Just read your whole build thread, very nice. I also like your listing of suppliers, and already placed an order,lol. Also checked out the britV8 site, also very interesting. Do they modify MGAs at all?
Here's a list of modified MGA's: http://www.britishv8.org/Photos-MG-Conversions.htm I like this conversion done back in the '60s http://www.motoringinvestments.com/z115g.htm
I had a 1960 Austin Healey 3000 with a 327/4 speed combination. I bought the car from the "New Car Trade Center" which some HAMBer's from may remember in Toronto (Avenue Road and Davenport - long gone). It was medium blue with wire wheels on the front steel wheels of some description on the back. As a kid it was in my mind a beautiful car and I still love the styling of the big Healey. Their prices have just gone through the roof in recent years so I guess there are lots of people who really enjoy the the marque as well. As I recall it had a lot of chassis flex which it think was due to the frame having been notched and boxed to clear the Chev starter motor. An interesting thing about the V8 combination was that it was actually lighter than the Healey 6 and O/D transmission. A friend had a very early MGA with a 283 powerglide set up but it never worked particularly well. We had some great Canadian sports car cross over hot rods perhaps the most successful were the Bill Sadler/Doug Duncan Chevrolet powered road racers that were considered by some to be the very first of what was to become USRRC and CAN/AM cars. Great thread Healey Rick. Really interesting information.
A picture from the late 60s. A beautiful silver blue with a blue top SBF and it had a rep for being very quick.
Frank Kurtis not only built open wheel cars, but he built virtually ALL of the Indy roadsters during the fifties. He also built dragsters, and just about every kind of hot rod imaginable, and transitioned into sports cars during the late forties...
Wow that is a nice MGA, and thanks for the link. Seems so odd, but good to hear a V8 rumble from a Brit sports car. How do you like those mufflers you used, happy with them?
Some of these cars are hard for me to classify as either sportscar or hotrod. When you make something faster and better, then to me you are getting into hot rodding. I used to run a modified MGB and I had a modified Corvette as well. I have seen many a Jaguar stuffed with a SBC just because it was cheaper then rebuilding the V-12. I even had a chance to buy a Jag with a 455 Olds! To me this was flirting with the Hot Rod mentallity. What Shelby did with the AC could be argued as being either a sports car, factory race car or factory hotrod. A Sunbeam Tiger is definitely on my list of cars that I would love to have... perhaps someday but more scarce than ever.
I love those. They're so much cooler than their better-known descendent the Muntz Jet. If I were made of sheetmetal talent, I'd be driving some rolled-over late model (Mustang, probably - or a shortened Crown Vic) with a body inspired by the Kurtis built on top. I love sports rods in all their iterations - Tea Baggers with American V8 swaps (MG-TC with a V8/60 would be cool); '20s and '30s domestics meant to handle a road course; or pure homebuilt specials with big American engines. -Dave
I am a hotrodder. I started on my 1st. car in 1962 @ 14 yrs old---a 1937 Ford. Also pictured is my current 57 Ford. In between, I have built many hotrods--several of them sports cars. The 1st a 54 Austin Healy 100-4. Sports cars are light, most had disc brakes and most handled better than domestic cars. The Healy was for competition only and received a 426 max wedge with a shortened torqueflite & ran 10 flat in the 60's. Also did a 100-4 w/sbc for street but no picture. In late 70's did a TR6/strong 331 sbc.In the early 80's a 240Z/331 sbc. Recently a 280Z/355 sbc. There is nothing at all wrong with sports cars for Hot Rodding!!!! note--I'm Casey's Dad
I'm very happy with the Spintech Cruisers. Because the Healey is so low at stock ride height it's difficult to find a muffler that won't bottom out. The 2 1/4" height of the Spintechs fills the bill perfectly and I think they sound awesome.
I had a ERA 427 sideoiler for 14 years. It was the more fun to drive than any other car I owned. When I was 16 a friend had a late 50's MG that he put a 260 Ford in and I remember what a blast that was to drive.
Really ? Healey 3000 = 6 JAG xk = 6 E Type = 6 or 12 Daimler dart / sp250 = 8 Ac cobra = 8 Ac ace = 6
My '52 TD with a '37 v8-60, Mustang t-5, 3.9 gears in a stock rear end. Still not finished (are they ever?) but a blast to drive. Marvin
The v8 60 was a cast off motor for a long time. Morgan used one in at least one car in the fifties. As a kid in southern Cal. in the fifties I saw several European cars with v8 60's and then along came the Olds F-85 aluminum engine. The v8 60 motor that really impressed me was the simca Ardun head, now that really looked like a good idea for a small sports car.
Specials, Europe's hot rods: Batten Specials were sort of semi-productionized Other Fords, both American and British Austins MGs Rileys Sunbeam
Add to the list of hot rodders turned sports car types Dan Gurney, Phil Remington and Jim Busby. Someone mentioned Carroll Shelby did some driving. Carroll was one of the top American drivers through the '50s. He drove in 8 World Championship Grand Prixs and won the 24 Hrs of Le Mans in 1959 in an Aston Martin. It was his racing record that gave him the credibility with the likes of Ford Motor that allowed him to get the Cobra project off the ground. Danny Ongais did more than just turn left. He was a top sports car driver in the IMSA series for Ted Fields Interscope team winning the 1979 24h of Daytona. Racers are racers and will race anything, anytime, anywhere. It's only in the last 15 or 20 years that they have gotten so specialized. Back in the day the likes of Andretti and Foyt would run a Can-Am race one weekend, an Indy car race the next and squeeze in a Sprint car race in between. Some F1 guys would run the Daytona 500 because it was still the off season for them. Back then they got paid for driving, not making personal appearances or sponsor commercials. Kurt O.
I'm in the process of transitioning myself. Let's not forget Ohio George Montgomery and all the Spec motors he built for road racing (I forgot the name of the sanctioning body - somebody will chime in).
But things eventually get a bit dull in the middle of each of them. Interesting stuff happens where they cross and flow into each other.
If you are prepared to ignore a huge part of history, maybe. But these guys that put themselfs in the record books are proving you wrong...