[Healeys] Carburators on 1960's Era Rally Cars

Robert Markovich rmarkovich at aol.com
Tue Jan 6 07:35:18 MST 2026 

Kind of hard to beat the BJ8 cam for the street, which was works-inspired and still maintained the low end torque that is the Healey six’s calling card. Yet even the BJ8 feels a bit soft below 1500 rpm or so—thanks partly to the big HD8 carbs—before pulling you back in your seat. Contemporary road tests also noted more peakiness with this setup. I imagine triple HD6s would also work well (and per Hank Leach would have been better than the HS4s for the Mark II tri-carb 3000s). The rally cars prized back some low end torque by using the earlier 4.1 rear and even the 4.3 and beyond, depending on the race or rally. Lots of options!


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On Tuesday, January 6, 2026, 6:56 AM, Peter Dzwig <pdzwig at summaventures.com> wrote:

All,

the rally cars had different set ups from the race cars as the latter 
ran full speed for most of a long race. The former had less need for max 
speed and more for tractability and flexibility.

As Marcus Chambers told me, you specified a *model* (eg BN7) when 
homologating, but there weren't the same tight criteria that came into 
force much later. Beyond that you could use pretty much what parts you 
had available.

As far as I can work out, a lot of the set up was to meet the driver and 
co-driver's particular preferences (again see Browning's book) and 
varied from rally to rally, even for the same pairing.

Similarly cam profiles could vary between setups. As far as I have been 
able to understand the setup for most rally cars would have been 
somewhat closer to BJ8-style profiles, but I haven't been able to find 
an exact spec and it is widely believed that the works cars build lists 
were all destroyed/lost long ago.

In other words, you've got a lot of flexibility: build what suits you 
and bear in mind modern motoring conditions.

Peter

On 05/01/2026 20:05, Robert Markovich via Healeys wrote:
> I’m pretty sure they were triple HD8s based on Thelma Seigel’s red early 
> 3000 race car. It was a step up from the Ken Rudd triple HD6 setup and a 
> notch below triple webers. Question is, how much tuning is too much for 
> street use? And how long will even a built Healey six last at 6000 revs, 
> remembering that this is a four main bearing engine and much of its 
> robustness was based on relatively low (5250) revs? High revs and a wild 
> cam make their power at those higher revs, of course. Kind of think the 
> BJ8 tune plus a tad extra for perhaps 165 hp at no more than 5500 might 
> be tops for reliable street use, but it all depends on preferred use 
> (and budget!). Just a thought …
> 
> 
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> 
> On Monday, January 5, 2026, 10:24 AM, simon.lachlan--- via Healeys 
> <healeys at autox.team.net> wrote:
> 
> 
>    The current HD6s and the Webers which I tried for a while.
>    Simon
> 
>    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>    *From:* Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Harold
>    Manifold <manifold at telus.net>
>    *Sent:* Sunday, January 04, 2026 23:30
>    *To:* David Wirken <dmw at wirkenphoto.com>
>    *Cc:* Healeys <Healeys at autox.team.net>
>    *Subject:* Re: [Healeys] Carburators on 1960's Era Rally Cars
> 
>    Thanks David. I am interested in the triple SU engines. Does Robson
>    book say if the carbs HD6 or HD8? Does anyone have a picture of the
>    1960 triple SU engine?
> 
>    Harold
> 
>    On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 12:17 PM David Wirken <dmw at wirkenphoto.com
>    <mailto:dmw at wirkenphoto.com>> wrote:
> 
>        In Reading the book "Works Rally Cars by Graham Robson , it is
>        noted " Triple-SU engines producing about 170bhp were fitted
>        from 1960, then aluminium cylinder heads and triple Weber
>        carburettors ( with a peak output of about 210bhp) followed in 1962
> 
>        On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 1:35 PM richard mayor via Healeys
>        <healeys at autox.team.net <mailto:healeys at autox.team.net>> wrote:
> 
>            Ken Rudd made go fast parts and sold them under the name
>            Rudd Speed.  They were not used on factory (works) cars. 
>            Rudd speed manifolds were for SU carbs.  Works rally cars
>            used Webers.
> 
>            Richard Mayor
>            boyracer466 at gmail.com <mailto:boyracer466 at gmail.com>
> 
> 
> 
>                On Jan 4, 2026, at 10:33 AM, Harold Manifold
>                <manifold at telus.net <mailto:manifold at telus.net>> wrote:
> 
>                Hello,
> 
>                I am considering updating the carburetor setup on my MkI
>                BT7 to match the configuration used on the factory rally
>                cars. I have seen photos of the Rudd Speed triple HD6
>                arrangement and was wondering if this is the setup the
>                rally cars utilized.
> 
>                Any information or photos you could provide would be
>                greatly appreciated. My goal is to ensure the setup
>                remains period-correct.
> 
>                Thanks,
>                Harold
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-- 
Dr. Peter Dzwig




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