A good friend of mine always used to say - If you need to use a hammer -
make it a big one.
Along the same lines, the only Austin Healey to stuff a fully worked, triple
webered, D type cammed 4.3 litre 6 cylinder Jaguar engine into would be a
bugeye Sprite. After all - it is the lightest car in the Healey family....
and when you also fit an independent rear end - it even sort of handles...
Here's on that was prepared earlier...
http://www.gerardsgarage.com/GarageContent/UniqueSprites/fright.htm
The original designer/builder/ owner, Alan Brooks, allegedly spent enough to
build this car in the late 1960s to have bought a new Rolls Royce - but he
wanted the ultimate road goung Q car.... Its now owned by a good friend of
mine, Colin Dodds, here in Sydney. The last photo shows just about the
closest I got to JagSprite at Wakefield Park....
Enjoy!
Chris
www.myaustinhealey.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <N5572B@aol.com>
To: <Healeys@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 8:42 AM
Subject: Re: 6 cylinder in a 100 chassis
> In a message dated 5/12/04 11:31:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> TMHEFFRON@aol.com writes:
> About 15 years ago I saw an attempted installation of a 3.8 liter Jaguar
> engine in what I believe was a 100-6, though it may have been a 100-4. It
> was an
> ugly situation and I doubt the car was ever completed. It was in the
south
> suburbs of Chicago.
> BMLC did exactly that making a Mark IV Healey 4000, it had a Jag or was it
a
> rolls engine...now my memory is fuzzy. Anyway, in order to fit the
engine,
> they had to cut the car in half longitudinally and widen it considerably.
Would
> have been an interesting vehicle but still wouldn't pass crash test in the
> States...I am sure someone on the list will rmember which engine it
was...the
> V-8 swap is common and certainly reduces weight while adding LOTS of
HP...a
> friend had one with a built to the gills 327 that was scary fast. His
current one
> is getting an FI Ford 302 to replace the current 289. Ford fit better
> because it is narrower...I am pretty much a purist and like the big six
but if I
> found one without an engine...who knows.
>
> Cheers,
> Dave
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