Quail Classics – 1950 Healey Silverstone Roadster Is Race-Optimized Aerolithe



healey 1950 gifWe need an article to put together while my pulse comes down after totally breaking this website a few hours ago. Learning to be a webmaster on the fly is fraught with peril.

Would Healey have said the same thing about his much-wider Silverstone roadster for 1950? This ‘E-Type’ Healey was widened by more than a foot versus the D-Type of 1949, which was initially planned as an affordable vehicle to slide under a $4,000 cap at which new car taxes doubled from 33-percent to 66-percent. The plan was to put Jaguar and Alfa-Romeo and Maserati power and tech into a low-priced roadster. A similar template still supports the British cottage sportscar industry today, as well as the big Mazda MX-5 HQ in Japan.

Such advanced design in a low-cost machine was all new to Healey, for the small firm had never before tried to earn profits making such an affordable car.

The 1950 Healey Roadster won a few significant rallies around Europe in the early 1950s, including the Isle of Man ‘Manx Cup’ races – on the same dangerous road-course route as the famous Tourist Trophy today.

Power is from a 2.50liter straight six, powering the car to a harrowing 110-mph top speed and 60-mph in just 11 seconds – very brisk for that era.

Only 105 of these Silverstones were produced, and this is surely only one of a handful in the United States. We were pleased to meet it and Patrick Craig, its current owner, at the Quail Motorsports Gathering in August 2014.

Who thinks Healey would have predicted his Miata predecessor would one say sit on a concours lawn next to a SCORE Baja race truck!?

 

1950 Healey Silverstone

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