Outright Healey Win at the Rolex Monterey Historic Reunion

[dougie]

Great News - Austin Healey outright win at the prestigious Rolex Monterey Historic Reunion Group 1B 1955-1962 GT Cars.

Kevin Adair driving the # 171, 1960 ex-Grant Clark Canadian Championship winning DHM Works prepared big Healey, runs away from the 48 car field including Ferraris, Aston Martins, Corvettes, and Porsches. Kevin's had the car for about 5 years and has been getting faster and smoother everytime out. He put it all together at the perfect event to showcase the dominance the big Healey had in it's glory years. I've pitted with Kevin and his family, they're a great group, his dad races a Lotus Elite. It couldn't have happen to a nicer guy. Paul Freestone, the Australian in the red hardtop Healey made a good showing as well.

Here's the race....Enjoy!

<font color="#000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Dougie,

At what point(s) are the Healey(s) shown? I see a lot of 'puff' pieces and commercials in this, and it looks like several races are concatenated, and I don't have the patience to watch all four hours.

NM, found it (around 35min+).

Argh ... They didn't show the finish (because the Healey ran away with it?)! The announcers talked about every car except the Healeys! They slobbered over an MGA.

 

[dougie]

At adout 37.10 min they given the whole history on Kevin's car, which Bill Bolton owned for years here in Oregon collecting dust in his garage.

 

[Randy Forbes]

Smooth hood__never seen that on a 6-cyl before.

 

[65_BRG_Sprite]

I'm one hour in of 4 + hrs on day 1 video. Great, great, stuff!
'65 Bahamas race whee-oh! Chris Econamaki (sp?) interviewing the legends Jim Hall, AJ (mild tempered w/ broken car!), Bruce McClaren.

 

[dougie]

Smooth hood__never seen that on a 6-cyl before.

If you have The Healey Book, A Complete History of The Healey Marque by Bill Emerson, this car is profiled on pages 142 & 143 in detail. No door handles either, all panels are "one off" custom fabricated for this car.

 

[DerekJ]

I seem to remember that when this car was auctioned off a few years ago (for what was a very reasonable price) it had a lot of non-period upgrades which seemed strange for such a significant car. Has it now been put back to period spec?

 

[dougie]

I seem to remember that when this car was auctioned off a few years ago (for what was a very reasonable price) it had a lot of non-period upgrades which seemed strange for such a significant car. Has it now been put back to period spec?

Your correct Derek, the car was auctioned off for a song. In fact, there was no one in the room who knew of the signification of the Healey and at no reseve a member of the auction house bought it and in turn sold it off to the Adair's here in the states. It has been put right again. I spoke to Kevin, the driver yesturday, his goal was a top ten finish and with the way qualifying turn out he was positioned in the second row. The the pole sitter went out and then the fastest Porsche went down. From there he just ran a smooth clean race.

https://www.rmsothebys.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=668582

 

[John Turney]

....

https://www.rmsothebys.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=668582

The auction photos show a very distinctive cold air entrance. I don't recall seeing that when I saw it in person at Monterey a couple of years ago.

 

[Michael Oritt]

Doug--

That's great to see as Big Healeys are definitely underrepresented on vintage grids--at least here in the East--and are rarely front runners. A couple of notable exceptions are Jeff Johnk in his yellow 3000 and Rich Maloumian who pushes his white/red 100 around a course with great vigor.

Big Healeys are relatively expensive to set up for serious racing as most of the go-fast parts are coming from DW and a couple of other UK suppliers who charge a pretty penny for their stuff. Healeys also have higher market values than some of the more common marques and acquiring one--or deciding to give one over to the "dark side"--involves lots more $$ than, say, for an MG or Triumph.

I also think that because Big Healeys are BIG and have live rear axles they must be driven with a lot of "gusto". Being closely engaged with a well driven Healey--or any other big car--inspires admiration.