September - Austin Healey Owners Club of Victoria

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Membership: Peter Heading reported that our membership currently stands at 583 – no change since July. Social: Barbara reported that the “Christmas in July” week end at Rusty Springs organised by Gordon and Elaine Lindner was a sensational event and that we will do another run to this venue in the future – see September magazine for detailed report. Barb also reminded members about Selwyn’s early morning “fang” run on 14 August – details in August magazine. The other event coming up is the Williamstown lunch on 28 August – anyone with suggestions for alternative lunch venues should talk to Barb – an e mail will be circulated with final details. Finally, the observation run to Gippsland on 25 September should be put in members’ diaries – details in September magazine. Ralph spoke about the combined mini rally to Mildura in early October and noted that take up has been very pleasing, with a total of 61 Victorian and South Australian members booked in so far. Since 70 is the maximum number that can be catered for anyone wishing to go needs to put their hand up very soon! Final details will be published in the September newsletter. Editor: Harvey reported that printing and distribution of the August magazine went to plan and hoped everyone has received their magazine. He then asked for early submission of articles for the September magazine. Regalia: Ron noted that he has some examples of new Ladies jackets and invited anyone interested to have a look following the meeting. Cars/Parts/Sale/Buy Ron Smith is restoring an old caravan and asked if anyone has a caravan fridge or other second hand caravan bits and pieces they are looking to get rid of to please contact him on 9789 7698. Competition / MSCA: Rod is still on holiday so Bill V and Peter Jackson gave a brief run down of coming and past events. Bill V reported that his daughter has just achieved a regularity third place in an Historic meeting held at Warwick in Queensland last week end driving his old white Mk1 Sprite. The next MSCA event is Phillip Island on 21 August – most of the usual suspect plan to run there so anyone interested in supporting Team Healey could take a look. Bill also noted that the Winton 6 hour relay will run again this year but for the first time in around 10 years, without Peter and Anne Stanley managing a Healey team. Instead, our entry has been taken over by the Sprite Driver’s Club – there will be only 1 team of AHOC runners managed by Graham Palich. Peter Jackson reported that the Winton Historic meet on 13 – 14 August next promises to be a good event. There are 36 cars entered for Groups Sa/Sb – Peter is running in Sa whilst Rob Jamieson is running in regularity. Ian Ross from VHRR has arranged for a number of Formula 5000s to run – will be interesting to see them on this track! AOMC/Vic Roads: BV reported that he and Brian Aitken attended an AOMC Seminar (Streamlining Your Club’s Operations) on Saturday 30 July. There were a number of interesting presenters who discussed issues such as meeting formats, committee management techniques and the latest changes in Incorporation legislation. This will be discussed by Committee to see what we can gain. Also mentioned was the Vic Roads Club Permit Scheme – all agreed it is the best of it’s kind in Australia! The AOMC have issued an excellent Club Permit Scheme handbook ($5.00/copy) that answers all the questions often raised – we may issue to all Permit holders in future. General Business: Bill V discussed the upcoming “Motorclassica” and noted that the AHOC has been invited to participate with cars for display – entry details on the Motorclassica web site or see him. He also noted that the RACV “City to Country” run starts at the Exhibition Buildings on 23 October (cars up to 1960 or run on models eligible – that means all Healeys except BJ7/8s) and recommended participation if your car complies – a quick look around the Motorclassica event will be possible prior to the “off”! Another upcoming RACV event is the Great Australian Rally to be held on 15 January 2012 and finishing at Mornington Racecourse – once again, an excellent opertunity for the Club to display cars – more in a magazine closer to this event. Finally, the RACV sponsored “Fly the Flag” tour next years heads west – see BV or Gordon if interested in participating. Barb recommended that members take a look at the display cabinet outside our library in the Club rooms – there is a display of new books and DVDs that will soon be available to borrow once our new library shelving is installed. These are expected before the September meeting. Anyone interested in participating in the regularity section next year’s Classic Targa Adelaide should speak to Rod Vogt – this is a fairly low speed event with lots of navigation challenge – Tony Rogers is running in this years Classic Adelaide – report in next Magazine. Raffel Finally, the evening raffle was drawn with Arthur Tuckett and Linda Fletcher taking the spoils. Prizes were donated to the Club by Tony Barrett and Mike Snelgrove. Meeting closed at 8.55pm Next meeting: 1 September 2011 – Guest speaker will be Mr Jeffrey Clarke of the RACV Foundation – car on display will be 300SL Mercedes Benz. Brian Aitken - Secretary 8 HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS SEPTEMBER 2011
