PARTS FOR SALE
David Morys has a fully refurbished Frogeye Speedometer in its box, for £130 + postage,
an original dip switch bracket and new old stock Lucas dip switch £40 the pair + postage
an original clutch and brake pedal with reasonably good bushes – £45 pair + postage
Steel gearlever surround £10 + postage, and rubber gear lever gaiter £5 + postage
David can be reached on 01386 859400 or by email
Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird’s
10 page Sebring Mk 2 website
Pete Taylor’s replica Streamliner is taking shape at Archers Garage, with the rear wheel arches now re-shaped,
the Panhard rod and seat belt mountings in, and the body re-fitted to the shell.
Robert Visser has found new photos of XOH 276 in action
Ivo Visser has come up with several more photos of Pierre
Lequeux’ car, 2080 PO in European Hill Climbs which may help him to obtain the FIA papers he wants.
2080 PO at Mont-Ventoux
WANTED
Robert Visser is looking for a Right-Hand Girling Type 10 caliper for the restoration of his ‘works’ rally car, XOH 276. Somehow it has 2 LH ones! He is also after an original wood-rim steering wheel like that shown right.
Revised web page for Jeff Brenner’s Streamliner HAN8-R-202
Gaisberg Hill Climb
Austria – 1967
Ivo Visser, archivist & historian at the Healey Museum just came up with these great shots of Pierre Lequeux’ Sprite 2080 PO
Albert Voogd of the Healey Museum in the Netherlands kindly sent in these adverts by A.G.Thorpe which confirm
the identity of those ‘mystery’ bonnets, but look at that rear end – almost exactly like a Lenham GTO!
NEW ALEXANDER ENGINEERING WEB PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
An Alexander inlet manifold recently restored by Alan Anstead for Ron Edwards
Alexander Leaflet courtesy of Maarten Krikken
Anti Roll Bar (Ron Edwards)
Tim Saunders of the Williams & Pritchard Register believes this bonnet is a design by
Messrs A.G.Thorpe.
3 or 4 of these have surfaced recently
NEW HOME SOUGHT
for the late Mark Foreman’s 1974 1275 Midget Mk 3
Tax & MOT to Aug/Sept
Little used for 10 years, located High Wycombe,
Bucks. Contact:
Andy 0774 704 0076
The rather unusual bonnet
by A.G.Thorpe
Price sought £5,500 o.n.o.
Straight-cut close ratio gearbox on ebay
BEFORE & AFTER – Alexander GT restored
(full web page now completed)
Malcolm Self ‘s bodyshell with identity £1,100
More research on streamliners
Perhaps a little progress has been made in my search for information on the Healey cars raced at Sebring and Le Mans from 1965 to 1968, though many questions are still unresolved. On checking his car again Jeff Brenner discovered its chassis number starts with HAN 8 and not HAN9 so bringing its build-date forward to the early part of 1966. This suggested to us it might have been one of the two cars which raced at Sebring and/or Le Mans that year. However after much searching for photos it was very clear that both HNX 455D and HNX 456D had significant rear roof vents where Brenner’s Chassis HAN8-R-202 has not. He checked it closely and found no sign of the roof having been altered since those days. Also 202 has a small box-shaped lower front air intake where the ’66 works cars had merely an alliptical air duct, though that could have been changed – those on the ’65 cars seem to have been modified since their Le Mans race. So, where does 202 fit into the Healeys’ racing? The answer seems to be that it doesn’t, as the Company concentrated on three main events: Sebring, Le Mans and the Targa Florio. Chassis 202 today has a standard MGB gearbox with no overdrive where most other streamliners had either overdrive boxes or 5 speed ones. Jeff was told his car was bought by Fred Royston, the East Coast U.S. importer, (after a race) and he converted it for road use. But is it possible he had Geoff build him one specifically for that purpose having briefly owned the 1965 car DAC 952C the previous year? Another question still unanswered is how HNX 456D had chassis number 144 in 1966 yet the car which raced at Le Mans in ’68 has no.237. An application to Warwick County Records Office reveals that the car was registered in March 1966 (the same day as its sister car 455D) but the number was surrendered in June 1966 after Le Mans. That seems to mean that the car with chassis 144 did 2 races at Sebring and 2 at Le Mans. So what happened after that? Was the car re-built with fuel-injection 5 speed gearbox for Le Mans in ’68? That car still had the registration number HNX 456D (I think) but had triangular side vents and a rear spoiler. If it was a new car what became of the older one? So, as you can see, the research must go on. Any contributions gratefully received!
