| The car racing in its
heyday |
Carburettors
showing original Sebring inlet manifold |
Fully
restored 4-wheel disc brake set-up |
Inset is a
common "C" frame caliper and piston for comparison |
Rear brake with
handbrake lever. |
and fitted on
theaxle |
About 8 years ago David Brown purchased this car which had been
extensively raced in the mid-west of the USA. He knows much of the
car's history from about 1962 onwards but has never been able to get
to its origins. The reason the car is of interest is that it still
has the Dunlop four wheel disc brake setup, H-type 1 1/2" carbs on
the proper Q series manifold and in virtually every way possible has
all the original components of a factory racer. He has now sold the
car to a close friend after rebuilding everything but the body
shell. Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird has been trying to assist him in
identifying the car.
Above
are photos of the various restored assemblies from the car as well
as a photo of it racing at Meadowdale Raceway (now defunct) in the
mid-sixties. The car was purchased directly from Inskip - the east
coast importer - by Jerry Ellick, in the early sixties. It has
virtually all of the rarest bits ever offered. However, it matches
none of the identified cars (with possibly one exception) in Tom
Coulthard's book "Spritely Years". It was Old English White and
appears to have originally been right-hand drive (none of the
right-hand drive equipment mounting holes are plugged - this unusual
in that there is no reason for anyone to remove the Phillips head
screws used to plug them). David Brown has since sold the car to
Dave Giorgi, owner of The Winners Circle, a competition parts
supplier for Spridgets in the U.S., but he would still like to
determine the origin of this unique car for him.
The detailed
specification of the car is as follows:
The
car was originally acquired directly from INSKIP in 1962 or 63 by
Gerald Ellick or Tom Peacock of Carerra Motors, Forest Park,
Illinois, US., and was raced in the Chicago area in SCCA club racing
for 5 to 8 years by Mr. Ellick (now deceased).
The body pressing number (located on top of right side footwell,
under the wiring loom) is 33631, (so quite a late shell for a
Frogeye). The right side door pillar tag is BAE 41314. The only
registration number he has is what appears on the title, without the
AN5 prefix, and is simply 41824.
The car is LHD and was originally finished in Old English White with
an all steel body, bonnet and doors.
Unique
features include:
4 wheel Dunlop disc brakes with 60 spoke wire wheels, complete with
emergency brake pads. Front caliper bore is 1⅝" and the rear is 1¼".
The rear hub to spline adapters seat to the hub with tapered nuts
and have a welded flange which encases the axle flange outer
diameter. The hub is a non-standard piece with extra material on
the back-side to bolt the disc rotor to. The calipers mount to an
adapter which appears to be machined from plate and appears
case-hardened.
The front hubs are one-piece with the wire wheel spline drive and
are numbered Q2398 or Q2396. The front caliper adapters also appear
machined from plate. The front and rear disc rotors differ in
offset.
The rear leaf springs and the front coils are competition parts.
The front spring pans have an additional, adjustable, bump stop
which bolts through the top of the pan.
The car is fitted with an anti-roll bar which is not like the later
factory units. The bar ends in eyelets which are parallel with the
ground and connect to the A-frames with a straight link with buffers
at top and bottom of the sway bar eyelets and the A-frame bracket
eyelet.
An oil cooler of an early design is fitted, with a Morris Radiator
Works label and rounded ends, this suspended between the front frame
rails and fastened to a welded angle bracket on top of each rail.
The engine has 1½" H-type SU carbs which have been bell-mouthed from
the jet
area forward and the pistons are tapered on their leading edge. The
needles used are No.232 and the carbs mount on a Q2344 numbered
manifold. The engines displacement is 995cc and still has an
original "red" crank.
Overall, the car is very solid with little or no rust. David
(Brown) has speculated that the car might be a rally car built for
Pat Moss which was one of three Old English White cars built by
Healey. However our Sebring sprite registrar, Jonathan
Whitehouse-Bird thinks this unlikely. David is now going to follow
Jonathan's recommendation and contact British Motor Heritage to,
hopefully, obtain a certificate for the car.
Before
he sold the car to Dave Giorgi, David rebuilt and restored
everything except the body. He says: "the engine is a little jewel
of time travel performance tuning. The head is perhaps the most
beautifully ported one I've ever seen, and I've seen many from most
all of the best known tuners. It had domed chambers and the valve
sizes were exactly as described in the specs for the Sebring
modified 995s. I had new ones made, but saved one of each of the
originals. The camshaft is profiled out to match the contemporary
Racer Brown cam, and the flywheel was lightened well beyond anything
I've seen done to an original steel flywheel. I built the engine to
period spec including retaining the tin front pulley and felt front
seal which were on the car when I acquired it. The close ratio
smooth case gearbox is rebuilt entirely from NOS parts. The front
brake rotors were worn beyond use, so I had new ones made to spec,
but saved the originals for their part number identity. The rear
rotors are still usable so they remain fitted. Perhaps the
strangest pieces to me, were the front spindles. They are primarily
drum brake spindles but with a part number found nowhere in any of
the books I have. They were cracked so I had new stubs welded into
them (this is a common performance upgrade in the States and I'm
sure in the UK as well)
but was careful to preserve the original look and part number".
Apparently the body tub is entirely rust free, but a very aggressive
mechanic decided that cutting out the entire transmission tunnel and
most of the footwell would make replacing the frequently failing
transmissions easier. Amazingly, after all these years, the door
fit is still very good, so it would seem the tub hasn't really
sagged without the strengthening of the transmission tunnel.
Can anyone throw
any lot on this car's origins?
If you can - please contact me on
Feedback
|
