GARAGE CLEAROUT
If anyone living in the SE of England needs any spares please get in touch as I’m clearing my garage/workshop before our move. I have a pair of wire wheel front corners (wishbone, kingpins, stub axles, discs, hubs, spinners, calipers, etc) and a rear axle casing with splined hubs on nitrided EN40b shafts with spinners, a couple of 1275 cranks and an early 1098 one, front and rear hubs, stub axles, & masses of other smaller parts. Try me: Martin Ingall All must go in the next 2 weeks.
ARTICLE FEATURING TWO WSMs COMING OUT IN OCTANE MAGAZINE
Issue 788 [Lorraine Noble-Thompson, Facebook]
I see Moto-Build are now offering a Speedwell GT top as well as the Monza bonnet. The roof is not an accurate copy as it uses the Sebring windscreen. I imagine this is copied from that of the late Keith Hopwood who built his RAM 35 replica around it. Side windows?? £600 for a top. Link to ebay
ARCHERS COUPE TOP
sold on ebay
last month
for £600
SUCCESSFUL RACING LENHAM GT (Richard Perry/John Hillberry) for sale on ebay
Asking price £20,000
Ends 7th March
NIKOLAJ MORTENSEN PURCHASES BRIDGEHAMPTON SPRITE
from Tony Giordano and transports it from the USA to Denmark.
Hence the following two items are now for sale.
NIKOLAJ MORTENSEN’S RACE ENGINE FOR SALE
Small bore block bored out and fitted with liners, 1275 stroke makes it a short stroke engine.
Special steel main caps and pockets for the valves.
1275 Crankshaft balanced with flywheel and pulley.
1275 Pulley, 1275 Flywheel lightened
Sump reinforced and with thread for oil temp sensor
Con Rods polished.
12G940 head, engine backplate, front plate, and front cover all sandblasted and coated.
Full Race 649 Camshaft, Alloy valve cover, Rocker assembly, Side covers with breathers, Water pump pulley, Fan blades reinforced.
£1200 for the lot.
Contact Nikolaj via email
FOR SALE IN DENMARK – NICOLAJ MORTENSEN’S
Austin Healey Sprite Mk1 1961.
Very good condition, 1275cc engine, refurbished gearbox ( Ribcase) New front disc brakes, new rear dampers, new dynamo, new master cylinder and much more. Very good and solid body, Royal blue with red interior in also good condition. Original and rare steering wheel, steel bonnet in mint condition,
This Healey sprite is one of the best Sprites avaliable for the price. Comes with new hood, Tonneau cover and sidescreens. Original gearbox and wheels included.
Danish V5 and Heritage certificate.
Worldwide delivery possible.
Price – £18.000
Contact Nikolaj via email
RARE SHORROCK BOOST GAUGE FOR SALE
in good working condition – £300
Contact Mark Maguire by email NOW SOLD
XOH 276 – WORKS DAY VIDEO
on YouTube
[To save time you may wish to start 8 minutes in]
I am pleased to welcome RON GORDON to the Sebring Sprite Family. He tells me:
“My car is finally off the rotisserie after many hours to repair racing incidents and hasty bondo repairs. No panels were replaced. The underside is final painted. The top is ready for final primer and block before paint.
Pictures attached”. See also Ron Gordon Sebring.
The 1st of the Archers Sebrings (that of Andy Actman) goes up for auction on March 8th (Guide Price: 19/23,000)
Found this great article by Geoff Healey among Brian Archer’s old papers
The following are a few pictures of the rear brake arrangement found during our recent automotive archeology session with the 1958 Sprite:.
Right: Brake backplates, showing E-Brake arrangement and wheel cylinder.
Rear drum brakes, exterior with bolt-on wire wheel hub. 8” x 1-1/2” drums
View from left rear, noting width of hub outboard of body line
Left: Brake Adjuster
Right: Wheel cylinder
The final set of pictures (below) are of the pedal box arrangement which uses the original two Girling master cylinders with an extension to the pedal box, and adds a third master cylinder, splitting the front and rear circuits. An equalizer bar was then added between the front and rear brake master cylinders.
