OK, a composite JPG of the mystery car is available at the ftp site
triumph.cs.utah.edu at pub/sol/Images/mysterycar.jpg. You can also
get this file by email by sending the command
/send ./pub2/sol/pics/mysterycar.jpg
to server@ingr.com.
Due to size, this is a JPG instead of a GIF. I have a GIF version,
which I will email to anyone who requests. Mail me directly, not to
the list!
For those who are new to this thread, a chap near here bought the car
shown in the JPG. The seller said it was a '56 AC Bristol. This was
confusing, since the body is steel, and as far as we have been able to
determine all Bristols have aluminum bodies. It also has a 4-cylinder
engine; all Aces had 6-cylinders. There is no VIN plate on the
vehicle. Yes, the dude bought the car without knowing exactly what
it is.
My last message stated that it was thought to be a steel-bodied AC
Ace. But but it is almost surely an Austin-Healey 100. If those
rear wings aren't from a big Healey, there's never been one. Most of
the folks at the club meeting agreed that it is a Healey.
However, the front end/grill opening doesn't look like any big Healey
I've ever seen. It closely resembles an AC Ace, which likely led to
the confusion in thinking it is an AC. The eggcrate grill only adds
to the confusion. Except for the grill opening, though, the rest of
the front end could be from an AH 100. Perhaps a previous owner
moified the AH grill opening to mimic the Ace.
For comparison, look at bfm-healey.gif and ac_ace.gif at the above ftp
site.
It appears to have been set up for racing at one time. I assume those
holes in the wings behind the front and rear wheel wells are for
engine bay and brake cooling. Also note the driver's roll bar.
The owner states that the small scoops in the bonnet are also for
cooling. The driver's side scoop feeds air into the footwell, and the
offside scoop feeds are into the engine bay.
I put some gamma correction in the lower right picture to lighten it
up a bit and show the dash a little better. Does this look more like
a Healey dash or an Ace dash? The one AH dash picture I have doesn't
really look like this car's.
Another mystery about the car is the engine. It is a 4-cylinder, with
"Biltmore A130" stamped on it somewhere. Could this car be some sort
of weird 100-4?
Then there's the frame. The one AH frame picture that I have shows
the AH frame rails as being perfectly straight from front to back.
The mystery car's frame rails curve out behind the front wheels, run
back to the rear wheels, then curve back in before running back to
the rear cross-member. Also, the axle on this car sits above the
frame, like on the TR4. Do either the Ace or AH 100 have this
configuration?
If anybody knows ANYTHING about this car, please e-mail.
--
T.J. Higgins | tjhiggin@ingr.com | (205) 730-7922
Intergraph Corp. | Mapping Sciences Division | Huntsville, AL, USA
|