Its first night inside for about 40 years. Rescued from a scrap yard in Somerset thanks to a tip off from a friend…
Welcome to the stable HCC 600
A 1960 MK1 Austin Healey #FrogeyeSprite with wonderful competition history; including the 1961 #RACRally.
NOVEMBER 18: An Austin Healey Sprite brakes sharply during trials during the RAC Rally on November 18, 1961. (Photo by LAT Images)
What we know so far is that having been raced and rallied as a Frogeye bodied car in 1961 by #BobDewar, he hired #BobKing to convert the car to #SebringSprite specification over the winter of 1961/62.
King was preparing several cars for Dewar under the banner of #EdgwareRacingStable. Dewar raced HCC again in 1962….. But what happened to it then?
Originally supplied from BMC in #CherryRed according to it’s Heritage Certificate it has worn a light metallic blue all over at some point….
By 1980 it was on a farm in Devon and by the mid 80s it was parked up and never moved until it formed part of a clearance from a deceased estate.
The tale from the last owner’s daughter is that it spent some time in the US and competed extensively in Europe and the US. She recalls being told it had an engine built by the engine builder for Graham Hill (quite plausible given the Bob King connection who was busy building Climax engines for racing royalty in the 60s)
Bob King went on to found Racing Preparation Ltd who were the leading builder of #CoventryClimax #RacingEngines. King also raced a #MerlynMk6 which had a Climax in it (removed from #LesLeston #DAD10 Elite) mated to a #Porsche gearbox) and was owned by Dewar. Kings work eventually evolved into founding and running Royale, famed for their Formula Ford and Single Seater racing cars.
Other names to appear in connection to it are Makin (also spelt occasionally as Makein), W.H.Ramsden, C.Nash, M.Quinton and N.Jeffries…
Can you shed any light on its life? We’d love to know.