LEGENDARY CIRCUIT SERIES ~ organiser Pieter Bakkar says (on Facebook):
” I am looking for two more pre-1971 under 2L Production Road Sports Cars for our Angoulême 16-18 Sept. grid. The grid so far consists of AH Frogeye, MG Midget, MG Sebring GT, Triumph GT6, TVR Grantura, Lotus Seven, Morgan Roadster*, Triumph Spitfire, MGB Roadster, Lotus Elan, Morgan +8*, WSM Sprite, Davrian MkI, Marcos 1800 GT [* = on Avon tyres]. In order to further add to the quality of this grid, cars not mentioned before have my preference. For your details, have a look at this link“
MORE ON ADO 34/50
I had a chat with Douglas Anderson (Dundee) on the phone the other day. He told me that he had commmissioned his friend Richard Oakes to design the car for him. Richard was responsible for the GTM, the Nova and others and Douglas is currently engaged in writing a book about him. They are now trying to source a windscreen and have scanned the body in order to ensure both sides match. They will be making certain alterations to the front and rear shaping of the design on the computer before creating a mould for production. Watch this space.
RE: STAN BROWN (See yellow bonnet lower down the page) [Contributer Joe Armour] “Just for your interest Stan Brown was a major player in 1950 & 60s Australian motor racing specials with his partners— see attached link. Prads were very successful and the blue no.3 car on the poster was a Healey 100/6 that was called the Prad Healey after being modified by Prad. When I spoke to Clive Adams and asked where he got the detail from for the Healey six he said he just drew it on the garage wall and floor! The car had a full tilt forward front and was fitted with 3 x 45 Webers etc. This panel work was very similar to the Healey works streamlined 100/6 used at Bonneville and Sebring. The red no.3 car was similar to the Maserati 300S and fitted with a six cyl GMH Holden engine. I loved the look of it and saw it at early historic race meetings. More useless info. Joe”. LINK
SPEEDWELL REV COUNTER
Rebuilt with replacement analogue mechanism on ebay at £255. Expires late May.
[Mark Matthews]
ANYONE RECOGNISE THIS HEALEY MANIFOLD ? It looks similar to those used on the Sprites but with unusual cruciform mounting. Feedback would be appreciated.
JONATHAN WHITEHOUSE-BIRD recently sent me this link to the 1961 Sebring race, on YouTube which you may enjoy.
LENHAM GT CONVERTIBLE!
Built from a 1974 Midget this car appears to offer open and closed options on the same shell. Anyone speak Dutch?
AND FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Pete Taylor supplied this photo of the new Ford GT at Silverstone recently.
SPRINZEL ON 1991 CLASSIC MARATHON
Steve Nash kindly sent in these photos taken by the brother of his ex-business partner, Phillip Senior. “Their father, Arthur Senior, who sadly passed away recently was a rally driver in the same period as John and continued to take part until the last few years”.
JUERGEN SCHAEFER’S FASTBACK
is now on the road but is not without problems. See below:
Hi Martin, It is done – the toy is on the road again, now registered as ER MG 5H in Germany and running well. Pinking cured by ignition setting, still on 98 octane, rear axle noises gone – the LSD needed special oil. However the car is obviously “jinxed” as a new problem is surfacing ! Massive “crazing” on the right/passenger side roof area and on the rear edge of the bonnet. According to literature, crazing appears in high stress areas and this seems to be true. The bonnet case is a high-flexed part whenever I open it and the roof will be loaded heavily when the rather soft chassis tries under driving shock loads to bend and the rather thin skin comes under pressure. My questions therefore are: Has anybody else found this on his Archers replica or on other similar bodies? Is it GRP or Kevlar or ??? Mine is glassfibre, thus the most brittle of the standard materials. Is it a “Coupe’ ” or hatchback ? My hatch is probably weakened by the opening rear polyacryl window, but the crazing is not in that area, but in front of the passengers heads! Does that car have a full cage, which carries the stress or only a roll bar or no additional stiffeners at all ? My body has been produced I believe by end of 2012, early 2013 and spent most of the time indoors, being worked upon. So aging of plastic due to excessive ultraviolet sunrays is not a likely root cause. The effect was discovered right now, the first driving experiences happened in summer 2015, up to now little more than 200 km. Any ideas? Regards, Juergen.
ROGER FRIEND
is in need of a pair of original rear springs 15 leaf in any condition. If you can help, please email him.NOW SORTED
HOLIDAY BREAK
I am off to the Isle of Wight tomorrow with the Midget & Sprite Club, sadly not in JJO which now has a faulty cylinder head. Ran out of time to get it all sorted so the car will be out again soon. I shall be back at my website desk on Thursday next, 28th April.
Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird recently posted the above left photo of a bonnet on Facebook. A couple of guys identified it as made by Stan Brown of Sydney, Australia and Ray English has confirmed this, helpfully provided these other 3 photos. He says: “The car on the cover of Sports Car World still exists; however both the bonnet and the hardtop are not fitted to it anymore. Owned by Bob Lomas, who visited the Sprite Room a couple of weeks back, and is currently on holiday somewhere in the UK as I write this, bought the car in the early 1980’s, the alloy GT top was still fitted, albeit in very poor condition, but the bonnet had been replaced”.
DEREK STEWART ON MX 5 SEATS:
“I fitted a pair of MX5 seats to a 1275 Midget a couple of years ago. As mentioned, the donor should be an earlier car (separate head rests) as the seat runner pattern can be adapted to work. It will require a spacer under each mounting foot (total 8) of the runners. This foot will have to be rebent from the original MX5 shape and the orientation of the Mazda floor fixing points are not uniform. I can’t be completely sure, but I think the forward inner Sprite floor mounting hole rings a bell for a pick up point. It’ll require a bit of fiddling to obtain the desired result and I found the original Midget floor mounting points and metal bracing could be conflicting when drilling new holes. There’s quite a lot of stuff on Google”.
AN UPDATE FROM JUERGEN SCHAEFER ON HIS SEBRING BUILD
“After frustrating months, now some good news, this last week I’ve managed to get my toy on the road again – with the small engine now – and on Friday have passed the “TÜV” test, roadworthiness and historic. There are still a number of bugs to eliminate and problems to solve, so I do not yet want any public celebrations or uproar, however I expect to get my numberplates this week and then I can send a few proper pictures and technical spec as well as a bit of its history for your website. Open issues are mainly:
1. Massive pinking everytime I touch the pedal, using 98 octane fuel. As I’ve installed the Dutch 123-tune ignition, it should be rather easy to adapt the advance curve, which is presently one of their “standard” curves, originating from a Mercedes engine. Would you have a recommendation, particularly about the vacuum advance ? As carb settings probably also need modification, I’m in search of a rolling road somewhere in southern Germany. My local Bosch Service in Nuremberg has stopped this activity. With 10. something CR, I may also have to go for 100 octane fuel or octane booster.
2. Still no fitting windows, which makes travel to distant experts rather uncomfortable. I understand Andrew is busy with his own survival and I have my local expert to try his magical hands on modifying.
3. strange small scratching noise from the rear wheels/drums
4. Valve caps on the outer edges touch the rocker cover, I will change to the aluminium one from the big engine, if rqrd grind out a half mil
5. Seating is horrible, entry and exit past standard seats and even more my Corbeau Classic seats is a nightmare. I had visited Bob Ridgard, but did not like his designs. I heard rumours that MAZDA MX5 early seats would fit without big mods, can you confirm this ? More to come in due time, Juergen”
CAN ANYONE ASSIST JUERGEN WITH THESE MATTERS – I THINK I CAN SAY THE EARLY MX5 SEATS FIT WELL IN A SPRIDGET – I SAT IN A PAIR AT THE RESTORATION SHOW . FEEDBACK please.
ANOTHER DOZEN FASCINATING PHOTOS OF THE PETER SMITH FASTBACK AT PHILLIP ISLAND
courtesy of Alan Mead
UNUSUAL REV COUNTER
on ebay at £300
Expires 17 May
ANYONE GOT A LANDAR ROCKER COVER FOR PER ROXLIN?
Feedback please
ADO 34/50 REVEALED
Some of you will remember my publishing a drawing of this prototype which was due to appear at one of the shows a while back. Douglas Anderson has now revealed: “The aluminium pre-production prototype and its suspension is now complete and I am working towards a glass fibre production version by the end of the year. I thought that your fellow enthusiasts would be interested in seeing photos of the aluminium prototype which I will be selling. If anyone is interested I would be happy to provide more details. I can be contacted at this email address or on 01382 731755″.
HOMOLOGATION INFO REQUIRED
Roger Friend needs photographic evidence that a Sprite was raced or rallied internationally using a fibreglass Frogeye bonnet pre-1961 in order to obtain his FIA HTPapers. If you can help please let me have your Feedback
JJO’s OIL LOSS TROUBLES
After much dismantling and heaps of advice from you guys, I have eventually discovered that JP piston no.4 has broken up between the rings and will have to be replaced. This was no doubt the reason oil was being blown out into the catch tank. Of course the Australian pistons are no longer available here so I am waiting on a set of Hepolite low compression ones courtesy of Colin Carpenter of Southern Rebore.
