ones.