Austin-Healey’s and the Austin Healey Car Club of NZ and Others

[Roger Dowding]

[QUOTE=Ray Bell;75950]Here's one which might give somebody some parts...



Of course, the discussion is all about the '63 Dodge, it's seen at about 16m 50s on this clip:

Had a look and way beyond my capabilities budget and haven't got the room either.

Cheers Ray Bell,

Roger

[Roger Dowding]

" Doug Laurence Cooper Bobtail,Peter Preston Ford 10 Spcl,Bob Blackburn Lotus 7,David Young C Type Ron Rutherford Zephyr Spcl "
edit ; front row as above - others below
Also
" Ivy Stephenson Buckler ,Ed Candy Healey Corvette AND Joss Timms 100S not sure of others Waimate 50 Sports and Specials. Again Langwood Studios Photo " Peter Preston archives and notes on photo.

edit " Doug Lawrence Cooper Joss Tims [ Ernest Tims ] 100S

Two well known Kiwi Healey's the ex - Arthur Kennard Healey Corvette and the ex - Fred Losee 100S.



the Cooper " Bobtail " is a T39 which is currently in Sweden with Graham Kyle, Morgan racer of note in NZ in the 1970's /80's.
Graham Kyle has details of the T39 including previous owners in New Zealand -

Hopefully more to come from Peter Preston's archives

[Roger Dowding]

Old Cartoon, in the Brockbank style .. because it is His ..



Model chart for the Spridget cars .. Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget - 1958 to 1980's
A H Sprite 1958 to 1970,
MG Midget 1961 to early 1980's.
[ a bit small; and won't expand without losing clarity ].

[Roger Dowding]

The Healey Corvette has featured on this thread a few times going back to Page 20 Post #387 - through Posts 409, 417, 420, 429, 476, 547, 709, 805.

Have come across a couple of early photos of the car - pre the Chevrolet Corvette Motor in 1957.
The main story is in post #547.

The car was brought to New Zealand in 1955 by Geoff Mardon - stated to be a 1953 model by Allan Dick in his story, but the Carjam report indicates a 1954 model - First NZ Registered in NZ as a new car in December 1954.
The car was purchased as a part trade with Arthur Kennard for a Riley 2.5 RM Saloon.
- in New Zealand car would have had 1951 - 56 plates when first Registered. Plate number " 391.283 "
then 1956 - 1961 plate number " 315*733 " which was on it as a 100 four cylinder 2660cc and a 283 cubic inch Vee Eight [ 4640cc ].

Here in a couple of South Island events, in 1956 ; Plate 391.283 in both photos.

Lake Bryndwar - being chased by Pop Fisher in his Ford 10 " Midget " style special.
Kelvin Brown archives



Mairehau, near Christchurch, with another Ford 10 Special of Barry Brown - Kelvin Brown's brother.
Graham Taylor archives


Entry lists from the period.

Mairehau the 75 mile race ; same race as the photo ?. Thanks to Milan Fistonic for this



Ryal Bush - The Sports Car Race; " McM " in the photo name is the third Healey in the list - Graham Woods archives



The car in 2018 - fully restored - my own photo ;

[Roger Dowding]

The Healey Corvette, was invited to Goodwood for the Historic event that ERC has attended and Milan was there too in 2019.
New Zealand Classic Car posted this brief article in there Issue #345, September 2019.

The article ;



Close up of the Old photo - which has the plate 315*733 which was the cars 1956 - 61 plate - during that time the car was upgraded to the Corvette Motor and the Aston Martin Disc Brakes.
Trying to place the meeting - the car was first raced by Arthur Kennard as the Healey Corvette at Ardmore in January 1958. It raced at Wigram in 1960 and 1961 with E. D. [ Ed ] Candy.
The gentleman standing beside the car looks like E. D. Candy who acquired the car in 1959 -
Any details on the photo would be appreciated. - Photographer not stated in the article



A photo of the car at the event at Goodwood - by Milan Fistonic. May have been posted previously

[Roger Dowding]

The Article from Historic Racing Car news - the link;
Tried to extract the photo of the car around 1959 - 1960 - Race #10 with it appears to be E Candy leaning against the car.

" https://www.historicracingnews.com/A...val-Debut/2753 "

Hope it works; my tech skills are not good !!.

[Roger Dowding]

Bruce McLaren passed away 52 years ago and there have been many tributes to him in the last couple of days.
Bruce's first car was an Austin 7 - He even took it to high school - Seddon Tech - when it was in Central Auckland.

