George Hively

George sent me this photo and some background on racing his rare and interesting Austin Healey.
 
"The car is a 1956 Austin Healey  100M.  I had gotten tired of getting beaten by the Porsches and such in production races, so I locked the rear end, made some other mods, and ran in class "D" Modified.

That way I was getting beaten by Ferraris, Maseratis and some of the specials instead.  It was a lot more fun and I ran longer races that way.

I actually won the class one time at Pomona in Nov. of 1960.  It was on Sunday and pouring rain.

I had a great race with Bill Dixon's Maserati 300S.  He would pull away on the long front straight and by turn 11 I was all over him again.  We ran that way for about 15 laps and then he had some trouble and I came out on top. 

 
Funny how a wet track equalizes things.  The 100M was a four-cylinder, very similar to the normal 100.  It had 1 3/4 inch SU carbs instead of the 1 1/2 inch on the 100 model and it had cosmetic changes as well (like a leather strap across the hood, which I never used).

It was made as a replica of a car which had run at LeMans a year or two earlier and was their "hot" street car.  Later in 1955 or '56 the 100S appeared as the out-and-out race car.  In 1957 the six-cylinder cars came out, first as a 2+2.  In 1959, Austin Healey went back to a straight two-seater with the 3000 model."

Next:   Pomona,  July 1961

Back to:  Ferrari at Laguna Seca, 1963

Back to:  New Old Stuff