SORRY IT’S ‘THE FRIGHT’
Joe Armour says: “Did you mean Colin Dodds’ MK.1 called ‘Fright’ ? It is well covered in his website www.spriteparts.com.au The Sprite has just finished a total restoration. The standard of work is incredible. The amazing thing is the quality of fit and finish when you consider that the motor, transmission and rear suspension is so different to the original size components. Lots of engineering under the panels including work by Lotus etc. I first saw the car back in the 70s”.
GERRY COKER designer of the Healey 100 and the Sprite, flanked here by Roger Menadue, opening the First European Healey Meeting in Luxembourg in 1999. Coker is now 93 and living in the USA. Menadue, “a key figure from the Donald Healey Motor Company was responsible for the construction of many of the company’s racing and recording-breaking cars”, died in 2003, aged 90. [Courtesy of Erik Van der Klippe]
Fright engine installation
THE FRITE
A couple of photos sent in by Bob Blayden showing Colin Dodds’ Frite (or is Fright?) but unfortunately not displaying its Jaguar XK power unit. Must be quite a handful round the corners.
Pictured right is “Richard Melville’s Speedwell GT following it’s practice accident at the 1961 Nurburgring 500 Km. race when it rolled. It’s highly modified engine with ‘deep-loop’ cylinder head was removed and fitted into Peter Jackson’s Sebring Sprite (46 BXN) in readiness for the race”. [Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird]
Above left: “Andrew Hedges’ W&P alloy bodied Sebring – 410 EAO – at the Nurburgring in September 1961, during practice for the 500 Km. race. Alongside is David Siegle-Morris’ D 20 – on this occasion driven by Paul Hawkins and Ian Walker”. [Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird]
THE LATE RONNIE COIA
first got Alan Anstead interested in Sebrings when he let Alan drive one of his two around a race circuit somewhere in Europe. He says he had some good laughs with Ronnie on several MSA Euroclassics. See Ronnie on this clip
DEREK’S NEW MOTOR
Not as I suggested a V8, or the family washing machine motor but it turns out to be a Coventry Climax Derek is building for his Fastback. About which the fully story coming shortly.
ANOTHER ALEXANDER
reported by Ken Grasing in the States, a 950 engine with SU manifolds on the racecars.com website. Link
At Brands, the Robsons had to substitute the Sebring Sprite replica with their newly built A35 Academy because of an oil pressure problem. So Asher did his first race in a very busy A Series race in the A35 qualifying 32nd of 35 cars but kept out of trouble and the frantic goings-on to finish 12th – winning a trophy for the best presented car of the race! Graham and Asher then shared the A35 for their first Father/Son drive, in the HRDC Touring Greats, and after a poor first stint in Graham’s hands, Asher took over when 5th in class and pulled them back up to 2nd in class, 17th overall. A brilliant first race meeting for Asher bringing home two trophies – he was over the moon!
RACE REPORT ~ BRANDS HATCH 10th APRIL
Ian Burford reports:
“A few of us were out with Julius and the A Series Challenge at Brands Hatch yesterday on the Indy circuit. Charles Rainford (Lenham Le Mans), Larry Tucker (Ashley GT) and I (Lumbertubs) were up against a few Mini’s plus the Academy A35 cars. The Sprite-based crowd did well, I qualified 3rd behind 2 Minis and Charles was 5th and Larry 9th. I had a good start, holding 3rd place until just after Graham Hill bend when I was over taken by another of those pesky Minis and I stayed there for the rest of the race (28 mins). There were a number of incidents, including 2 roll overs, with the last one happening on the last lap, caused according to the MSA by one of the Minis and leading to his disqualification, meaning I ended up 3rd and Larry 5th (Charles had to retire with an electrical problem). All in all a fun day with a good bunch of people!” The 3 cars were all prepared and supported by CCK Historic.
ANYONE GOT ALEXANDER 7-PORT HEAD DRAWINGS 1 & 2 ?