His second car, in which he won many trophies was an Austin Healey 100, that was imported by Seabrook Fowlds in Auckland and first raced by John Seabrook, and then Ross Jensen, before the McLarens bought it.

Seen here with the Austin Seven and a bigger car; Ford V8 Pilot



The 100 with Bruce and many trophies ;



My friend in Oregon Jerry Luidahl with his 1;43 scale model a tribute to Bruce McLaren [ a modified Oxford model - have the original Oxford in BRG myself although my 100 was Red, its original colour was green ].

[Roger Dowding]

All quiet on the Austin Healey front.
Have been in Auckland sorting out a certain MX5... No warrant and Rego on hold since June last year, but as of yesterday new warrant and today new Rego.
More work to be done.. leak in the cooling system which [ of course ] is in a place that is hard to get - one of those small hoses behind the engine ..job for July .. but it is going, road legal, wallet a bit lighter, but I am happy.

To Seaqnmac and ERC .. Guys.
Those Boxes of Magazines that I acquired, as in took off your hands to 1 help Gordon McBride shifft house, and 2 Help ERC clear a space in his garage, have all gone to another home, an Austin and MG guy from Helensville, he was a regular at Caffeine and Classics.
I kept some with AH MG and Triumph TR and GT6 articles and have let the rest go.

kept these two - for obvious reasons ..





Part of the trip to Auckland..Magazines gone, MX5 Road Legal.
A good week..

[Roger Dowding]

Rummaging through my memorabilia collection - my obsession as Her Indoors calls it.

I came across the Certificate of Performance for my only entry into the AHCCNZ Hill Climb at Otaua, from 1985 to 1990 I was involved with Marshalling, and later Organiser / Secretary of the meeting, Reg Whittaker was the main Guy as was a local.



The results [ again ]. thanks to Stuart Short - my copy had long gone and even the AH Club magazine of the time I had got rid of. Never did get the spelling corrected on the list - which I think I got a typist at ANZ Bank to do for the club.



Was the slowest of the Austin Healey's with both the late Barry Moon and Laurie Sorahan in 100's beating me as did Cameron Mackay in his 3000 and Frank Karl was well up the list at #10 ..

Great to know the event continues still with the MG Car Club and the latest event was well attended by Vintage Car Club guys including Allan Horner in his modified Sprite.

Now back to NSCC stuff, for the forthcoming " 50th Anniversary " of the Clubrooms.

[Roger Dowding]

AH Club of New Zealand, Badge Patch, and an Award plaque. The Kiwi was a change to the earlier badge /logo which had an Austin Crest in Black and Yellow with wings.



AH Club UK Sprite Register badge - designed by Pete Dicks, who was the Midland Centre Sprite Registrar in the 1970's early 1980's.
Pete and I corresponded for a number of years before finally meeting in Colorado in July 1982 at the 30th Anniversary Celebration, and later in 1982 at his home in the Midlands.

[Roger Dowding]

Austin Healey Sprite - 1958 - 1961, now known as the Mark One, when the Mark Two was created in 1962.
Affectionately known as a " Bug-Eye " or " Frog-Eye " depending initially on which side of the Atlantic you lived in.

A collection of promotional images ;







In the UK - Price GBP 668


The same car PBL75 in this advert too !!


and in Sweden - Pris SKr 8000.

[ERC]

Same car...

August 4th 1958 - Car 79, Dick Protheroe, later a well known E Type Jaguar racer.

Same car at Goodwood 2021

[Roger Dowding]

ERC,

Thanks for those ;

What a field, 4 AH 100S, 1 " Hundred " and Three Listers with a variety of motors.
See the note Mallory on the Entry List, one of the Listers with a Lotus on the outside of the corner.
The set of images added to the archives.
Have seen a few photos of RWD323 in recent years, need to find out which " AHS Chassis Number it is

Cheers

Roger

[Roger Dowding]

Sometimes both Sprite and the " Big " Healey ' 3000 ' were advertised together

In the UK,


and in the USA - the primary market for Healeys and Austin Healeys since the early 1950's


Sprite cornering - a similar set of shots appeared in a Sprite Advert driven by Roy Salvadori in a recent post.
This time the car is Left Hand Drive.

[ERC]

What a field, 4 AH 100S, 1 " Hundred " and Three Listers with a variety of motors.
See the note Mallory on the Entry List, one of the Listers with a Lotus on the outside of the corner.

Note also car #48. The Border Reivers D Type Jaguar. Note the driver's name spelt incorrectly...

The car in the centre is the Cooper Jaguar.

[Roger Dowding]

Note also car #48. The Border Reivers D Type Jaguar. Note the driver's name spelt incorrectly...

