The founder of Only Fools and Hearses has added what will become the UK’s first and likely only Formula 1 hearse to his fleet of fun funeral vehicles.
Fleetwood-based Darren Abey already boasts the only superbike hearse, he says, in the world, and Del-Boy’s distinctive three-wheeler. For now the F1 Ferrari replica racing car is available to hire as part of a funeral procession with space for a driver and a passenger. Abey has started work on the trailer that will attach to the car and hopes to offer it as a themed hearse for petrolheads by December.
“It’s a very, very rare thing. I bought it off a collector who built a few of them 20 years ago and mainly sold them overseas. Only two of them are roadworthy and legal,” Abey says.
… while 1956 Austin promises a grand day out
Wallace and Gromit lovers can be sent off in style as Abey has also just launched an Austin A35 van as the latest addition to his funeral fleet.
The almost 70-year-old van is a slightly different colour from the one driven by the cheese-loving inventor and his canine companion in the cartoons. Along with his other vehicles, it is designed to be “unique and to bring a smile to people’s lips”.
Abey says: “What we do is exactly the opposite of traditional funerals. We make people smile and we make them laugh and if you can do that at a time like that, well that’s something. We give people happy memories.”
Abey started 15 years ago and is adamant that demand for non-traditional transport is increasing. “When we started I was doing three or four funerals a year; now it’s over 100 and that just the ‘Trotters’ hearse,” he declares.