I have found the following lines about Sebring 67 on the book of Marcus
Chambers "Works Wonders" on Chapter 13, page 203:
quote:
"That year the Donald Healey Motor Company of Warwick entered three
special-bodied Healeys fitted with 2,639cc six-cylinder engines built by Morris
Engines of Coventry.
These incorporated six-port cylinder heads, three dual-choke Weber
carburettors and nitrided crankshafts, which gave an output of 150bhp at
5,500rpm.
Hambro Automotive of New York, who were the Morris importers at that. time
and handled all BMC products, looked after the entry of the cars for the race
and the organization of the teams at Sebring.
They also took care of the shipping and forwarding of the spare wheels and
parts for both the Healeys and, later, the MGs with great efficiency. The
drivers were chosen by Hambro from American sources.
The race was run in good conditions at very high speeds, being won overall
by Fangio and Behra in a 4,451cc Maserati.
Two of the Healeys went out with a thus-far undisclosed mechanical problem
and the third, which had been driven at a reduced speed, finished down in 26th
place.
When the cars were returned to England the engines were sent back to be
stripped down for the post mortem, and Eddie Maher, the chief engineer at the
engine development department at Coventry, soon got to the root of the
trouble.
There was a weakness in the connecting rods at the point where the rod had
been machined to take the head of the big-end bolt. Several rods were cracked
at the same point, so there was no reason to doubt the cause of the failures.
Morris Motors redesigned the rod and the result was one of the most
beautiful connecting rods fitted to any engine at that period.
As Laurence Pomeroy said to me so often: "If it looks right it is usually
right."
That incident produced the connecting rods for the famous Austin-Healey 3000
and
they never let us down, even when running at much higher revolutions than
those Sebring specials.
The six-port cylinder head was soon fitted to the production 100-Six Healeys
and it was then possible to produce a 160bhp competition car.
In 1958 there were no MGs at Sebring, but the BMC flag was kept flying with
the entry of three 100-Six cars with specially prepared engines from Eddie
Maher; they were fitted with twin SU HD6 carburettors as they were derived from
the standard production models as homologated in the GT class. Several of the
drivers from the 1957 race were used again, and Gus Ehrman, who had been in
the MG team in 1956 and 1957, joined the Healey team."
Is this giving you some help or more confusion?
regards,
Philippe - France
BT7
|