djjob@noos.fr wrote:
> I just came across a very rare photo I thought might be of interest to those
>who like Healey history.
>
> It shows 3 specially designed Streamlined 100-Sixs lined up on the grid at
>the 1957 Sebring 12 hours race.
>
> The photo is on my 100-Six site home page at
>
> www.healeysix.net
>
> I've also added and updated some other pages.
>
> Derek
>
Dear List - Derek let's continue our conversation off-list,
I was very perplexed by the pictures:
(i) Geoff Healey doesn't mention the 57 race in The Healey Story - and does
mention others and of course the record car
(ii) that body work! my 100/6 (which was built a couple of months later) later
doesn't look like that!! and I haven't seen any others like it outside of the
record cars.
(iii) The site:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Sebring-1957-03-23-photo.html
lists them as 100Ss.
Sebring's official site doesn't give info going that far back...
However http://www.teamdan.com/archive/wsc/1957/57seb.html
lists the entries 23, 24 (by car number) as 100Ss and 25 is listed as 100
Special. Interestingly enough for '58 it describes the cars entered as 100MM
which GCH describes as 100/6s...
Of the record attempts he says:
"Gerry Coker designed a body with a lengthened nose and tail based on the '100'
centre section for the distance attempts. The radiator intake was styled in the
shape of the '100 Six' with its wavy horizontal bar feature. Jensen constructed
this body and a further three in Aluminium alloy for racing".
He goes on to say that the extent to which the engines differed from standard
was played down in publicity (ie they were heavily modified). The endurance car
engines were unblown, presumably of 2.6 litre capacity like the previous record
cars.
My guess is that these were genuinely special 100 ("100 Special")cars; ie they
were cars using the record-breaker endurance body work and heavily souped-up
100/6 engines. Which means that probably Hambro (the entrants) must have
acquired the bodies from Jensen and built the cars up in the US. BTW the
colouor
is almost certainly Healey Ice Blue over white as this was the colour of the
record cards.
Note that these are the bodies for the **endurance** cars not the out and out
speed record cars that ran at Bonneville (see Bill Emerson's book). The cars in
the picture(s) are very like - if not identical to - the car on p 127 of The
Healey Book. Note the "wavy horizontal bar feature" in that picture.
Bill, Does this sound right to you? Could any of them still be around? unlike
the record cars they didn't get salt blasted into them.
Does anyone have a copy of the Sebring race card for 57?? Does anyone know of
them getting raced anywhere else that year? - or indeed ever again?
Peter Dzwig
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