3758 UE – news from Ian Grainger
“3758 UE was displayed on the Ashley stand at the 1960 Sports Car Show and then used in contemporary adverts for Ashley. In the 1990s I tried and succeeded in tracing this car. As can be seen in the photo (left below) taken in 1999 the Sprite had lost the Ashley bonnet and hardtop. The then owner of the car had no knowledge of its history, even though he had owned the car since 1978. The Sprite was equipped with the complete Girling brake set-up, hence the wire wheels. It, therefore, can be classified as a Sebring Sprite. I can only speculate that the car was prepared by the Donald Healey Motor Company at The Cape, hence the Warwick registration, to Sebring spec. for Ashley Laminates for the 1960 Sports Car Show. I had hoped to buy this car but the owner part exchanged it for a Jensen Interceptor through a dealer in Cheshire. The car has since ‘disappeared’, unless someone out there knows of its whereabouts. Happy New Year. Regards Ian”.
A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR BARRY McCANN
” Thanks to Andrew Forster at Archers Garage, Santa has come early for me and left his sleigh behind! Finally I have my Sebring Sprite at home – 8 more years and it might be ready for an MOT…” [From Facebook]
Christmas Card
from CCK Historic
HEALEY MUSEUM NEWSFLASH/CHRISTMAS CARD
During the Museum’s 3rd birthday celebration on November 29th a new sponsor agreement with auction house BONHAMS was announced.…and the personal Austin Healey 100/100S Coupe of DMH recently auctioned by Bonhams is now on display in the museum – as also is the only Duncan Healey. The museum has also acquired the Nash Healey archive from Bill Emerson.
A very happy Christmas & best wishes FOR 2016 TO all my good friends and contributors to this website as well as to all those who view its pages on a regular or an occasional basis. Thank you all for your messages, photos and snippets of information all of which make its growth & updates possible.
More on XSP engines
James Thacker has kindly sent me through a copy of the Cooper Formula Junior parts list. The front page shows the various engine capacities, with their bore and stroke of each, which may be of interest:
1960 Engine Prefix XSP/1462 – Bore 2.537″ – Stroke 3″ – Capacity 995cc
1961 Engine Prefix XSP/1717 – Bore 2.537″ – Stroke 3″ – Capacity 995cc
1962 Engine Prefix – XSP/1722 – Bore 2.667″ – Stroke 3″ – Capacity 1100cc
1963 Engine Prefix XSP/2036 – Bore 2.82″ – Stroke 2.6875″ – Capacity 1100cc
1964 Engine Prefix XSP/2224 – Bore 2.82″ – Stroke 2.4375″ – Capacity 999cc
[Standard BMC engines were:
948 – Bore 2.478″ – Stroke 3″ – Capacity 948cc
1100 – Bore 2.543 – Stroke 3.296″ – Capacity 1098cc
1275 – Bore 2.78″ – Stroke 3.2″ – Capacity 1275cc]
CONGRATULATIONS to Will Corry who recently won an A Series Challenge race against seriously quick machinery in a horrendously wet Donington. His first ever race win. As he says “Good to keep the Sebring in front of those Minis!”
HEALEY CHASSIS PLATE on ebay at £10 each (from Australia). For those with original ‘works’ cars where the plate went missing!!
SPEEDWELL GT
article from
Classic & Sportscar in 2011
Click on photo to read:
SPEEDWELL BLUE paint colour. Ray English says: “I have the original Formula for Speedwell Blue (BU.1): WTT.1 White – 59½%, BUT.3 Light Blue – 12½%, GRT.1 Light Grey – 26 %, RDT.6 Purple Oxide -2 % [ICI Information – Speedwell Blue-01 ICI – 3131]”.
1411 WD and PMO 200
Colin Barnett sent in these 2 shots. Left, from the Car & Car Conversions tuning BMC sports cars book from 1969, is one of 1411 WD’s under-bonnet, and right is JS in the 1958 Alpine Rally version of PMO, here I think at at Silverstone.
WHOOPS!!! SO MUCH FOR MY GEOGRAPHY!
“Hi Martin, re: Bob Blayden’s trip,
You have no “pedant of the month” column, but nevertheless, the trip and the whole region is so wonderful, please do not send our friends to France for the Stelvio! The Stelvio or Stilfser Joch is located in Italy and part of an adventurous route to/from Switzerland! Was it the wider view from OZ or are their Spridgets so fast, they still believe to be in France when travelling from UK to Italy?? Regards, Juergen”
STELVIO PASS
Bob Blayden took this photo of his car after climbing the Stelvio in France back in October. The car is now ship-board heading home to Australia.
FALCON SPRITE STEERING WHEEL Read Mike Lempert’s fascinating story of the original wheel in “Your Comments”, and see his replicas in “Parts Suppliers”
SPEEDWELL BLUE ?
Brett Pruitt in Hawaii is rebuilding his Bugeye “as close as we can get to John Sprinzel’s 1958 Alpine Rally car. The car is finally ready for paint after over a year delay working on the body shell. I am hoping you, or your readers, could help me find a modern paint formula (Dupont, PPG) for Speedwell Blue. I have searched high and low here in the States no one has a formula, or modern paint code, that I could find”. If anyone can help please send me Feedback
PROGRESS ON PEDAL BOXES AND SIDE-SCREENS
I understand that the first “five pedal boxes are under construction and the other twenty are being bent up ready for welding”. Andrew was last week awaiting a delivery of aluminium channel sections due to arrive on Friday 11th, so he shortly be in a position to bend up some new frames (8 pairs currently on order).
9252 WD
New photos have come from former owner of this 1962/3 Sebring car, John Fenwick, kindly scanned and sent in by David Lewington. The car was subsequently written off and we hope to find out more details as to exactly what happened to it.