LEFT: Overhead view of pedal box. An extension, to the left on photo, is bolted and tack welded to main portion of pedal box. Brake pedal was moved from normal siting, straight ahead of brake master cylinder push rod, to position between the 2 brake master cylinders. Upper end of brake pedal, where return spring attachment hole would be sited, has been cut off and heim joint (rod end) welded in place. Pin forks have been removed from the ends of both brake master cylinders and replaced with heim joints (rod ends). Balance bar or equalizer bar extends right and left from brake pedal to master cylinder push rods. Return spring now attached to 2A5573 retainer-return spring, rather than the extended Sebring pedal.
Pedal box arrangement, LHD car. Note large size of cutout in top of footwell box and wiper motor swapped to opposite side.
2 views of underside of modified pedal box, with detail of brake pedal modifications
Revised brake line plumbing, right hand inner fender. New line, running from second brake master cylinder, passes across bulkhead and then traces original line to new 4-way connection, located just aft of original 4-way connection. Brake line to rear brakes now plumbed to be fed from second brake master cylinder, isolating front and rear brake circuits.
FRONT BRAKES
“Gentlemen, I’ve finally had an opportunity to begin a bit of automotive archeology on the 1958 Sprite purchased in 2016. A former race car it had been campaigned in southern California under the Mini-Tech banner, a Santa Barbara, California firm. Following are a few photos of the front disc arrangement. More on the rear brakes and pedal box in next post. Regards, Ken Grasing”
R/F brake- caliper, disc and hub
R/F Brake – Spindle and adaptor (note ARB, behind)
R/F brake – Caliper
1.0 litre BMC a-series short stroke inline
Bonneville Salt Flats record-holding engine. Featured in MG Enthusiast magazine, February, 2015.
This engine holds the current Bonneville I/GT record in a stock bodied MG Midget with a two-run average of 122.539 MPH. Full Spec pdf
For Sale at £2250 (the crank alone would cost more!)
The You tube video of the successful run is here
(Note, 123…Mph in a standard bodied (steel) Midget with a very substantial roll cage , (725Kg estimated weight)
Contact Peter Bower by email if interested.
TREVOR McILROY’S PLANS FOR THE 2018 SEASON
“We have just had our entry confirmed for June at St Goueno France, – ferries and gite booked. We will be keeping the Sebring for the prestige events this year. I will be contesting the Northern Ireland Hill & Sprint championship in our Lotus 7. The Frogeye will be driven by my sister Fel in a few events here at home. I intend to take the Sebring & Frogeye to Bo’ness Scotland in September for the two-day hillclimb event, and we will be over for the Silverstone Classic in July”.
5 SPEED A SERIES GEARBOX?
FROM ALISTAIR ROSS:
“This is something I have been trying to find out for some time and have quizzed Speedwellians about it. John Venner Pack thought that VP was fitted with a FIAT 5 speed box (did they exist at that time?) for its trip to the Belgium speed records. 5447 HX was fitted with FIAT engine and possibly a FIAT gearbox? certainly something went on at the gearbox end as the chassis rails were cut back to get a bigger bell housing into the space, Derek Surrey who worked at Speedwells at the time remembers this being done. I have never got to the bottom of the 5 speed box story for sure”
FROM KEN GRASING:
“Just a quick note in response to your recent posting on 5 Speed gear boxes. While recognition form 26, page 5, shows “No. of gearbox ratios …5” and then lists 5 ratios in the chart I believe this include reverse gear. If you look at the ratio shown for 5th gear in the alternate ratio column you’ll see this is the reverse gear ratio for the standard frogeye gear box. Regards, Ken”
5-SPEED GEARBOXES – FROM PETER BOWER
” Not strictly Sprite but related I think. I have a new build 3 synchro SCCR ‘B’ series box for sale right now. It is a five speed, with the 5th gear as the lowest ratio and in the reverse gear plane.. The point is it gears a sharper get away or longer legs if you use a higher diff ratio. I note the Speedwell GT uses a similar describer system in its Homologation description (No26). I guess BMC Comps must have done the same for the A series box, in much the same way. I would like to know more about the sprite application if anybody can shed any light? Cheers, Peter”. Feedback please.
[I know DHMC used a 5-speed MGB box in the Sprites which ran at Le Mans but don’t know of an A series 5 speed box?]
