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

[Roger Dowding]

Jackie Cooper owned an raced the 100S " AHS3504 " - the fourth customer Chassis number car released in February 1955.
Briggs Cunningham got AHS3501. ## This car was White with a Blue ' central ' Stripe a colour scheme he used from 1951 on with his Team cars

Jackie's car was British Racing Green - where many [ most ] AH 100S were white/ivory over blue [ lobelia blue ] and there were a few black and red cars in the 55 produced [ 50 " customer " cars and the 5 works cars ].##

The car was shipped to the USA in early 1955 among 5 others - all destined for the Sebring 12 Hour Race, in Florida.

In later 1955, Jackie Cooper [ who had Roy Jackson-Moore as his co-driver at Sebring ] entered the BEMC [ British Empire Motor Club - Toronto ] races at Edenvale in Canada.

Cooper featured in the article in " Sports Car Illustrated " magazine in October 1955.

The Car ;



BEMC Programme Cover for the Canada event;



The track was an Airfield - quite common in the USA, the UK and as we know in New Zealand too in the 1950's
- [ Ardmore, Ohakea, Wigram ].



The SCI article with a photo of Jackie in the 100S - there was another 100S and several 100/4s in the event




At the previous races at Edenvale on 26th June 1954 there were Sports Cars and two classes for " Production Cars " which included a rather unusual car, not a Healey but a " Hillman V8-60 " - would have been an " allcomer " in New Zealand



In the June 1954 results is Fred Allen in an Austin Healey - Fred Allen bought one of the early 100S cars and was also at Sebring in 1955 - this 1954 event would have been in a 100 the original production 4 cylinder.

[Ray Bell]

So there we have the People's Choice...

[Roger Dowding]

So there we have the People's Choice...

Yes Ray - seems almost like " Allcomers " in NZ, " Run what you Brung " in the USA
" Modified Production " in other places.

The Hillman V8-60, and I see the Morris Minor in the drivers notes with ALTA overhead valve conversion - that would be a rarity - even more so in the USA.

Grand Prix - with Fred Allen in the MG Special as well as a 100 - pre his 100S as mentioned - came second in the MG in the Sports Car Race and the " Grand Prix " event.

Jim Ferguson in a Nash Metropolitan, another of the guys who ran at Sebring 1955 in a 100S.

More to follow on the 100S and the Sebring 1955 event, March, before Macklin went to Le Mans in SPL226B - the ill fated event.

[Ray Bell]

Youngsters!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tKgbiog5q4

[Roger Dowding]

Youngsters!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tKgbiog5q4

Ray Bell, did you watch the whole 9 and half minutes - never realised Jackie Cooper was a bit of a comedy actor .. at least he arrived in the right car.

[Ray Bell]

I used to watch the whole half-hour every Friday night...

Except for the time my parents went out for the night and left us in the care of my grumpy aunt. She made us go to bed at 7:30, just as the show was about to start.

[Ray Bell]

Jackie Cooper was actually a bit of a star as a child actor in the famous "Our Gang" or "Little Rascals" short movies of the twenties and early thirties...

These were comedies, with the humour simply coming from the behavior of children being fairly natural. Poor neighbourhood children making their fun in the streets and parks.

For a long time a big thing was made of the fact that one after another of them met untimely ends. Jackie Cooper was, in fact, a bit of a 'last man standing' in that company.

[Roger Dowding]

Thanks to Ken H for the link to the website on Sebring 1955 - on the John Lacko photos thread.
I had seen some information from Geoffrey Healey's books " Austin Healey - The story of the Big Healeys "and also his third book " Healey - The Specials ".

There were Seven 100S entered, 6 " customer " cars AHS3501 to AHS3506 and " SPL258BN " the works car which was a 1954 " Special Test Car " known by its Registration OON441 as noted by Ken H

Chassis Numbers and details of AHS3501 on from the book " Austin Healey - The story of the Big Healeys ".



Entry list for Class D - the class the Austin Healey cars were in AH 100S, AH 100M and some just AH 100;



The Chassis numbers and race numbers ;

AHS3501 Race No 40 drivers Bill Cook, Steve Lansing, George Rand finished 16th - the Briggs Cunningham car

AHS3502 Race No 41A drivers Robert Fergus Sandy McPherson and Harley Watts - car did not start.

AHS3503 Race No 43 drivers Jim Ferguson and Rowland Keith from Canada - finished 32nd

AHS3504 Race No 42 drivers Jack(ie) Cooper and Roy Jackson-Moore finished 41st

AHS3505 Race No 46 drivers Fred Allen and Gus Ehrman - car did not start.

AHS3506 Race No 45 drivers Wm Brewster and Bill Rutan

SPL258BN Race No 44 the Donald Healey Motor Company Special test car - drivers Stirling Moss and Lance Macklin - finished 6th - First Austin Healey home.

Names in ' bold ' were the named purchasers of the cars in February 1955 - from the Geoffrey Healey book

The cars being loaded for Sebring in February 1955 The race was in March 1955.
The cars despatch dates are listed in the first image above - from the Geoff Healey book.





On the look out now for more race photos;

This is Stirling passing a Porsche 550 ; The results First Six cars plus all the Austin Healey finishers



There was also a Nash Healey entered - credit on the photo;


Among the 100M Healeys a car from the Bahamas of Sir Sydney Oakes and Greta Oakes - with Juan Fernandez as the third driver.

More to follow on the story;

[ERC]

Talking of Nash Healeys, did you catch last night's 'American Pickers' on Choice TV?

They came across an old boy and his son, who formerly ran an AMC dealership - a building which they still own, but what a shambolic run down place it was/is, but they had 4 of them, plus a spares car. They bought two off them. One was almost totally overgrown and as at last night's episode end, they were still struggling to free it.

