Part One: The Genesis

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Parent Category: Team 51 History
Category: Part One: The Genesis

It all begins on a lazy early fall afternoon in 1984. My brother has just done this “deal” for a whole lot of VW parts plus cars in various states of disrepair. Sure enough, when I get to his place there is about a quarter acre of VW stuff, and there he was, going through the collection and admiring the booty. It was one of those situations where the price was right but there was a hook; he had to take it all…..no cherry picking, all or nothing; “where do you want it?”

Well, over to one side of the field is this forlorn little two door nondescript roadster that obviously did not have German heritage. “As a matter of fact”, Bob says, “it was passed off as being some kind of British car”. And, I make the classic mistake of asking “so, what are you going to do with that little car?” And he says “I think you should have it”. This goes back and forth where soon enough it’s decided that the fate of the car, if I don’t adopt it, is on to the scrap yard with the other stuff with no resale or redeemable value. Well….we can’t let that happen! So, I buy it for two hundred twenty-five bucks and proceed to drag it the five miles back to my house.

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Parent Category: Team 51 History
Category: Part One: The Genesis

The next few years (yes, years) are spent continuing to study the lineage and learning the various iterations of the Sprite. This includes projecting pictures on the back of my eye lids of the wife and me tooling across hill and dale in this great little car. A lot of day dreaming goes on in this phase, actually. It is an amazing transition that occurs when you plop your butt down in the seat of a project car isn’t it? The vision through the windshield (yes, it had a windshield!) changes to sunny skies, top down driving, in a perfect British sports car. Of course it’s in perfect condition; and at full chat! My oldest son David actually drew a cartoon with me in the car, making motor sounds, my driving goggles on ……while the Healey is up on jack stands! True story!

We jump ahead and pick up where I have already done much of the work on the car. The body is solid now; the original 950 cc engine has been swapped for the huskier 1275. The early four-speed transmission is replaced with a newer “rib-case” version with the synchromesh gears. The Austin Healey is now in new blue paint with a white racing stripe front to back, and it actually runs up and down the road.

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Parent Category: Team 51 History
Category: Part One: The Genesis

Right about here Mike makes a basic fish-or-cut-bait statement, something to the effect “…if you want to get up in the pack and really be serious about this racing thing you need to get more power”. Translated loosely this means we have to spend some money (actually lots of money) to improve the basic elements of the car that yield performance and reliability. The operative word here is money. In the world of racing at any level there is a direct correlation with speed, performance and the dollars invested.

We put into practice what Mike has been researching, planning and preaching. We acquire a 1098cc long stroke engine with the preferred 2-inch main and Mike begins to mold it into the form that will take us well into the future. Oh yeah, a long way back I said that the car came with a 948 cc and it basically had to stay that way to be period compliant? Well, we discussed this with SVRA and in the Group One car specifications we find some wiggle room. It states that this car, in this body style actually was produced with the 948 and the 1098 engines prior to 1965 / 66. This opened the door for the development of the 1098 drive line.

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Parent Category: Team 51 History
Category: Part One: The Genesis

The number 51 Austin Healey is still performing as I write this, but step back to 2003 and now the car has undergone another transition. The Healey is now a right hand driver, Mike having changed the configuration to suit Julie’s driving preferences. The Healey has officially gone over to Mike and Julie and she will campaign the number 51 car with SVRA and other Vintage venues from now on. Julie has a race team now; DWD Racing (Damn Woman Driver) with her own web site and way cool merchandise by the way. A blatant plug for DWD here! Go buy her stuff!

What about me? What am I doing now that the Healey has moved on? Well, that will be the stuff for the “rest of the story”. Up to this point this has been more a history of the Healey Sprite than of Team 51, but it was always homologous…..you didn’t get one without the other. Now comes a fork in the road where Team 51 diverges away from the Austin Healey and moves on to new adventures.

Oh, by the way, did you ever wonder where the Team name came from? It doesn’t matter; you’re going to hear anyhow. Back in the days when we decided that we would race the Austin Healy I had a goal to be racing the car by my fiftieth birthday. We missed it by one year and hence the name. Ok, so now you’re doing the math…..everyone does it. And, yes it’s 2009 and I’m still actively in the sport, driving as often as I can. Dreams never die………after all, we’re not old, we’re Vintage!