LUCKY RACER IN THE LUCKY COUNTRY How a Healey legend was rescued against the odds by Australian Healey enthusiasts Do you believe cars can be haunted? After a big rollover accident at Winton last year, its fifth incident in two years, the BMW 2002 was confiscated by the shaken owners' friends, stripped of its good bits, cut into three and taken to separate scrap yards for crushing. The haunted car was no more. Equally, cars can live a charmed existence. They are happy, sunny cars, which attract happy events, are always on the winning side, avoid disasters and spread a positivity all around. Such a car is NOJ392 - the UK registration number given to the second of three identical Austin Healeys by the City Treasurer’s Department in Longbridge on the 24th April 1953 in the name of the Austin Motor Company. This car has become part of Austin Healey legend and on the front cover of this magazine you can see it restored and proudly on display at Como Park alongside the Yarra river in Melbourne in 1995. Between Birmingham in 1953 and Melbourne in 1995 this car had many adventures. But just when it seemed a disaster would happen, its luck always came good. From February 1969 until September 1980, it was mine. I sold it to AHOC member John Gray who later sold to respected Healey collector Warwick Sell in NSW. It was the Sell family who commissioned the fabulous restoration by Rob Rowland and the Healey Factory team which you can see here. The smiling gent in the photo is the late Roger Menadue, whose Experimental Department had built it 58 years ago. Over the next few months, John Gray and I are going to tell you the story of NOJ 392, the Lucky Racer, as we lived it over a period of nearly 20 years - cycles of near disaster and then triumph, with this wonderful old car always coming out on top. Weirdly, this pattern is continuing today - and it’s an up-period at the moment, if a little shrouded in secrecy, as we’ll see later. The story of the first Austin Healeys has been told many times but the most reliable account is that given by Geoff Healey in his book “The Healey Story” published after his death and after he had been to Australia and seen the progress on rejuvenating his old race car. Briefly, Geoff recounts that after the 1952 launch of the Healey 100, twenty cars were to be built at Healey’s Warwick base before production shifted to Longbridge. Of these, four ‘Special Test Cars’ were for competition by agreement with Austin - who paid for them - and constructed by Roger Menadue in the new purpose built experimental workshop. NOJ 392 was the sixth Austin Healey built at Warwick in early 1953 and the second racing car. All the first batch were of aluminium and Jensen built the special test car bodies out of top quality Birmabright alloy. Donald Healey wanted those alloy bodied cars to look identical to the steel bodies Longbridge would soon be pumping out. So although there were many lightweight features - such as polished alloy bumpers - outwardly they looked very standard. The engines had nitrided cranks, with standard but specially selected pistons and rods and lightened flywheels and a special camshaft gave higher lift and a longer overlap. By Le Mans the cars had been fitted with cold air boxes and 1 3/4 inch over size SU carburettors. Power was quoted at 103bhp at 4,500rpm. The clutch was a Borg and Beck competition item (after the Mille Miglia drama) feeding power to a modified 4 speed Austin Taxi gearbox with a really cool centre change. Behind this sturdy item went a heavy-duty quick acting high ratio overdrive unit giving a 32% engine speed reduction from a nifty little switch on the steering wheel. With wide spaced ratios and the overdrive dropping neatly in the gaps on 2nd, 3rd and 4th, this was a precursor to the later ‘Tulip’ ratios in the Abingdon rally cars. Importantly, with a 3.667 diff, this arrangement gave the NOJ cars six speed gearboxes with top geared for 205 kph. In 1953! The suspension had a thicker front anti roll bar and revalved lever arm shock absorbers - tubular Konis were still in the future - with Geoff quoting bump and rebound pressures just like a modern setup whizz. The list of mods includes special lightweight aluminium radiators, longrange fuel tanks and 11”x1 3/4” Girling drum brakes fitted with Mintex M20 fade free linings and Alfin drums - although these suffered the usual blue hot spots on the track ; even Lucas made a special effort to produce upspecced wiring and ancillaries. The cars were painted in metallic light green, since Donald Healey superstitiously thought that British racing green was unlucky but still wanted the cars painted in the British national racing colour. Green leather was used for the seats. These really were racers for the road - but looked exactly like the production cars which were about to start spreading through the dealerships, while the race cars were soon off to compete after some hectic development road trips by Geoff Healey across a war shattered Europe. In their first big event, the new Healey built racers failed. The Mille Miglia of 1953 had 502 starters but only 283 were finishers, and these did not include the Lockett / Reid driven NOJ 392 (race number 552) which overcame throttle linkage problems only to suffer a disintegrated clutch 80 miles from the finish. The Lucky Racer had started with a DNF caused by component failure. This was not a good start. Next event was the Le Mans 24 hours in June. Although the clutch was soon replaced by a stronger one (with riveted and bonded lining) and the throttle linkage was fixed by more careful fitting, things started out badly. Firstly, conditions at the Healey team base near Le Mans in a dilapidated French chateau were poor and the team was soon hit by chronic food poisoning. Then journalist Gordon Wilkins was driving NOJ 391 back to the chateau after scrutineering when he was hit by a drunk and both Gordon and particularly Wilkins’s wife, a passenger in the car, were seriously injured. NOJ 391 was damaged too badly to continue and so all the sealed components had to be built back into 393 overnight. The team started out on a marathon event exhausted and a key driver carrying a painful injury. But as the race developed, things started to improve, and although 391 (393 with 391’s bits) had overdrive stick in and Wilkins had a close shave with a spinning Pegaso , the two little green cars lapped steadily at an average lap speed of 146 to 152 kph, which was the fastest lap for the pair, by Johnny Lockett in NOJ392 HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS SEPTEMBER 2011 9
Page 3 and 4: This Club is affiliated to the Conf
Page 5 and 6: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY SUPPER ROSTERS
Page 7 and 8: We missed out on last years “Murd
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Page 13 and 14: NOJ at Arnage (Sourced from Ivo Vis
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September - Austin Healey Owners Club of Victoria

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