G'day
It appears that I am not alone listening to a morse signal coming from
San Diego as my message has reached the assembled throng.
So methinks if I were to divide the message about the Streamline 100/6
into two parts it might get somewhere. So here goes as I am singing
Waltzing Matilda.
Patrick Quinn
Sydney, Australia
G'day
You spend a few days away from the Healey list and all sorts of
interesting things come up.
For some time I have found the subject of the streamlined 100/6s very
interesting. I suspect that's because so little has been written about
them and that each seems to have disappeared into thin air.
So last night after I fed the dog, had dinner and checked out what my
wife bought on eBay I did a little research. The emphasis is on little
as there isn't much to be found but it is possible to make a couple of
assumptions.
My first port of call was the publication "Sebring" by Ken Breslauer
that was published by David Bull Publishing in 1995. This contains a
year by year description of the race as well as a list of entries,
entrants and how each fared.
For 1957 the following Austin-Healeys ran at Sebring:-
No. 23 Austin-Healey 100/6 2680cc Driven by Phil Stiles and John
Bentley. Entered by Hambro No. 24 Austin-Healey 100/6 2680cc Driven by
Roy Jackson-Moore and E. Forbes-Robinson. Entered by Hambro. (I take it
that E. Forbes-Robinson is Elliot Forbes-Robinson who is still about)
No. 25 Austin-Healey Special 2680cc Driven by Gill Geitner and Ray
Cuomo. Entered by Hambro.
The same records can be found in "Healeys and Austin-Healeys" by Peter
Browning.
For the sake of completeness 3 cars were also entered for 1958 but each
are shown as Austin-Healey 100s with 2,639cc engines (no mention of
100/6). In 1959 no Big Healeys were entered but Sprites were. Then in
1960 3 Austin-Healey 3000s were entered by the British Motor Company of
New York.
Going back to 1957 the third car No 25 is most interesting as it was
called Austin-Healey Special and not a 100/6. However as the engine
capacity was the same as the others and we can assume that it was
six-cylinder powered.
So we can assume that No 25 was different than the other 2. It makes me
wonder what the difference was and for that I turn my research to the
year before.
This was when the DHMC was experimenting with the new C-series
six-cylinder and they were less than enamoured at its lack of power.
They thought the answer was in the form of a 2 1/2 litre Ferrari Grand
Prix engine. The DHMC bought a Ferrari GP car and fitted the engine and
transaxle gearbox to a 100S chassis. Geoff Healey makes mention of this
in his book The Specials at page 162 and it was called X224.
END of PART 1
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