A 'Salute' to Chris Manchip

Forward

As with all research occasionally you come across the unexpected and this has just happened to me. In fact I am total shock at just learning about the passing on of Tutts draughtsman Chris Manchip, aged 56, some two years ago. I was trying to contact Chris to let him know that I had finally started doing the Fairmont History of Australia and was trying to contact him to invite him to contribute as a fair amount of the data I own originally came from him, when I received this unexpected news.

Chris was with Tutts from the 60's to his departure in 1998 and he specialized in the Fairmont side of operations. Amongst other things he was the man that helped put together the STT/STE's, the C500 cars, the MT14-Z24 and the two original Briggs/Stratton M15B's.

I first contacted Chris back in 1996 and he was the person responsible for saving and passing on to me a lot of the history which I am now writing about. He would regularly send me items of interest as he found them in the records thus saving them from being dumped. Unfortunately Chris went on leave for several weeks during this time and when he got back a new manager had cleaned up disposing of what was left of the Fairmont history including photo's of the production line at the Pacific plant. I am so grateful that Chris's efforts at least saved some of it from destruction and I am now in the very privileged and honoured position to share it with you.

I guess we tend to take the original design and assembly of our section cars for granted but behind everyone of them there was a team of people with their own specialized expertise that made it happen. As for Chris his skill and expertise saw a high standard of car being produced and also some very unique cars being manufactured here in Australia. Some of these cars are now preserved/restored ensuring his legacy will survive for some time yet.

I Salute you Chris Manchip and I thankyou on behalf of all who collect section cars in Australia.

Mark Swaby Oct 2003

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