My name is Christopher Sofroniou, I’m the secretary and membership secretary of the Limassol Classic Car Club-Cyprus, of which I’m a founding member and former newsletter editor.
My main interest though is to search study and save the history of the cars in Cyprus.
The story of the Jowett cars is very fascinating and I feel proud of meeting and interviewing four times the only survivor of the dealers in Cyprus, Adamos Prastitis, who sadly died in April 2013, 15 days after his 90th birthday.
After getting the “ok” from his son, I prepared a report for you to include in your club’s newsletter.
The only detail I need from you is about two cars, which from what I can understand left the island and continued their lives in the UK.
Back in 1996, a person from your club, unfortunately I don’t have his name, visited Cyprus and when we met, he gave me a list of the cars that arrived on the island. I’ve attached this list, on which you will notice these two cars with the UK registrations SH8434 and GKW841.
I would love to know how they are doing, their story and a couple of photos if available, to include them in my archive.
The Jowett Cars in Cyprus
Back in 1948, three brothers from Famagusta in the island of Cyprus decided to do business with two other brothers from Yorkshire in England and import the cars they manufactured, on the island.
Lefteris, Savvas and Adamos Prastitis from Prastio Village, run their family business being the Ford dealers in Famagusta, a town on the eastern side of Cyprus.
Lefteris, the eldest brother always wanted to have his own marquee import, so after a long search he was between two car makers to choose.
The first marquee was called Jowett, a British car manufacturer for more than 25 years of operations, but he also discovered a new German car maker of just ten years of life called Volkswagen. Lefteris, knowing the reliability of the British cars, as Cyprus was full of them (Cyprus was a British Colony at the time), decided that the best move was to ‘go British’.
So, on the 3rd of September 1948, the first Javelin arrives on the island and receives the registration number ‘8127’.
Because of its high price, they ordered the cars without the leather trim and the chrome bumpers in order to reduce the selling price. They worked hard on the promotion of the car to gain the trust of the Cypriots.
The company didn´t introduce representatives in the other towns of the island but customers travelled all the way to Famagusta to buy these remarkable cars.
The total number of the Javelin model reached the 89 cars. The cars imported in the year 1953, all had leather trim.
Two Jupiter models arrived in Cyprus, the first one belonged to the Prastitis family, a red car with the registration B630 (Late 1951).
The other one was sold in Nicosia and then taken to Kyrenia town. Unfortunately the future of these two cars is unknown. One story says that during the Turkish invasion in Cyprus in 1974, the Prastitis family were in their car and they were stopped by Turkish troops who forced them out of the car and they haven’t seen it since.
The Bradford model was also sold, about 100 examples were imported, they were useful in the lives of the Cypriots as they proved to be a real workhorse carrying the potatoes and oranges from the fields, since Famagusta is famous for these two products, but also used by farmers, bakers etc.
Below: The Service Station of the Company
A Javelin Taxi on the Limassol seafront
Adamos, the youngest of the three brothers, was already working as a car spring engineer, and after taking lessons for the car engineering he got in charge of the garage of the company. Being a rally fan, he used a Javelin in a few rally events, he remembers in one special stage the engine stopped just a few meters before the finish so he finished the stage using the starter turning the engine and pushing the car forward. He also used the family’s Jupiter in an Auto test event which took place inside a football stadium in Famagusta, in May 1954.
Below: The Autotest that took place, during the Famagusta Rally 1954
Below: From the book “Jowett 1901-1954”
Adamos Prastitis sharing his life experiences in 2010
They had very good relations with the manufacturers and visited the factory a few times.
Engineers from the factory visited the company to train the local engineers who had a special training on how to adjust the steering mechanism.
The garage of the company employed about 8 to 10 engineers who had to supply their own tools. Their salary was about five Cyprus pounds per week.
The last car arrived in Cyprus on the 18th of February in 1954. They continued to supply spare parts and keeping the owners happy and satisfied.
Today, the surviving Javelins in Cyprus are two, the one is the ‘H180’ which was bought by Adamos in 1975 when he found it in a bad state at a petrol station in Dherynia village and fully restored it to its former glory. The other one is owned by an engineer in Limassol but it needs engine and a full restoration. Two other examples were around but unfortunately, their future is unknown.
Below: The only roadworthy survivor
A Javelin in Famagusta
Below: Two cars whose luck is unknown