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Originally Posted by snakeeyes
Here's a link to an interesting Moss Motoring article about Shelby and his connection to Donald Healey. I had frankly forgotten that CS had set several land speed records in Healeys. Per this article Shel initially contacted Donald Healey about his "V8 in a British roadster" idea, was turned down, and called AC. I believe I've read that before but it's been years since I've looked at Carroll's pre-Cobra history.
August 23 and 24, 1954 – Moss Motoring |
I've never been able to tie down what exactly happened when Shelby approached Donald Healey to put a V8 in the Healey. At the time, Shelby was shopping his idea of a V8 swap to a bunch of different British manufacturers. It must be remembered that Donald Healey did not control the production of Austin-Healey cars. Donald was head of the Donald Healey Motor Co. Ltd, a very small manufacturing company that produced the Healey 100 and exhibited it at the London Motor Show in 1952. He made a deal at that show to have production of the car taken over by the Austin Motor Co., that later was taken over by the British Motor Corp in exchange for royalties on each car produced. So when Shelby came around with his idea, Donald Healey could only control what his DHMC could produce, not overall Austin-Healey production. BMC may well not wanted to see a Shelby-Healey in competition with the E-Type. Meanwhile, Chevy probably didn't want to be selling motors to a project that would kick the Corvette's butt. Donald Healey was a real hot-rodder and I think he would've gone for the idea in a heartbeat, but his corporate minders either quashed it or he knew it was a no-go from the start.