The accompanying photos were taken at the recent grand opening of Hans van de Kerkhof’s new Healey Museum, at which Brian and Peter Healey, Roy Jackson-Moore, Clive Baker and John Chatham were present, among many other Healey celebreties. Albert Voogd, from the museum, tells me “I must admit that Big Healey forces are strong at the museum, but Bruno Verstraete’s Sebring and a standard Frogeye are there. More importantly, the museum archive contains quite a lot of Sprite material, and I’d be happy to show all of this to you”. Albert tells me he “has the great task of sorting out all the documentation that arrives at the museum, like the Geoffrey Healey archive acquired from the States. This is one of the nicest jobs I’ve ever done!” The Museum’s website can be found at www.healeymuseum.nl
Clive Baker sits alongside Brian Wheeler in his Healey SR replica and tries out the Verstraete Sprite of Sebring 1965
Bic Healey with Hans van de Kerkhof at the opening.
Archive Manager, Albert Voogd with Clive Baker
A SORE THUMB FOR SVEN BUT SEBRING IS BADLY DAMAGED
I received this message today from Sven Eckhardt in Germany:
” Sad news – I crashed the Sebring today, spun her off a road, through a forest and ended up in a ditch by the roadside having mowed down a couple of trees as well as two roadsigns. Looking at the car it is really surprising the only injury I got was a sprained right thumb (skier´s thumb). A passing driver gave me a lift to the hospital. My baby is a pretty sad sight, and I was in real trouble with the good lady as well!” What a shame – after all that hard work.
The Footman James Classic car show at the NEC Birmingham Nov 16/18
Cynthia admires Ian’s trophy
Andrew Jonathan, Alan and Cynthia at the presentation
Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird’s un-restored Mark 2 Sebring, 9253 WD, which Pedro Rodriguez drove at Sebring in 1962
Two years ago Ian Ashfield proudly displayed his newly-completed blue Sebring Sprite Fastback on the Midget and Sprite Club stand at the NEC. He had built the car up with the help of Andrew Forster and the team at Archers Garage. Sadly, it was soon after that event that Ian learned he had only a few months to live, whereupon he made the decision to get his car on the road and to use it as much as he possible. This he did, but he also decided that he wanted to present a trophy to his fellow Sebring Sprite owners “to promote the marque and also so others can share in Brian’s dream and his legacy to us“. The late Brian Archer initiated and carried through his plan to re-create John Sprinzel’s Sebring Sprite Coupe of 30 years earlier. Ian has provided a magnificent shield, the Sebring Sprite Memorial Cup, to be awarded annually to the owner of a Sebring Sprite appearing at the NEC. Ian did not leave any clear guidelines as to how we were to decide exactly which car should be honoured with his award, especially if there was more than one Sebring Sprite at the Show. This year there were in fact 4 Sebring Sprites, the ex-works Mark 2 Sprite recently acquired in very original condition by Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird, the Archer replica Sebring Coupe owned by Alan Anstead, Tony Davis‘s alloy- bodied race car and Peter Seaman‘s standard-bodied version. After much deliberation a conclusion was reached that Ian would have wanted the trophy to go to a Sprinzel-designed car and one from Brian Archer’s stable. It also seemed appropriate that the trophy should go to a car in regular, if not daily, use and which has been driven to a number of foreign countries. Ian Ashfield’s partner Cynthia, together with Andrew Forster from Archers, was at the show to present the award to Alan Anstead for the coming year, and I had the task of saying a few words. (More photos from the Show, below).
Peter Seaman displayed his standard-bodied Sebring on the Austin-Healey Club stand
Tony Davis’s alloy race car on the HSCC stand
Magnificent SLR Morgan +4 by Sprinzel and Lawrence
A similar shock absorber to those which Andrew is offering for sale
Andrew at Archers
has a contact with 3 pairs of new Armstrong adjustable rear shock absorbers and a further 4 pairs being reconditioned. He will have to supply Sprite arms for them. Price is £650 a pair plus VAT
A rather lovely one-off fastback of his own design on Graham Goodall’s Healey 3000
Richard Perry’s newly built racing Lenham GT (MGCC)
Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird
has a new/unused, perfect condition copy of
“SPRITELY YEARS” 2nd edition signed by both John Sprinzel and Tom Coulthard.
£80.00, plus postage – anywhere in the world.
Email Jonathan
if you are interested
WANTED BY JAMES THACKER
A pair of Riley 1.5 Girling rear brake backplates to enable him to convert his car to full Sebring specification.
Contact James via his email
Pete Farmer is considering making a short run of (tall sidescreen) Frogeye HARDTOPS to original Donald Healey design if there is sufficient interest.
Contact him
FOR SALE
The late Peter James’
Sebring Fastback Rep
needing some minor work to complete
£15,750 o.n.o.
See ‘For Sale’ page
for full specification and contact details
The Sprite hood kept the wood dry while the power was off. He’s lucky it didn’t blow into the next State!
FROM HISTORIC CAR TO HISTORIC EVENT!
Happily Tony Giordano has survived Hurricane Sandy at his home in New York. The hood from his ex-works Sprite 510 DWD came in useful to protect his firewood.