Seen here at Sebring in 1966 both the Healey Sprites have roof vents over their rear windows unlike Jeff Brenner’s
green car shown right and lower down this page
The roof of han8-R-202 showing the lack of
any rear vent
The snout has a protruding
air intake box not seen at Sebring in ’66
Andy Hide’s Frog has detachable Sebring Coupé top
Peter Browning’s Frogeye with boot lid created by Douglas Wilson-Spratt and W & P hardtop in the style of the Sprinzel coupé.
Hill-climber Murray Wakeham has made a new mould of the Ashley Mark 1 bonnet. Available in various weights
at £350. Contact by email
Spotted by David Markham in ‘Safety Fast’
From this month’s “Rev Counter”
Pierre Lequeux kindly told
me of these items (left) advertised on ebay by Paul Watson, Sebring Rep owner from Leeds..
Make haste if you are looking for any of these.
3 Pauls: Woolmer, Webb & Freeman have just completed the rebuild of the one and only Alexander GT. It raced at Snetterton last weekend and will be at Brands on June 5/6. Full story in next few days.
Steve Griffiths’ new Peel/Speedwell Rep
Paul Freeman’s first outing with the Alexander GT
Fabulous recent pits photo from Joe Armour of the 1967 ‘Ex-Works’ Targa Florio car.
Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird has kindly sent in these mid-90s shots of Jeff Brenner’s streamliner (HAN8-R-202)
Although the car carries No.67 we suspect it was in fact No.66 at Sebring in 1966 – to be confirmed.
4 more beautiful period shots of the streamliners and KNX kindly supplied by Bob Kemp, AHC Sprite Registrar
AN APOLOGY: I inadvertently attributed Pete Taylor’s photo below to Neil Blaney who supplied another. My apologies.
BREAKING NEWS: Neil Blaney from Australia checked his records and pointed out that Jeff Brenner’s streamliner has chassis number HAN8-R-202, not HAN9-R-202. Jeff had another look and has confirmed that, so it is now more possible that his car might have raced at Sebring in 1966 – but the search goes on to see if that really is/was the case. Thanks Neil.
Sebring 1966 – the 2 works Sprites wait for the start.
The Healey workshop, a streamliner under construction and 2 fuel-injected rngines with 5 speed boxes on the floor.
A study by Pete Taylor of the front corner of the last Healey Targa car now owned by Steve Coleman
in Texas, USA
Geoff Healey bends over the bonnet of the No.66 car at Sebring in 1966
[Photo from John Thornley’s private collection]
The above 2 photos kindly supplied by Bob Kemp
Courtesy of Neil Blaney
Courtesy of Henry Camisasca
The Puzzle of the Streamliners
Over the last few weeks I have been trying to discover which of the streamlined aluminium bodied Healey ‘works’ cars raced at which circuit, on what date, with which drivers and with what results. I have been assisted in this by my good friend in the States, Neil Anderson, who has prepared spread-sheets for Sebring, Le Mans and the Targa Florio, the principal races for which the cars were built. I am reasonably satisfied that there were 10 cars in all, though there is an extra chassis unaccounted for: HAN8-R-144. This may be due to that car having been re-built and given a replacement number at a later date. What doesn’t help matters is that the Healeys sometimes transferred UK registrations around from one car to another, and we know that HNX 456D appeared on the Healey SR at one point as well as being on a streamliner at Sebring twice and Le Mans three times. It seems unlikely that the same car did 5 events of those lengths and endurance. The puzzle is that at Sebring in 1966 there were two cars and the following year there was only one. One of those at the 1966 event seems to clearly have been HNX 455D which went on to race at Le Mans. That leaves two cars for 2 entries which sounds fine, BUT the car now owned by Jeff Brenner has a late chassis number HAN9-R-202 suggesting that might be the ’67 car {No, it’s HAN8 – see above] but his car has no rear roof vent which that car clearly had from photographs, unless of course that vent has since been removed. Now both Brenner’s car and Joe Armour’s car HAN9-R-237 have orange paint beneath the later colours so when did Armour’s car race at Sebring ? ~ surely not as early as March ’66 with that late chassis number. Either way it is a puzzle we have yet to solve. We are studying all the books and photos we can find and discussing this with those interested in these cars in several continents. No doubt in the end we will come up with an answer. I will keep you posted, and in the meantime if anyone feels they can assist please get in touch. Feedback.
Take a look at my draft web page Works Car Register 1965 to 1969 which may need many changes yet.
