1961 Sebring Alpines

[sunbeam74]

Scott Christie and I have been having a discussion regarding the 1961 Sebring Alpines. As recently discovered photos show these were Wedgewood Blue Alpines.

One part of the discussion was where did these cars go? Here's what I know.

1) One car went to Salt Lake City and was owned by Ralph Bowyer. It was a RHD version

2) I have an advertisement showing one car in Monterey Park California. The former owners Nephew said the car had been wrecked and he wasn't sure what happened to it. Believe it or not, we found a set of Aluminum panels - painted Blue - so perhaps this car did meet it's demise.

3) Bill Buchman's son, in Sarasota, FL, said that they had one of the Sebring Alpines (most likely a 1961 RHD version) for a very short while. My belief is Bill actually didn't own this car. I believe it was actually owned by Ed Wilson, who was the largest Southeastern Rootes dealer located in the Miami area.

Other drivers that might have driving this car in Flordia include Ralph Noseda (Cobra driver later on) and George Lacy (believe also a Cobra driver)

Anyway, the three cars had unique trunks set-ups. Not much else is known about these cars.


Steve

 

[Series3Scott]

Steve and I (and others) continue to dig for more photographic evidence of these three cars. We have a good lead on a gentlemen who will be going through boxes in his possession over Christmas break, and he's sure he has a number of shots from the 1961 Sebring race. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

From the few photographs we do have of these cars it would appear the #40 car (RHD) was NOT prepared by the factory as there are certain visual differences between it and the other two cars.

Everyone keep a sharp eye out for anything you might find on the 'net.

 

[britbeam]

Scott Christie and I have been having a discussion regarding the 1961 Sebring Alpines. As recently discovered photos show these were Wedgewood Blue Alpines.

One part of the discussion was where did these cars go? Here's what I know.

1) One car went to Salt Lake City and was owned by Ralph Bowyer. It was a RHD version

2) I have an advertisement showing one car in Monterey Park California. The former owners Nephew said the car had been wrecked and he wasn't sure what happened to it. Believe it or not, we found a set of Aluminum panels - painted Blue - so perhaps this car did meet it's demise.

3) Bill Buchman's son, in Sarasota, FL, said that they had one of the Sebring Alpines (most likely a 1961 RHD version) for a very short while. My belief is Bill actually didn't own this car. I believe it was actually owned by Ed Wilson, who was the largest Southeastern Rootes dealer located in the Miami area.

Other drivers that might have driving this car in Flordia include Ralph Noseda (Cobra driver later on) and George Lacy (believe also a Cobra driver)

Anyway, the three cars had unique trunks set-ups. Not much else is known about these cars.


Steve

What was unique about the trunk?
Dwain

 

[sunbeam74]

I will have to post some images from Motor Trend, I think it was Motor Trend or Car and Driver, which had images of the 1961 Sebring Car owned by Ralph Bowyer.

Recalling what I can remember from seeing the article quite awhile ago, there were additional retention features welded in to retain the spare on top of the trunk shelf. (recall that they had Oversized gas tanks which occupied the normal space where the spare fit)

My guess is these features might have been removed since it would limit the trunk usage but the welds would still be evident.

 

[Mark B]

I have a few photos but I am not certain they are the same cars or common photos you already have. I will attempt to attach and look for others. These are a screen saver I built over the years using Alpine pictures I scoured from the net, so I really don't have much info. Thanks

 

[Mark B]

I found a photo of the Alpines headed into turn 1 after the start but it is too big to post here. It is a colour pic and they are quite blue. I will attempt to get it to you another way. Thanks

Mark B

 

[alpine_64]

Mark,

A few of us have posted the links to those pisc before, just post the link and people can go to the web page. that same site also showed a mystery white alpine running during practice.

 

[AlpineIan]

Maybe the #40 car was prepped by the factory in the UK and the #41 and #42 cars were prepped by Rootes North America? Just a thought but could explaine the differences. Would be cheaper for Rootes to ship one car over vs. three. But why not have Rotes NA do all three cars? I don't know... just thinking while I type.

 

[Series3Scott]

I have a few photos but I am not certain they are the same cars or common photos you already have. I will attempt to attach and look for others. These are a screen saver I built over the years using Alpine pictures I scoured from the net, so I really don't have much info. Thanks

Thanks Mark but those pix are from the 1962 race.

 

[Series3Scott]

I found a photo of the Alpines headed into turn 1 after the start but it is too big to post here. It is a colour pic and they are quite blue. I will attempt to get it to you another way. Thanks

Mark B

Yep, we have that one too, and was the evidence we needed to confirm the cars were indeed Wedgewood Blue, not Seacrest Green as they were in the 1962 race.

I found one race report which mentioned the Alpines being in blue, but that color photo is the first and only known COLOR shot of the cars, so it was quite a find.

 

[Series3Scott]

Maybe the #40 car was prepped by the factory in the UK and the #41 and #42 cars were prepped by Rootes North America? Just a thought but could explaine the differences. Would be cheaper for Rootes to ship one car over vs. three. But why not have Rotes NA do all three cars? I don't know... just thinking while I type.

There's a mystery to be solved here too:

Cars # 40 (RHD) and # 41 (LHD) were entered by "Rootes Motors, New York".
Car # 42 (RHD) was entered by "Jack Brabham LTD, England".

Given the country of origin of the drivers it makes sense the # 40 and # 42 cars were RHD (drivers were all from England) and the #41 car was LHD (drivers from the US).

Why was the # 42 car entered by Jack Brabham's dealership?

 

[mikephillips]

It might have been a way around some restriction, or perhaps to test modifications not developed by the factory that they thought were interesting but didn't see a need or time time to test in house.

 

[sunbeam74]

Not sure why Brabham was listed as the "Entrant" for the Sebring Events but he also was listed as entrant on the Alpine Bob Grossman drove at the 1963 Lime Rock Little LeMans.

If I could dig around some more I am pretty sure he was listed as entrant on some of the Riverside Times GP enduros (62/63)... not just as a driver. I would need to check the programs to verify this. It's been a long time since I looked.

Steve

 

[Series3Scott]

Steve knows this, but for others who may not, think of "entrant" as "sponsor", not as the actual driver of the car. The entrant for car # 42 was Jack Brabham Motors Ltd, Surrey, England, with the drivers for that car listed as Peter Harper & Peter Proctor. I tried to post a scan of the official entry list from the Sebring program but the file is too big.

I also have a photo of one of the cars, being driven by Peter Harper, out for a test drive on the track in England before it was shipped to Sebring. It was RHD, so was likely to be car #42, but at the time the picture was taken there were no numbers on the car.