Alan Mead has just returned from the Phillip Island Historic motoring event where he saw Peter Smith and his Sebring Fastback and took a lot of photos of the car. Whilst there he got talking to the owner of a Turner sports car, Les Schwebel, and enquired as to which engine he was running. It was a Ford engine rather than a BMC Alexander but he said that Bob Rees in NSW had two of the Alexander 7-port cylinder heads and also a great deal of information on them. Alan: “Upon our return from the Island a phone call to Bob Rees was worth the effort as Bob has a copy of the drawings/blueprints of the Alexander head from drawing number 3 to drawing 11 with only numbers 1 & 2 missing. He was very helpful in sending me a copy of all 9 drawings. The missing two appear to be for the cylinder head itself and the rocker cover. If anybody has a copy of the 2 missing drawings I would be most interested in obtaining copies to complete the set. Attached are some photos of the head when first purchased in 1995 plus a photo of the drawings”.
“MISS SAFFRON”
Robert Kansa’s Southwind Racing team is rebuilding a 1960 Frogeye with a Sebring bonnet for vintage racing. The car is getting ready for final paint and Robert is starting to assemble her. He says: “I have tons of build pictures on her own Facebook pages. Long way to go but its also come a long way”.
TAYLORS GO SPRINTING
Pete Taylor tells me that he and his son Paul
have an entry in the Goodwood Sprint on 7th May, sharing Pete’s Frogeye. Organised by Brighton and Hove CC, it is also a round of the Austin Healey Club hillclimb/sprint championship.
JJO’S OIL PROBLEMS
A big THANK YOU to everyone who came up with such helpful ideas as to my engine problems. Further investigation has shown that No.4 cylinder is down on compression so it’s off with the head today. The pumping out of its oil may also be due to glazed bores and/or the not-quite-standard breathing system. Time will tell. “Your Comments”
Joe Armour directed me to this photo of Stirling Moss on his way to 3rd place in the Sebring 3 Hours in 1962. [Photo: Tom Bigelow]
STOLEN SUPERCHARGER
Newly built for a customer’s MG Midget and taken from Alex Boucher’s Minispeed workshops in Byfleet. If anyone is offered it please contact Alex on 01932 400567, or notify the police
A couple of years ago I decided to make use of the Shorrock supercharger I used to run in historic rallies back in the 90’s. I duly built a ‘new’ engine based on a 10CC (large main bearing) 1098cc lump, with balanced crank and lightened flywheel and fitted my old Speedwell aluminum head. The unit runs very well but I have clearly got something wrong in that it uses lots and lots of oil so much so that I am very worried about taking JJO on a tour of the Isle of Wight later this month. I fitted a catch tank and fed hoses from both the rocker cover and side tappet cover into it. I now realise that perhaps the pipe from the rocker cover should go into the air filter so that suction through the carburettor creates a bit of negative pressure (as original). I believe the 10CC engine had a chimney on the tappet side cover which I don’t have, and oil is clearly going down the side hose and filling up the catch tank to overflowing! I have fitted a baffle inside the alloy rocker cover and am now going to investigate whether there is any baffle inside the tappet cover. Can anyone help me with other options?. I have addressed the question of the supercharger using oil as it supposed to, but more like a pint in 1500 miles I gather, not 150!! Your Feedback would be much appreciated. Responses on “Your Comments 2016”
Phil Zamlynski (USA) continues building his Sebring Rep:
“My car’s body parts were delivered to the painter yesterday. The glass is the next to be installed after painting. Attached are two pics – my seats and a pit view of some Sprites. The seats are now in the car with seat belts. The pits usually have about 25 to 30 Sprites and Midgets. Our first vintage race is the end of April. Spent some time on the web getting up to speed with whats going on. Thank you for the Sprite web site. Best Regards, Phil Z”.
Healey histories wins Heritage Lottery Fund support
“Warwickshire County Council has been successful in its £51,300 bid to preserve (the remaining part of) the Warwick Healey Motor Company Archive. The project team hope to meet the target of (a further) £30,000 from public and private donations to ensure that the collection can be fully conserved, catalogued and parts of it digitised to ensure that the maximum benefit can be achieved from this project. Once the project is complete the collection will be available to anyone wishing to use it for research and will stand as a permanent legacy to the achievement and ingenuity of the Healey family in Warwick, the birthplace of the company”. [Extracts from latest Press Release – my additions in italics]
PIERRE LEQUEUX ~ £9.50 per leaf!!
expresses amazement at the prices being achieved on ebay, for quarter-elliptic Sprite rear springs. Those left realised £286. The ones on the right are still for sale , currently at £70 expiring 10th April.
