HAN8-R-202

currently owned by Jeff Brenner

Jeff bought this car, which is clearly a genuine DHMC lightweight 'race' car, about 15 years ago, from Bill Wood, the editor at the time of the Austin Healey Club of America's newsletter. When he took delivery Jeff apparently received no documentation regarding its past history, though it came with the No.67 painted on its doors. He was however told that the car had been sold “after the Sebring race” to the East Coast BMC importer, Fred Royston of Philadelphia, New Jersey. Fred and Geoff Healey had become good friends as indicated by Geoff's line in "More Healeys" ~ 'Sebring was not all hard work, the proceedings being enlivened by Fred Royston’s annual party at the Kenilworth Hotel and the light-hearted horseplay by the drivers'. When Royston went out of business with the ending of MG Midget and MGB production in 1980, it is believed the car was sold to one of his employees, possibly Ron White (though Jeff Brenner was told the second owner lived in Florida and had also acquired the remains of the Royston business). It was then re-sold to Bill Wood some time later.

Jeff was also told that after buying the car Fred Royston made it 'streetable' for his wife to use as a shopping car, painting it in its current British Racing Green ~ though there is still some original orange paint on some of its front suspension parts. The engine (XSP 26041) is normally aspirated with a 45 DCOE Weber carb, and is mated to a 4-speed MGB gearbox, without overdrive ~ both marked with the year, 1966. Unlike most other post-1965 streamliners there is no rear roof vent. Having the special XSP engine it seems likely the car was built with a race, or races, in mind but it doesn't seem to have been driven 'in anger' by the Healeys themselves. Amazingly, the car has done just 1,100 miles during its life, clearly not proving to be the ideal shopping car!

A fuel-injected engine (XSP 306326) and a 5 speed gearbox also came with the car ~ these marked 1968. The injected engine has a finned alloy sump, while the motor in Jeff's car has a smooth one like that on Joe Armour’s car.

In carrying out my research on this car with the help of Neil Anderson, and with contributions from many others, we were initially confused by the presence of the race number '67' painted on its doors. This seemed to suggest it had been DHMC's Sebring entry which was driven by Makinen and Hawkins to win the class in the 12 Hours in 1966. It was recorded as such in Bill Emerson's book, "The Healey Book", but the lack of any roof vent surely proves otherwise. The true Makinen/Hawkins car was registered in the UK as HNX 455D and had a visible rear roof vent. Jeff checked his car over and it never had a vent there. HNX 455D was also one of the 1966 Le Mans cars and was registered there with Chassis No: HAN8-R-143. We know, of course, that number plates were swapped around but, for me, there is no evidence that this happened in this case. See also Works Register 1965 to 1969 .

Return to top