John Henry Knight with his son and his benzoline-powered four-wheeler ‘Knighty’, converted from its original three-wheeled configuration.
ALAMY
IN AUTOMOTIVE TERMS the Surrey town of Farnham, if thought of at all, is usually associated with Britain’s first Formula 1 World Champion, ‘Farnham Flyer’ Mike Hawthorn.
Abbott coachworks may also strike a chord, with its elegant bodies on Lagondas and Bentleys as well as a series of Zephyr and Zodiac Farnham estate cars for Ford in the 1950s and ’60s. Less well-known is that the first petrol-fuelled British car was built in Farnham by John Henry Knight, and that it was he who committed the first motoring offence.