Ryan Reese and Rene Drewell, Steve and Deb Espelund, Marvin and Sue Marshall, Bob and Syd Bredwell, Gary Higgins, Tom Turner, John Ulrich, Jerry and Nancy Needham, and Jim and Jo Stork. If you want to join us and have not yet called, please call Bob Shaw at (402) 435-4905 or Fred Meier, who is practicing frequently at the racetrack, at (402) 475-1302 by February 14th.

The Smiley Healey

Part 1.

It was not all that special the first time I saw it sitting in Road and Track Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska. Bud worked on a lot of different sports cars, including several of the "exotic" variety, and this was just an old yellow Austin Healey 100-6 4-passenger roadster. Oh, it was pretty straight and cleanăit had obviously avoided the salt prevalent on the streets in the winterăbut next to the '66 E type with the red paint that had a shine that looked like you needed a towel after walking past it and the Ferrari 308, and the Laborgini Jalpa, the old Healey looked a bit frayed around the edges.

I mentioned, with a grand gesture encompassing the shop, that the old Healey looked a little dull among all of those automotive jewels. Bud just chuckled a bit at my ignorance and replied that the old Healey was a very fast and rather special car. It is an old racecar, he said, and it used to belong to Gordon Smiley, the fellow who died in turn 4

1981 at Indianapolis after leading the race. His father, Gene, who owned a gas station in Omaha, had raced the car originally, and then Gordon had driven it in his early years as a racer. Before that Gordon would take his Mini on the track, but at 15 he was too young to race. So despite his being very good and quite fast they would chase him off of the track after a very short time.

The yellow Healey, a 1958 model, was typical for an old SCCA racecar from the early '60s. It had been prepared for racing by fitting it with 3 SU HS8 carburetors, disc brakes on the front and it ran Boranni wire wheels. There was one aspect of the car that surprised me. This particular Healey was equipped with a Leycock electric overdrive unit-a transmission which I had been told was not sturdy enough for racing. When I queried Bud on this point he replied Mr. Smiley had told him that brakes were cheaper than transmissions and clutches, and the car had proven to be quite durable. I began to realize that this car wore a patina that came from its being used in the manner for which it was designed. Donald Healey would have been proud!

The car, which belonged to Dave Anderson at the time, disappeared shortly after that and I did not hear of it again until about a year ago. FWAHC member Scott Kahler called on day and told me that there was a neat old Healey at Jerry's Automotive service that I should go check out. It was an old Healey that used to belong to Gordon Smiley and it was being restored before being run in the Carrera PanAmerica.

(To be continued)

Brought to you on the web by Shaw's Garage
PAGE 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Archives

©1999 FWAHC & MLCDesign/TechnoMOM