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Salt flats photo

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Michael Oritt

Michael Oritt

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For whoever wanted to know whose cars are shown at

https://www.britishcarforum.com/ubbthreads/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2121/limit/recent

From right to left: My 100, Peter and Ann Hunt of Scotland's 3000, Julian Bowen of GB's 100-6, Bill Cantrall of Illinois' Bugeye and Clive Randall of Scotland's Westland. Several others to the left got cropped out including Bob MacElwee of St. Louis's 3000.

We were part of a group of Healeys running from Ocean City to Lake Tahoe on Route 50 for Open Roads 2002--a number of us wanted to divert to Bonneville and the day the picture was taken we ran from Tooele, UT (near Salt Lake City) to Ely, NV.

We stopped for the photo-op at the end of the road that runs out to the Salt Flats--a pretty spooky and very salty place. From there we ran to Wendover, UT then got on Alt. 93 and on to Ely--this last stretch is what is generally called "The Loneliest Road"--at one point we were directed by NV State Police to pull to the side of the road as practice runs for a sanctioned no-speed-limits timed event that was to take place the next day were being run on a 15-20 mile stretch of the road. There were go-fast cars from all over the US parked at the martialing area. Reportedly, after we passed one car went off the road at something over 150 mph and the driver was killed--the event was supposedly cancelled. (What did they expect was likely to happen?)

We rejoined the main group in Ely that night and next day ran from Ely to LT on route 50.
 

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That sounds like the trip of a lifetime! Some great cars too!
The Westland really got me thinking. I couldn't quite see the Westland in the photo and I couldn't recall when I'd seen a good photo of one in the past, so I'm pasting in a somewhat better picture of this rare car.

23hou_leadimage.jpg
 
Bill had this car shipped from the UK to Australia where it was rebuilt by Steve Pike and then shipped to the US to appear at Conclave NC this past summer. I believe that Bill is doing some extensive touring with it.

Clive Randall, the Westland Driver on the Open Roads tour was inclined to make wrong turns and/or overheat so he spent much time behind me and in front of Julian Bowen. As ungainly as the Westland looks from some angles, when seen from the rearview it looks a lot like a 120 Jag. It was powered by the Riley engine that DMH loved.

BTW Clive, Julian and another UK Healey driver are somewhere on a tour of South America in their Healeys. It's another one of Clive's nefarious fundraaising schemes for a worth cause and more can be learned by going to:

https://www.averybritish.com/
 
Here is one of a dozen pictures (including close-ups) that I took when I caught up with the group at
Wendover Air Force Auxillary Field, just over the Arizona-Utah border at the west end of the Salt Flats.

That's my Suburban and trailer on the far end.

Wendover1.jpg


Tim Moran
 
It's great seeing these photos and what a small Healey world it is. BTW the reason we stopped at Wendover was to see Mark Bratakis, the fellow who keeps the Healey emailer list (autox) who was running in an event there that day. I don't think he was in a Healey--seems to me that I remember a Lotus 11 running around the track.

I see my car beyond Peter and Ann Hunt's and Julian Bowen's cars in the middle and Clive Randall's Westland in the foreground and would guess that the two black Healeys belong to Bob Brown and Bob Mac, both of whom were the main organizers of the Route 50 tour. Don't know who was on the far end.

Thanks Tim for posting this--what a great blast from the past.
 
Michael,
You are correct, Bob Brown's BT7 then our BT7. Dick Langer's Healey Blue ov White BT7 is next to you. The last car is our daughter's BRG BJ8 that my wife Jean drove to Toole. We had picked up Linda at Salt Lake City the day before and she drove the rest of the way to LT.
The photos do bring back memories of one of the best Healey trips I've been on. UK-2K in '00 and Route 66 in '97 are other 'blast from the past'. Looking forward to San Diego and New Mexico in a couple of years.
 
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