108 Austin Healey Sebring Sprite (1960)

Austin Healey Sebring Sprite (1960) Engine 998cc S4 OHV
Registration Number S 221 (Edinburgh)
Race Number: 146 Chris Clegg

AUSTIN HEALEY SET

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S221 was purchased new by Cyril Simson, this now famous Sprite was originally registered YLN 13, before being fitted with his personal registration number S221. It was initially raced as a standard bodied Sebring Sprite and one of a team of 3 Sprites - S221, H221 and X221 entered as Team 221. Making its race debut at the 1960 Goodwood Easter Monday meeting, were it crashed and was mildly damaged. Winning next time out in the GT race at the Aintree 200 driven by Paul Hawkins. It also finished 7th at the Nurburgring 500 with Ian Walker helping the team win the under 1000cc catagory.
It was then delivered to John Sprinzel at his London-based tuning and race preparation workshop for it to be further modified for the 1961 season. In addition to the usual Sebring 'mods' already fitted - wire wheels, front disc brakes, etc., S221 received an aerodynamic lightweight body built by Williams & Pritchard Ltd.
At the start of the 1961 season, Cyril Simson made his car available to the two-car Castrol-backed "works" team for the Sebring 4-Hours small-capacity GT race when it was driven by Pat Moss and Paul Hawkins. Afterwards the car was serviced and returned to Cyril Simson so that he and Paul Hawkins could contest the major Sebring race, the 12 Hours, on the following day. Subsequently Peter Clarke purchased the car, re-registered it JT51, and drove it in the 1961 Nurburgring 500km where the car rolled. When repaired the car was fitted with extended fastback style top/rear by Peels.
By 1963 the car was owned by Graham Capel and was re-registered and raced as 8 RIK
In 1964 it was raced, wearing the registration 184 FGJ driven by Ed Braine and John Palmer, the latter owning it from 1966 until 1989. Later passing through the hands of Martin Phaff (Ginetta builder) and onto competitor/car collector Colin Pearcy. He later commissioned Len Pritchard to make a new alloy rear end and coupé top to return the car to its original form. During 1994/5 the car was restored by Archers Garage. When Pearcy sold the car, to a private German buyer, Martin Burhenne, the fastback Peel body was included. The car was sold again in June 1998 by Brooks At the Goodwood Festival of Speed for £ 25,000.
Re-united with its early registration number S221, the car is currently owned by Chris Clegg who has campaigned it for a number of years in historic racing events. It is the only one of the original coupes to have survived structurally intact - but even this car has now had two new sets of alloy panels. Painted in its original colour scheme of silver metallic with the nose dipped in light blue, its pre-race preparation continues to be carried out by Archers Garage, for Chris to drive.

The Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite was a modified version of the Austin-Healey Sprite which gained recognition by the governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, as a separate model in its own right. The car featured Girling disc brakes as well as engine and chassis improvements, and after its homologation on 17 September 1960, FIA regulations permitted the use of 'special bodies'. Some Sebring Sprites were subsequently fitted with coupé bodywork in aluminium alloy and glassfibre, the most strikingly attractive examples being those devised by well-known race and rally driver John Sprinzel, who had won the 1959 RAC British Rally Championship. Sprinzel commissioned the coachbuilders Williams & Pritchard, renowned for their racing and prototype bodies, to produce it. The name 'Sebring Sprite' would become a generic term for any Sprite with disc brakes, and later for any Sprite with coupé or fastback bodywork

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Shot at the Silverstone Classic 14-15 July 2015- Ref 109-108

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Aylesbury Vale District (show map)

Taken on: March 18, 2019

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