Goodwood Revival

Austin Healer

Austin Healer

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I had the opportunity to go to The Goodwood Revival this year. One racing Alpine and the LeMans mule... It was amazing to see these cars and to watch them driven at full throttle... in the rain. The natives were friendly too!!
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The LeMans mule in it's race. Sadly it wasn't competitive against the larger engined (and lighter) Cobras. The surprise winner was a lone TVR Griffith that the Cobras, try as the might, just couldn't catch! the race started with a decidedly "damp" course, which eventually turned to dry with some sun. Another spectacular race was for the "tin top" cars. This had everything from Mk1 Minis to 7 litre Ford Galaxies!




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Another 20 Years ago part of History:

9-26-04 Testing at Willow Springs.
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I love the '67 Ford Ranchero tow vehicle in the period pics!

In the Goodwood Revival outing I can't fault the owners/drivers... They gave it their all. It was obvious when they passed out of the last chicane onto the straight, they were at full throttle! That was my vantage point...
 
This jogged my memory that I have photos taken of a Lemans Tiger at the Mid Ohio vintage races back in 1988. The car carried the number 9 and had yellow wheels and a yellow stripe running around the tail. If I remember correctly it had center knock off wheels and 4 Weber carbs that set back into the heater core area. I believe it was a similar carb setup to what was in the #74 Tiger at one time. Sid Silverman was the owner of the LeMans Tiger. I also have photos of the same car at SUNI 2. Another interesting series of photos I have is of the Targa Florio Tiger parked next to the number 9 at SUNI 3. Around this same time Shields Racing was running a silver Harrington LeMans in SVRA.
 
Austin Healer said:
I love the '67 Ford Ranchero tow vehicle in the period pics!

In the Goodwood Revival outing I can't fault the owners/drivers... They gave it their all. It was obvious when they passed out of the last chicane onto the straight, they were at full throttle! That was my vantage point...
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The revival is certainly an event where the cars are run to their full potential and occasionally beyond.

The "mule" is one of the few cars that actually run to period spec and not over developed as many of the cars are... And Lord March gave a big talk about the invites and "cheater" cars for the coming years

The #8 LM that has often run the TT and up the pointy end of the same TT field was running at Monterey the week before the revival and managed to finish 3rd overall in its group .. a very quick Tiger.

I note the Chris actually won the Brands Hatch GT races in #8 last week... Very impressive... But more representative of its Bernard Unett Autosport trophy competitiveness than its works LM effort

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michael-king said:
The revival is certainly an event where the cars are run to their full potential and occasionally beyond.

The "mule" is one of the few cars that actually run to period spec and not over developed as many of the cars are... And Lord March gave a big talk about the invites and "cheater" cars for the coming years

The #8 LM that has often run the TT and up the pointy end of the same TT field was running at Monterey the week before the revival and managed to finish 3rd overall in its group .. a very quick Tiger.

I note the Chris actually won the Brands Hatch GT races in #8 last week... Very impressive... But more representative of its Bernard Unett Autosport trophy competitiveness than its works LM effort

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Click to expand...
Speaking of "beyond" their capabilities.... 2 Aston Martin DB4GT's ended up in the tire barriers.. One just smashed the tail, and the tail lamps.. He got out, looked at the car, climbed back in and finished the race... The other went off on the back of a flat bed, likely destroyed. A C1 Corvette went into the barrier along the front straight and destroyed everything ahead of the doors. One of the 427 powered Galaxies met the same fate. The lone Kellison went into a tire barrier before the chicane and had to be taken away on the back of a flat bed. There were other less dramatic events, but several other cars went away battle scarred.

On the first day (Friday) all of the cars went out for qualifying. It was raining so hard the rain was bouncing up 3" off the tarmac. It was really something to see a Big Healey (in rally guise) in a four wheel drift at full throttle around the last corner and then coming into and out of the chicane the same way... The crowd was on their feet.... Having owned Big Healeys continuously for the last 43 years I can appreciate that the driver had massive balls of steel! All of these cars were running bias ply tire racing tires, and all of them were "dry" tires, as the "wet" versions are no longer available.

The client that took me, was running in the F1 1.5litre class. A 1964 BRM (V-8) powered BRP (British Racing Partnership) car. The car was driven by Innes Ireland in period. He was plenty nervous on his dry compound Dunlop Bias ply racing tires!
 
Austin Healer said:
Speaking of "beyond" their capabilities.... 2 Aston Martin DB4GT's ended up in the tire barriers.. One just smashed the tail, and the tail lamps.. He got out, looked at the car, climbed back in and finished the race... The other went off on the back of a flat bed, likely destroyed. A C1 Corvette went into the barrier along the front straight and destroyed everything ahead of the doors. One of the 427 powered Galaxies met the same fate. The lone Kellison went into a tire barrier before the chicane and had to be taken away on the back of a flat bed. There were other less dramatic events, but several other cars went away battle scarred.

On the first day (Friday) all of the cars went out for qualifying. It was raining so hard the rain was bouncing up 3" off the tarmac. It was really something to see a Big Healey (in rally guise) in a four wheel drift at full throttle around the last corner and then coming into and out of the chicane the same way... The crowd was on their feet.... Having owned Big Healeys continuously for the last 43 years I can appreciate that the driver had massive balls of steel! All of these cars were running bias ply tire racing tires, and all of them were "dry" tires, as the "wet" versions are no longer available.

The client that took me, was running in the F1 1.5litre class. A 1964 BRM (V-8) powered BRP (British Racing Partnership) car. The car was driven by Innes Ireland in period. He was plenty nervous on his dry compound Dunlop Bias ply racing tires!
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It is an amazing event.. and there is often a bunch of work for the restoration industry the end of the event... The TT and St Mary's Trophy races seem to generate the vast majority of that...lots of ex BTCC drivers...

The Healey antics you refer to arr these I believe...



 
michael-king said:
It is an amazing event.. and there is often a bunch of work for the restoration industry the end of the event... The TT and St Mary's Trophy races seem to generate the vast majority of that...lots of ex BTCC drivers...

The Healey antics you refer to arr these I believe...



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That's the car! It was simply amazing... one thing is for sure, this guy knows the car intimately.
 
The Healey (XJB 876) was one of the 3000 Mk1 rally cars driven by Donald Morley. It finished 2nd in class on the 1961 Tulip rally and 1st overall in the 1961 French Alpine. It was DNF in the Liege-Sofia-Liege.Only 8 cars survived to finish. In the 1961 RAC rally it was also DNF.
 
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