Healey Silverstone Sports Car 1949 | Duncan Hamilton
Neither Pat Moss nor Jeanne Mortimer at hand, the classic car dealer's wife was quickly misused to add a female touch and a slice of life to the Healey Silverstone.
Healey Silverstone race car 1949. The pictured Healey Silverstone, serial number D47, was a works sports car racer driven by Duncan Hamilton. There were only 105 Healey Silverstones built and In the Healey Silverstone shown Duncan Hamilton won the 1950 International Daily Express Race for production cars at Silverstone, the track the car was named after.
But Duncan Hamilton was best known for winning the Le Mans 24-Hour Endurance Race in 1953, driving a ‘C-Type Jaguar’, in conjunction with his partner and close friend Tony Rolt. They were fourth on their first drive there in 1950 in a Healey, and sixth the following year.
The car was left to me by Austrian classic car dealer Mr. Franz Wittner http://www.carcollection.at . Due to bad timing I had only about 2 hours access to the car before it was picked up and shipped to a new owner. Just enough for some quick snapshots.
In his Grand Prix Lago Talbot Duncan Hamilton eclipsed even the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio at the soaking International Trophy race at Silverstone in 1951, when he finished second to Reg Parnell but a long way ahead of the Argentinian who would go on to clinch that year’s World Championship.
Duncan Hamilton was a tall man and couldn’t fit into the cockpit so Donald Healey cut the body behind the driver’s seat to accommodate him. Those modifications are visible yet today.
Healey Silverstone classic Grand Prix race car - the spare tire was mounted horizontally in the rear of the vehicle. It served a duel purpose; it was the bumper for the vehicle.
Hamilton’s autobiography ‘Touch Wood’ (1960), a classic of the genre, talks about race driving this car. And Charles Mortimer’s book ‘Racing a Sports Car’ talks about racing his own Silverstone and about Duncan waving as he passed him during the 1950 Silverstone car race.
Hamilton was shattered by the death of his friend, the newly crowned World Champion Mike Hawthorn, in early 1959. That tragedy finally prompted him to hang up his helmet and gloves in 1959 and to concentrate on his garage business. The company is still in business and now operated by his son Adrian Hamilton http://www.duncanhamilton.com
Although everyone nowadays remembers Donald Healey for the famous Austin Healey sports cars which bear his name, his reputation was secure well before then. Triumph’s technical chief in the 1930s, he established his own sports car business immediately after the Second World War, and a whole family of Healey sports saloons, drop-head coupés and two-seaters evolved around the same chassis. The Healey Silverstone was the most sporty of all.
The Healey Silverstone was produced from 1949 through 1950, during that time, 105 examples were produced. These cars were built before the ‘Nash Healey’ and ‘Austin Healey’ by a number of years.
The chassis was a simple, but rigid, box-section design, with a 102 in (2591 mm) wheelbase, which featured trailing-arm/coil spring independent front suspension. Although originally intended to use Triumph running gear, it was finally powered by the impressive twin high-camshaft Riley 2.5-litre engine, whose 104 bhp output was among the highest of all early post-war British cars. Backed by a Riley gearbox and rear axle, this was a formidable base on which to build various body styles.
Original cars, previewed in 1946, were two-door four-seater machines called Westland (an open roadster) and Elliot (a saloon), but although both could reach 100 mph, they were really too heavy to be competitive in motorsport. The two-seater Silverstone, which was announced in 1949, changed all that.
Healey Silverstone classic race car. Hand built two-seater. Machines designed to be light, quick, and agile.
Healey Silverstone vintage car 1949. Meanwhile the headlamps moved out of the grille for better cooling.
Woman and car - Vintage fashion in a classic sports car.
Using the same chassis, the Silverstone was fitted with a stark and very basically equipped open-top aluminium body shell in a traditional two-seater style. With separate front wings closely cowling the front wheels, the headlamps were hidden away behind a narrow radiator grille – where they can have done little to improve the air flow through the radiator. The Silverstone was 450 to 500 lb (204 to 227 kg) lighter than the four-seater types, and the trade-off for minimal accommodation was much faster acceleration, and better roadholding.
The Silverstone’s were a two-seater with little to no luggage space. Since they were hand-built, they were expensive. This made the vehicle suitable for only one purpose: motor-sports. Unhappily, some potential customers wanted a fast car as an alternative to, say, the Jaguar XK120, but were frightened off the Silverstone because it was such an individual machine.
First Healey Silverstone cars had serial numbers ‘D’, the later series got the ‘E’ pre code in conjunction with numerous modifications. The E-series is easily identified by a scoop on the hood. All today’s survivors are regarded as rare, and desirable machines.
Similarities available; all the monochrome images are available in color as well.
| Healey Silverstone – Tech Sheet:Years in production: 1949–1950 Engine type: 4-cylinder, overhead-valve Bore and stroke: 80.5 x 120 mm Capacity: 2,443 cc Power: 104 bhp @ 4,500 rpm Fuel supply: Two horizontal SU carburettors Suspension: Independent front, beam-axle rear Weight: 2,072 lb Top speed: 105 mph |
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