The first of the SPEEDWELL GTs at the 1960 Racing Car Show bearing the number PMO 200
[from the Revs Gallery]
SEBRING 3 HOURS – 1961, above, from Sportscar Digest.
Stirling and Pat Moss with Sprinzel’s Coupes, and on the right, one of the Abarth 1000 GTs that beat them.
NAO SASAKI’S
ex-Archers Garage ‘K’ series engined Sebring still looks in great condition – seen here at the Fuji Speedway in Japan.
LENHAM P70 SPIDER
It was only Sprites that Lenham Motor Co built. This sports-racing car is currently on the market at £125,000. Link
PAUL TSIKURIS
Hi Martin , I was interested to see Paul’s name mentioned. I have met Paul on lots of occasions, his workshops and home are nestled in a heavily wooded area of Lakeland, Florida. His work is of a very high standard and he is responsible for many of his customers winning concours events. In the past Donald Healey visited him. The Falcon Sprite is in good hands. regards Pete (Taylor).
HNX 455D FOR sale with CCK historic
Jim Prentice’s ex-works Sebring/Le Mans streamliner has come down from Scotland and is now on the market.
See the CCK Historic Blog
3 MESSAGES FROM JAMES THACKER ON XSP ENGINES ON THE “YOUR COMMENTS” PAGE.
THE FALCON SPRITE
I was pleased to hear from Roger Sieling that the damaged shell is now with Tsikuris Classics of Lakeland, Florida for repair.
A COUPLE OF PHOTOS FROM ROBERT CLUBBE
A rather nice advert for early Ashley bonnets and hardtops shows a Warwick registration plate, and 7080 AC in action presumably driven either by Jack Wheeler or Martin Davidson. I’m not sure when it was painted in this light colour.
2 NEW WEB PAGES START TODAY
The first is about XSP engines, the special race and rally units produced by Morris Engines Branch for Healey and other BMC cars over a considerable period. We are looking for more numbers to build a comprehensive list so please let me have any information you can contribute. The XSP Engines page can also be found via ‘Technical’ being last on the drop-down list.
THE SECOND NEW WEB PAGE IS “PARTS SUPPLIERS”
a list of which I plan to build up over the coming months. I have made a start with Orson Equipment who recently manufactured a batch of wire wheel hubs specifically for Sebring Sprites. Further suggestions/contributions would be gratefully received.
Margot Healey
Geoff Healey’s widow, Margot died on Monday 30th November. Her daughters, Cecilia and Kate tell us that she had been suffering from Motor Neurone Disease for sometime. There is to be a private funeral ceremony which is what she wanted. No flowers please but any donations to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) would be much appreciated.
DONER CAR ?
Mark 2 Sprite on ebay
SOLD at £1400
Expired 11 Dec
ANOTHER
RWA Midget on ebay
NO BIDS
Expired 8 Dec
Roger friend’s Christmas sale
A Donald Healey Lightweight bucket seat never used but needs the squab re;doing £75. A pair of rear adjustable Spax shocks with mounting brackets 100 miles only (while waiting for my Armstrong adjustables to arrive ) £50.
WANTED: a 948 engine with standard bores and standard crank, not bored or ground. Contact Roger (Watford, UK).
NEW BADGES IN STOCK AT ARCHERS
Prices are £15.95 for the Sebring one and £23.95 for the Sprinzel one, the latter now having blue enamel rather than paint so looks better quality than before. Archers
THOSE 3 RACING SPRITES
John Hopwood still has his car, 559 LPJ (right) but Alastair Chalmers sold his much-modified and by then non-period GSK 113 to Europe (?Pieter Bakker). Graham Bloor then sold 712PTB to Alastair who raced it, had several minor cra
shes, started to sort it and then took it with him to Ne
w Zealand where he plans to race it. The photo of the 3 cars must have been taken in 1991 or 1992 as John converted his car to full FIA Sebring spec in 1993, with all steel panels, wire wheels and BMC hardtop. Regrettably due to his scrutineering commitments he has been managing only one outing a year of late but the car is sat in his garage ready to go! Photo below right is from an Austin Healey Club race at Oulton 1991 or 2.
PHIL GARDNER
on colours & wire wheel half-shafts. See “Your Comments”
It would seem you can buy a new copy of the Speedwell garage plaque from “Air-Cooled Accessories”. But maybe Ian Watts’ example is an original.
[John Ruth]
CRANKSHAFT NUMBERS
John Poulter found this photo of a 948 crank in the USA showing the number 829 like Tony’s. Is his just a modified example: “Your Comments”?
XSP ENGINES
It has been suggested that I open a web page about the special competition engines built by Morris Engines and issued with the XSP prefix. At present I know only some very basic information on the subject. If readers would like to submit details of their XSP motors or any build knowledge they have, it might enable me to begin to create an engine page.
[Of course there were XSP engines built for many other than than Sprites such as Minis, Healey 3000s and MGAs so maybe we will want to restrict this to the in-line 995,1098 and 1275cc engines?]
CHRISTMAS CARD FROM JOHN BOWMAN to all Sebring Sprite enthusiasts he may just have missed of his list (left). The line-up of Sebring Reps of John Hopwood, Alistair Chalmers and Graham Bloor at Donington Park around 1991 or 2. Group photo is from our Beaujolais run in 1990 – a young Dave Matthews on left, Bob Kemp with Rollie and me in centre in cream jacket!
CARB FOULING & TOUGHENED HALFSHAFTS – Comments from Juergen Schaefer in Germany. See “Your Comments”
IAN WATTS’ SPEEDWELL PLAQUE
Ian (who owns Sebring Rep ESL 168) bought this 8″ dia cast metal plaque at an antiques centre south of Stratford. Does anyone know of its history or of any others?
Send Feedback if you can help,
