So, I’ve just finished working on a lovely book by Radbourne Racing co-founder and Abarth expert, Lincoln Small. I was chatting to him the other day about a fellow London-based automotive specialist in the sixties called Frixos Demetriou and he told me a great story.
Dear old Frixos was was a genuine character. A Greek-Cypriot who owned a chain of casinos in Cyprus. In the mid-sixties he moved to London and opend a casino and gaming club called The Olympic in well heeled Bayswater.
The club was very successful but one day, it was announced that the UK government was considering changing the regulations around casinos, which put the wind up Frixos.
Vignale Samantha was a pretty car and based on Fiat 125S
The next part is almost hard to believe but actually happened. Frixos was in Geneva having a business meeting along with his Swiss friend and advisor, Ernst Huppert and their flight back to Heathrow was diverted to Milan due to bad weather. It is said that by the side of the road at the airport was a Fiat-based Vignale Samantha, which impressed Frixos and gave him a back up plan just in case his casino was impacted negatively by any government changes to casino regulations.
Huppert duly did some research and found out that the cars were built by Turin-based Carrozzeria Vignale, founded and run by Alfredo Vignale and founded in 1948.
Demetriou also imported the Lombardi Grand Prix to the UK.
They grew quickly working with the likes of Fiat, Ferrari, Maserati, Cisitalia, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and even Briggs Cunningham. He also had an arrangement with NSU-Fiat (later Neckar) for several years, particularly on the Neckar Adria model.
He also produced his take on several Fiat-based models – the Eveline (Fiat 124), Samantha (125 S), Gamine and Fiat 850 Coupé Vignale – and an appointment was made for Frixos and Huppert to visit Alfredo.
Demetriou always thought big and wanting to show Vignale that he meant business he immediately ordered 200 cars (he always said that people wouldn’t take you seriously if you ordered in small numbers, regardless of how many you could sell) and paid for them, on the spot, in cash!
He also told Alfredo that he’d take the the rest of the year’s Vignale production as long as they were supplied in right-hand drive form. That wasn’t all. He also tried to order Abarth Scorpiones from Abarth & Cie although official Abarth UK importers, Radbourne Racing put a stop to that. He got around it by ordering the same car that was made by Francis Lombardi known as the Grand Prix.
He built a very large showroom for his cars – it was said to be bursting at the seams at various times – in Queensway, not far from The Olympic but wasn’t exactly trampled under foot by customers.
Fiat 850 Coupé Vignale
The truth is they were probably too expensive, especially when compared to stuff like brand new MGBs and Jaguar E-types. Gamines cost £700 in 1969, Lombardi Grand Prix were £1225, Fiat 850 Coupé Vignales were priced at £1457, Evelines cost £1686 and the Samantha was priced at £2211. He wasn’t messing around though. Lincoln Small reckons that Demetriou could have imported as many as 1000 Vignales here.
This is probably why he only no more than twenty cars in the UK, with much effort put into the Gamine. he even commissioned Mike Griffin, the big chesse and sucessful boss of VW tuning kings Cartune to help sell them. Several celebrities pushed the button, including the late Peter Stringfellow.
It possibly didn’t help and would be very frowned upon these days but when he took a stand at the Racing Car Show in January 1968, the Gamine’s (albeit tongue-in-cheek) advertising blurb proclaimed that the car was ideal for beach use but was for ‘Women Only’.
He did make the front cover of Car magazine however, although was said not to be happy about it, with the editorial describing him as being a ‘reluctant car dealer’.
When it came to the Gamine in particular the real issue was that the cars he sold in the UK were plagued with issues such as water leaks, rust and ify build quality. The real kicker however was that when he and Huppert fif the deal with Alfredo Vignale a deal was arranged so that UK Vignales would be given Fiat factory warranties and servicing arrangements with Fiat dealers.
That deal was indeed genuine. Only, not in the UK! As a result, Frixos had to either buy back the cars or spend a lot of cash having them put right. It’s said that it cost him the equivalent today of £7 million.
Although very upset he could afford the losses as he was a hugely successful casino owner, although once he discovered that the government wasn’t going to change gambling legislation he decided to close down his car business. He possibly sold 27 Samanthas, 12 Evelines, 15 850 Coupes, 20+ Gamines and maybe 17 Lombardi Grand Prix.
VIgnale Eveline
When he semi-retired back to Cyprus it’s said that he took the majority of the left over stock with him. It’s not known how many cars he sold there. Certainly the Gamine should have done better for beach car duties there.
Unfortunately, Frixos met a tragic end. It’s said that he was sitting in his Vignale Samantha one afternoon in Cyprus when a runaway British Army Chieftain ran over his car, killing him instantly.