HAVING COMPLETED HIS SEBRING COUPE & a MINI-MARCOS
Paul Slangen has now embarked on a Lenham GT with Ashley bonnet. He is interested in Sven’s Speedwell exhaust manifold as he is collecting parts for the new car which, he says, needs to become the more “brutal brother” to his Sebring – and faster. It will be modified to 5 speed gearbox, Webers etc.
SPRITE NATIONAL MEETING AT GOULBURN NSW
Joe Armour’s photos sent by Bob Blayden who drove 4 hours to the meeting and back the same day. Australia is a big place. The little green car never missed a beat and enjoyed sitting alongside the most important Sprite in the world.
HEALEYSPORT OPEN THEIR HILL-CLIMB/SPRINT SEASON WITH A TEST DAY AT CURBOROUGH
[Great photos, borrowed from Facebook – not sure who took them but thanks anyway]
MARK WARNE has taken delivery of Derek Stewart’s A-Series engine to put in his Sebring Coupe and has delivered it to Andrew Forster at Aldons. I wonder what Derek has planned for his Fastback – could it be a V8 or maybe even something electric. He’s quite an innovator.
STEVE NASH
on the 74th MEMBERS MEETING
at GOODWOOD
See “Your Comments”
BRYN ROSSITER’S SPRINZEL FROGEYE
is now modified as per the Sprinzel catalogue to ‘Sebring Competition’ spec (with a few extra tweaks). “It is an evocation of the car which I wanted as a young man. I passed my test in 1964 on a second-hand Frog and have had them, off and on, ever since. This one was bought as a little-used ‘restored as standard car’. I have kept all 
the displaced original assemblies for authenticity. Peter May has done all the work. The 998 road engine which we specced together, and he built, went on the dyno before running-in and topped out with 86 bhp at the same rev reading where a standard car makes its max. 50 gross. So, a bullet-proof 72% increase, if my maths works! Peter advised a ribbed-case g’box and tougher half-shafts. Otherwise, the mods stick to the spirit of the period and hence the car of my youthful dreams. It’s a lively drive and burbles with a satisfyingly fruity sound track.
ANY MORE INTEREST IN JONATHAN PECK’S XSP ENGINE? He is planning to close a deal by 8th April. Contact him promptly if you are interested.
LENHAM GTO FINDS A BUYER – 3RD TIME LUCKY FOR SELLER ON EBAY
Walter Heale is the new owner of OYM 760A – first registered on the 17/07/61, according to the V5 – an Austin Healey Sprite with a Lenham (GTO) tail and Frogeye front. Walter is hoping the readership of this website might be able to provide some information on it. It was reputedly raced at some point in its history and he would love to find out more before mechanical restoration commences. He was told there had been many old track passes on the roll bar but sadly these were removed when the previous owner started working on the car. There is a Monterey Classics badge from the 80’s on the dash so perhaps it was in the US at some point!? He says: ” I attach some pictures that may help or at least provide you and your readership some amusement!”. ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING OF ITS BACKGROUND ? PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA FEEDBACK The registration number is, oddly, from 1963 and the bodyshell would appear to be later than that, having wind-up style doors! Only a very few of the GTO bodies were produced, so that is quite rare.
YOU TUBE LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQlUKTSiDU shows LNX 629E at Sebring in 1967 (at around 2.38 being overtaken by a white Chapparal…blink and you miss it).
AND ANOTHER:
LWD959E at 1:52 on the Sebring ’68 film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rqxCMbFHxI#t=117.062754[Thanks to Simon Bilbie]
Benno Berchtold from the USA asked me to identify the ‘AUSTIN’ he had purchased. I was able to tell him it was an export model Mark 1 Sprite but it took a call to Ray English in Australia to identify its rare Emil Frey bonnet. Thanks Ray.
WHILE ON THE AUSTRALIAN THEME
the latest edition of “Marque One” arrived this week with articles including an interesting one from Ray showing how he fitted his steel Frogeye bonnet to open forwards using bracketry supplied from Speedwell Engineering in the States. Can anyone identify the UK village, the owner and the occasion when SPN 852 passed by?
Neil Blaney and Ray Fahey visited Ray English on their way back from the Phillip Island Historics, and Peter Smith called in to see him the next day. This was Neil’s 3rd visit to the “Sprite Room”
Peter Smith and son, Asher, at the “Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport”, probably the biggest and best Historic race meeting in Australia. Cars are entered from the UK, USA, Germany. It is normally held the week before the Australian F1 Grand Prix. Peter and Ash were entered in Regularity and over the two days they had 1 qualifying and 3 races each. They were very happy with how their newly completed Sebring Rep performed. [Photos thanks to Neil Blaney.]
