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Targa Newfoundland in Healey 100

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Michael Oritt

Michael Oritt

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Some of you may remember that last year I navigated in AHX 12, a preproduction Healey 100 owned by Blair Harber and driven by Michael Salter. We had a raft of rear axle problems and missed two days of competition, ultimately finishing and winning the Spirit of Newfoundland "hard luck" award.

This year we came back prepared. We did break two rod ends on the four-link rear (yes, the car is heavily modified for this event)in an enormous pothole at the end of the second day and had to limp through the final stage, acquiring some penalty points because we missed our speed. But otherwise the car ran like a fast top, the driver and navigator worked well as a team and we made either Targa or Trophy times in all other stages.

Results were posted this morning--we came in 9th overall and but for the second day's penalties would have finished second ovderall. Not bad for a 55 year old Healey and two old farts!

For complete info on the event go to www.targanewfoundland.com and also look on YouTube for some video postings--there might be footage of us somewhere.

Bset--Michael Oritt
 
This is thrilling news. I was captivated by the article and videos I saw from last year's event and so looked forward to this year. Congratulations!

There is nothing more exciting than watching a Healey rally.
 
Mike, Congrats on a fine showing and great effort. This just shows that the Healeys are a timeless rally car. Any chance you'd share some pics of the 4-link rear? My 100/4 is stripped to the chassis, so now is the time to fabricate racing modifications. :yesnod:
 
David--

I have no pictures of the four-link rear which BTW also utilizes a Watts link for transverse location of the axle.

You might want to search around on Michael Salter's blog at: https://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/ as I believe there is an article on there about it, though it might reflect the design he did for last year's event which he modified a bit since. In any case there is a wealth of useful and interesting info on it and it gives you an idea of just what an "Out of the box" thinker he is.

You can contact Michael at: michaelsalter@rogers.com but he is just leaving NF tomorrow mornng and will probably not be back in Toronto till Friday.
 
Micheal, Thanks for the contact info. I'll get in touch with him. I've been doing the 4-link on my racing Spridgets with panhard rods, so I've got some ideas for the 100/4. But talking with someone that's doing it currently always helps with the dos and donts.
 
David--

We were not able to find replacement 5/8" fine thread male rod ends in all of Gander, Newfoundland at 5:30 PM (what a shocker!) but luckily another competitor had some female ones and we used bolts cut down to length to make up the connections. Since bolts are always easy to come by and the female rods end fittings are probably as or stronger than the bolts perhaps this is the way to go in the first place.

BTW I have a similar four-link rear with Panhard rod on my Elva Courier race car--I believe you want the links to describe a rectangle as much as possible to eliminate any binding under load, etc.
 
Congratulations Michael, I've been dreaming of making it to the Targa someday, abeit just as a spectater. When I finish my Healey, I just might put that trip on the intenary.
Dave C.
 
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