September - Austin Healey Owners Club of Victoria

One of the most elusive, little understood, but the most
replicated Austin-Healey is the factory built 100/M. The
difficulty is that these cars had no identifying numbers and
the fact that it was also possible to have a kit retro fitted by
the Donald Healey Motor Company at Warwick, or have a
full or partial kit fitted by someone else, added to the
dilemma. It is generally accepted that the factory built 640
cars.
Austin Distributors in South Melbourne imported a batch of
6 examples of the factory built cars. I can account for 5 of
these cars and it is interesting that although they arrived as
a batch, their chassis numbers are over a range of 300.
The car that was used as a demonstrator was a red/black
car BN2 232128 which was registered GNS 814. This car
also served as the daily drive for the Managing Director
Laurie Purse, the father of our member Hugh, during the
spring and summer of 1956. It was parked in the
showroom during the day alongside the green/white
100/M. Hugh has lasting memories of, when as a 12 year
old, being driven in the 100/M to the family holiday home in
the Dandenongs. This whetted his appetite to later
purchase an Austin-Healey of his own.
The car was eventually sold to Bruno Taverniti in 1957.
This was his first car and he has some very fond memories
of it. He recalls doing some silly things with the car but he
never damaged it. His good friend Peter Mitchell, who
owned two 100/6’s at the one time, always had one in the
panel shop as a result of trying to keep up with him. He
found that he had to fit new rings after 20,000 miles as the
cold air box provided little protection from dust. He had
one run with it up Templestowe Hillclimb, which must have
been an Inter- Club Meeting as I couldn’t find any results
for that event. He had the opportunity of buying the
Drysdale 100/S, but made the mistake of telling his friend
Terry Valmorbida about it, and the next time he went to see
Terry there was the 100/S parked outside his home. The
100/S continued to be used as a daily driver, but Terry did
enter the car at Albert Park where he shared the driving
with Paul Hawkins. Bruno recalls that Paul was 14 seconds
a lap faster than Terry. The car was damaged in practice
when it hit the hay bales. Bob Baker worked on it
overnight and had it ready race the next morning.
Bruno kept the 100/M for 12 months before trading it in on
a Porsche Speedster.
The next owner was Ken Pitts, who ran a small
engineering works in Eltham. Ken continued to use the car
on the road, but he also used it in competition over the
next 18 months.
At the September 1960 climb at Rob Roy, Ken briefly held
the Class Record, only to have it broken later in the day by
Bill Lucas in the XK150 Jaguar.
During the period of owning the Austin Healey, Ken bought
the ex Tony Gaze Alta 2 Litre Monoposto. By now this car
was tired from many years of racing, so Ken fitted an
Austin-Healey engine, Jaguar rear end and Peugeot front
end, and raced the car as an Austin Special.
At Hepburn Springs in May 1961 it was reported that –“The
final entrant for the first run was Ken Pitts, the culprit for
the long delay. Having his first hill run of the big Alta, Ken
crossed his arms at the critical moment and obliterated the
finish timing stand and came very close to obliterating an
Official. Luckily only the car and the timing suffered any
real damage.
18
AUSTIN-HEALEYS THAT RACED IN AUSTRALIA
Ken Pitts at Tarrawingee
The delay while the timing was reinstated took the better
part of 80 minutes and the organizers reluctantly advised
drivers that time remained for only two climbs”. Ken sold
this car during 1961.
At the April 1961 Meeting at Rob Roy Ken entered his
XK150 Jaguar, and it was at the September 1961 Meeting
that Ken again entered his XK150 Jaguar.“ Ken Pitts
easily won the Over 2000cc Production Car Class from
Keith Stedwell’s big Healey. Handling the XK with skill he
steadily improved on his times through the day to finish on
31.96 seconds, almost a full second better than Stedwell
who frightened himself with a second run spin on Skyline”.
The Stedwell car was a 100/6 which has been owned by
Colin Thomas since 1966.
Ken also started to build a single seater racing car using
an Austin-Healey engine. I believe this car ended up being
used as a Bush Buggy around the paddocks of North
Eltham before they were covered in houses.
Ken Absolom from Heidelberg was the next owner and he
only used it as a road car. Shortly after the Club was
founded in 1967 David Rapley received a phone call from
the family of Ken Absolom asking the Club to find an
appropriate owner for the 100/M.
Bob Allison at Lakelands Hillclimb
One of our Members, Bob Allison, had just bought a BN1
which turned out to be a bad choice. David and I agreed
that Bob would be a suitable owner for the 100/M, so David
got the two parties together. The car had been sitting for a
while and needed minor work to get it back on the road. It
was reregistered KBM 429.
HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS SEPTEMBER 2011