The History of FAB
Chassis number 36S10830 was built at the Riley works in Coventry in August 1946, where it came together with body number A2877 as a Riley RMA.
On the 17th October 1946, a Riley dealership in Worcester gave it the registration number FAB 855. 'AB' being the registration area code for this town.
In 1950, a Riley RMA 'FAB855' was offered for sale by a car dealer in Nottingham for the grand sum of £700 and was purchased by Mr Eric Darley, at 27 Meadow Road, Beeston, Nottinghamshire. He purchased it following a nasty accident in his MG sports car, whilst driving in Nottingham where someone drove into the side and put him in hospital for several months. This put him off sports cars, so he decided to buy something bigger and more solid.
Back in the day...
Eric Darley with FAB at Welbeck Abbey in the mid 1950's.
Wollaton Park 2007
FAB 855 at Autokarna, June 2007, Wollaton Park, Nottingham. First outing after being rebuilt and made road-worthy. Now the present owner is Roger Bailey.
So why a Riley RMA?
And why this exact one?
The other reason for choosing this particular car was that the A posts had just been replaced and all the important woodwork had been professionally replaced. Most of the rusted body work had been cut out and replaced along with the door bottoms. Another good reason was that this car was local and there was a lot of history to go with it. The seller wished to keep in touch has it had been passed down their family. I had been near to purchasing a Riley several times in the past, but either the time it wasn’t right or the car was not to my liking.
My interest in Rileys started from a very early age - my Father had a Riley from the time I was born. In fact, it was the first car that I ever travelled in. This was a 1950 RMA, AJC 65. As I grew up, I would increasingly help with routine maintenance and servicing this car, it was the family transport until 1970.