A new beginning, a new ‘Endurance’ record

In 1953 Donald Healey had an ambition to take the 200mph production car speed record, and the 24-hour endurance record. He had built one of the most iconic sports cars of the Fifties and teamed up with Austin to produce it in volume. The car had wowed the public at Earls Court motor show but it was felt that record breaking would prove both the design and the integrity of the Austin Healey and its components. Consequently in 1953 standard production cars were used to take the production car records covering 3100 miles in 30 hours at an average speed of 104.3 mph.

This success spurred the team on to look at an outright production sports car record for 24-hour endurance running, so the following year in 1954 a standard chassis was prepared with a modified Weslake designed cylinder head, 16 inch Dunlop peg drive wheels and Dunlop disc brakes (a first in production sports cars). There were a small number of aerodynamic modifications with a small aero screen and head fairing plus an air-cooled battery compartment in the right hand passenger compartment.

In due course the car was transported to Bonneville in Utah for the record attempt. There on Aug 23rd 1954, supervised by the American Automobile club the car set 83 National and International Class D records driven by Donald Healey, George Eyston, Carroll Shelby, Mort Goodall and Roy Jackson-Moore. A 24-hour average speed of 132.29 mph was set giving the equivalence of driving from New York to San Francisco in a day!
Now some 54 years later the feat is being attempted again. Unfortunately the original car together with its Streamliner sister car were scrapped shortly after the records in the fifties as salt had taken its toll and made them unsafe.

However an early lightweight factory chassis has been discovered by Martyn Corfield. Together with Healey expert Jeremy Welch the car is being recreated from the ground up, with a view to attempting the same feat in 2008.

The Welch family are no strangers to achievement on the World record stage. Their involvement dates back to 1906 and achievements have included the World Water Speed Record with a boat called ‘Bulldog’, The European FIA championships with their own Healey also the rebuilding of the 1965 Le Mans Austin Healey sprite and its sister car, plus building cars for such luminaries as Stirling Moss and Mark Knopfler.
“ We have had a lot of success in the past, based on our ability to design and manufacture solutions to performance problems ranging from high speed cars to rally cars.

This project is a particularly interesting challenge, as I don’t think that anyone has run a Healey at this speed and distance for quite some time. It’s imperative that we conduct our research in depth and facilitate as authentic a reconstruction as possible. For instance we have had to re-manufacture the peg drive hubs from the original drawings. The integrity of our work will be tested to the limit so we have got to get it right” says Jeremy Welch MD of Denis Welch Motorsport.

If all goes to plan there will be an attempt on the Record in 2008 with the FIA officiating to make sure the facts are recorded.
There is every chance that the new car will take a record with its pedigree and the prospects of a long distance award beckon perhaps the team can surpass the original figures. It’s a very exciting project with huge interest, which is being watched across the globe.