[Roger Dowding]

Talking of Nash Healeys, did you catch last night's 'American Pickers' on Choice TV?

They came across an old boy and his son, who formerly ran an AMC dealership - a building which they still own, but what a shambolic run down place it was/is, but they had 4 of them, plus a spares car. They bought two off them. One was almost totally overgrown and as at last night's episode end, they were still struggling to free it.

Ray, No I missed it,
Would have been a good view - I don't get a lot of TV time for my interests, so Pickers and motoring take a back seat..

Thanks for the information ..

Did however find this of a very scruffy Nash Healey- another racer they were not pretty by the time the US Racing guys got hold of them..- this one with a Packard Motor that started a lot of questions about the motor ;
Inline 6, Vee 8, or ... ??,
Ray Bell may know !.



My late great Uncle Frank Bell [ 1892 - 1929 ] was a Nash Man at one stage he had a big 1920's Sedan and his wife, my Great Aunt Mary Bell [ 1890's - 1964 ] had a Nash Coupe ..
This is Mary, known as Aunty Dolly sitting in a Nash in the 1930's. The family do not know if she owned it..from a family archive of Uncle Eddie Dowding [ 1919 - 2018 ].. recently found by my cousin John Dowding



PS ; there is a story behind the number plate as in the 1930's they used ' X ' in place of ' 10 ' when they needed a bigger range of numbers ..

[ERC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Incv563jzhA

[Roger Dowding]

Brilliant ERC, and thanks for the link.

The Nash Healey - American Pickers, with a Cadillac V8 - great

[Ray Bell]

Originally the Nash-Healey was a 3.8-litre pushrod ohv inline six...

Healey. apparently, had intended using a V8 and the engine bay was big enough to accommodate one. But instead he sourced the engines from Kelvinator and made an alloy pushrod ohv cylinder head (to reduce weight, and presumably improve gas flow), the cars had SU carburettors and competition engines run by Healey were expanded to 4.1-litres.

The gearbox was a 3-speed with the very common Borg-Warner overdrive, as fitted to Zephyrs, Austin and Wolseley 2.6 to 3-litre sedans of the fifties and sixties, many Chrysler models, Toyota Crowns and others.

[Ray Bell]

It's not hard to see why Healey was looking towards a V8 at that time...

Cunningham was appearing at Le Mans with the ohv Cadillac V8 and Chrysler were about to announce their first Hemi V8s, Oldsmobile's ohv V8 had been around for a year or two as well.

[Ray Bell]

Getting to the specifics of the Andy Rosenberger Nash Healey, in 1956 it was fitted with a Packard V8.

These were a new engine from 1955 and came in capacities of 320, 352 and 374 cubic inches. In 1956 they built a double 4bbl version which gave 310bhp, it's (I imagine) quite likely that this is the one Rosenberger used.

The Packard V8, though it was used in its 320 form in Nash and Hudson cars, is not related to the Studebaker V8, which was a much smaller engine. The engine was designed with 5" bore centres and would easily have accommodated size increases up to 500ci. It must, however, have been heavy.

Packard Hawks, which shared the Studebaker Hawk bodywork, also had the Studebaker engine. By that time it was all American Motors. The whole picture becomes very muddied, especially when you learn that the International Harvester V8s came from this source as well.

Specific to the Rosenberger car is this:

https://forums.autosport.com/topic/1.../#entry5967957

[Roger Dowding]

Thanks Ray Bell, for the info above about the Rosenberger car and Nash Healey's in general..Thought you would know a lot,



Cheers

Roger

[Roger Dowding]

Details from the Austin Healey 100S Registry from Ken H

" SPL 226B 1B136878 7, 25 green green 100/100M/100S Donald Healey Motor Co. England Healey Motors NOJ393 Scott, Jack U.K.


SPL 258BN SPL258BN 23, wht/blue, spgrn rebuilt spruce green Donald Healey Motor Co. England Healey Motors OON441 OON441 Moore, Frank Brisbane Qld. Aust.".

SPL226B is the 1955 Le Mans car [ the race in June ] and SPL258BN, the Moss, Macklin car at Sebring in March 1955.

Here is the car SPL258BN of Moss and Macklin, Race #44 from the " Racing Sports Cars .com " website on the event - as extracted by Ken H.



A view in the Pit garages on one of the 100s [not an S ] in company of others.





View of the start - views of actually.





Poster for the event ;

[Roger Dowding]

The Programme Cover ;



The Event Schedule ;



The Track Map ;



The full Entry List - in three parts ;







Thanks to Ken H for the link to these images.

[Ray Bell]

I won't lay claim to knowing an awful lot about them, Roger...

But I know where to look. I really do fancy the Nash-Healey, which was used in the original film 'Sabrina". That film, when old and being re-run on television, awakened me to the Nash-Healey, in fact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMnXKeWHphk

[Roger Dowding]

Photos from the Racing Sports Cars gallery - taken by a variety of photographers but Louis Galanos seem to be the only one using colour film.

The Nash Healey - had the Nash L6 [ inline 6 ] and was supercharged.



Austin Healey 100M, Race #38 [ and #39 in background ].



Austin Healey 100S - some of them.

Race #43, 44, and 45

AHS3503


SPL258BN the Donald Healey Motor Company works car - driven by Stirling Moss and Lance Macklin


AHS3506


#45 was photographed in recent years at a Car Show in the USA - but there was some confusion with the chassis number on those photos.
** More to come on Race #45 AHS3506 .. The car show was in Des Moines in 2017, and the photographer is a Car Guy, with his main interest Triumph Sports cars - owns an early 70's Mark 4 Spitfire and a late 60's TR4A [ sound familiar to this guy ].

Austin Healey 100M of Sir Sidney Oakes from the Bahamas


Photographer Credit on the images;