The car in the centre is the Cooper Jaguar.

ERC, Thanks didn't look closely at the photo Race #20 Cooper Jaguar - P Mould ..
- Lister Jaguars alway look big and with a hump in the bonnet ..

and yes James Clark, would not be " happy wi' that " !!

Have his book written by Jim in the 1960's a very small tome - almost falling to pieces but worth keeping.

[Roger Dowding]

A series of photos by Dennis Green of a certain 1965 Mark 3 Sprite at Mangere Town Centre car park in 1974.
A Northern Sports Car Club event - was in a dilemma, do they go here ? or on the NSCC thread.
Decision made ! see below ..

One photo I have as a large print from the time - Photo 4 [ - these are all digital ],
Thanks to " BMC BOY " .. Ross for processing 1000's of Dennis Green photos from negatives all from the 1970's.











Just noticed the painted number on the passenger side window is" B 1 N " in the first photo and " B 2 2 " in other photos. maybe they allocated the number for each test-

Had not seen theses photos until a couple of days ago

[Roger Dowding]

A link to AH Spares page about the recent 50th Anniversary -

" https://www.ahspares.co.uk/news/cele...-h-spares.aspx "

sent to me by my Cousin John - who took the photos at the 1983 Le Mans Relay race in 1983 - shown at the start of this thread

Visited the Shop in October 1982,while staying with Pete Dicks in Walsall in the West Midlands.



The Original shop with Fred Draper in the doorway.

[Roger Dowding]

The Berlin Wall 1963 - a story. [ Berlin Wall 1961 - 1989.]

" As an Austrian citizen, young engineer Hans Meixner was able to cross between the two Berlins at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. He was working as a lathe operator in West Berlin, but could travel back and forth across the border on a tourist visa. At a student dance in East Berlin, he had met and, eventually, fallen in love with Margarete Thurau.

Happily, he had spotted a flaw in the East German checkpoint. The lifting barrier between the two Germanies wasn’t entirely solid—it had a gap beneath it. Crossing to East Berlin on his scooter, he pretended to stall right next to the barrier and surreptitiously measured that gap while appearing to fiddle with the engine. The gap was 37.5 inches high.

Meixner found a Sprite at a rental car agency and crossed into East Berlin. On May 17, 1963, just after midnight, he helped his fiancée and future mother-in-law cram themselves into, respectively, the parcel shelf and trunk of the Sprite, removed its windshield, and headed for the border. As added insurance, he tucked some bricks into the rear of the trunk to stop any bullets that the border guards might send their way.
The guard who checked his passport was immediately suspicious. Why was Meixner driving with no roof on such a chilly day? He was waved over to the customs point for a full search.

Instead, Meixner drove slowly onwards, then gunned the engine, twisting the Sprite through the slalom barricades, and then went full throttle, straight on towards the barrier. The guards, caught by surprise, simply gaped after him as he rocketed past. He ducked down, and the little car limbo’d right under the barricade to freedom.
On the Western side, Meixner locked up the brakes and left a 96-foot skid mark. The West Berlin police were surprised but impressed, and news of the escape spread quickly

"

I remember reading about the story at the time - well probably a few weeks later in the papers -
in New Zealand.

Under the Barrier



On the other side - posed later



How the three people fitted in -posed later.



Getty Images - story form a " Hagerty " website.

[Roger Dowding]

Ross Cammick has been processing photos, first for Dennis Green an NSCC Guy from the 1970's 1980's and now has got hold of Photos from Levin in 1960 of a Guy called Lewis Townsend..

There are lots of interesting vehicles - the Allan Freeman Talbot Lago, Denny Hulme in a Cooper, and a Simon Taylor in a brand new Jaguar Mark 2 3.8 Saloon. Vic Simkin was also there in his Buckler with a De Joux body and a Humber 80 motor that came from a car that Lionel Bulcraig had raced

This photo is thought to be from the November 26th 1960 meeting [ Cars have the 1956 - 1961 number plates cream on dark red with a * centre symbol.

Errol McLeod in the Sprite, Rex Flowers in the Lotus Mark 6 and A Hurley - from Waitara in the Austin Healey 100.
On the front row



The Rex Flowers Lotus 6 - and what is the car #24 at the back ??
note from Milan Fistonic back in 2022
" Car 24 is Brian Watson's Missattor, a Mistral-bodied Ford 8 (later Ford 10) special. "
Thanks Milan - had forgotten to acknowledge before.



The Vic Simkin Buckler ..


The Simca at the back was racing in the Saloon car events.