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Le Mans winner for sale

65sunbeam

SAOCA Membership Director
Diamond Level Sponsor
Thanks Jan!
I sure wish I had the $$$ to buy this car. I saw it and met the owner Clive Harrington at the Rootes Millenium Rally. He later raced it and sold it on. Eric
 

Ken Ellis

Donation Time
Yeah, too bad it's been modified!

Just kidding!
(I look forward to your letters...)

Not only does it look like a great car, but the original parts are included, too.

So, if you bought it, would you have the guts to drive it?

Ken
 

alpine_64

Donation Time
They havent put the pics of it today. IIRC the cars original front nose was crunched in an accident and replaced with a stock item. During the resto they recreated the front, a significant amount of work done from photos. I really like the car, but to me the current nose isnt quite right as per original.

Still a great and important car in sunbeam history. This is probably THE harrington to own.
 

GlennB

Silver Level Sponsor
I think you could be a little more sympathetic to the restoration. Any race car will be damaged at some point and in this case there are no replacement panels -some variation is going to be inevitable. This should be accepted as its new form.

I hope the car keeps racing, we don't want to lose it to a museum.

GlennB
 

Lee Brogden

Donation Time
I think you could be a little more sympathetic to the restoration. Any race car will be damaged at some point and in this case there are no replacement panels -some variation is going to be inevitable. This should be accepted as its new form.

I hope the car keeps racing, we don't want to lose it to a museum.

GlennB

My thoughts exactly mate.
 

65beam

Donation Time
lemans

god help us if a certain member that doesn't like harringtons ever buys a harrington. the new nose is probably better workmanship than the original was. and it is a race car.
 

alpine_64

Donation Time
god help us if a certain member that doesn't like harringtons ever buys a harrington. the new nose is probably better workmanship than the original was. and it is a race car.

Bob if you look at the shape, fit and the way in which the faerd in lights sat in the original nose I think you will find that 3000RW while a race car was indeed well made. I tink the original nose and the way the lights were done had great proportions.

As for any implications i dont like the Harrington conversions... its just the LM's that dont do it for me, heavy and clumsy proportions at the rear, especially how deep the car looks over the rear wheel arch.. but each to their own.. Any of the original harrington alpines, or indeed the later C and D types are great looking cars.
 

Limey

Donation Time
It is a lovely looking beastie but it has lost a bit of its special-ness by loosing its original front however well recreated and its post race 'return to original.... :confused:,. Odd that the nose was lost at all. Hmmm.... And why stick a Holbay in for whatever reason except penury when you have the correct historic block and head. Hmmm... I saw pics of the resto and can't say it looked like a 'best of the best' sort of job, a bit casual as far as one could tell. A great project for a purist with the money to play with but at that estimate and with the loss of a lot of originality and some questions over quality I'll watch with mild interest.

Now that nose and a Kamm tail, that would have been one gorgeous 'never was'. Lovlier than the Lister Tiger by a long mile.

Oliver
 

V6 JOSE

Donation Time
Maybe I´m missing something, but this Harrington didn´t win. It came in second in class. All it won was the Thermal Efficiency award. Sounds like a consolation prize to me.

If it were an economy run, I could see it, but this was supposed to be a race.

Jose
 

alpine_64

Donation Time
Maybe I´m missing something, but this Harrington didn´t win. It came in second in class. All it won was the Thermal Efficiency award. Sounds like a consolation prize to me.

If it were an economy run, I could see it, but this was supposed to be a race.

Jose

Jose, the index of thermal efficency, while not an out and out performance prize was highly valued. It was basically avg speed, weight of car and fuel used.

The french originaly came up with it as their cars would not win outright.. they dominated the prize until the lotus cars came along and also some abarth posrches IIRC.

The irony about the special body harrington is it was no faster than the stock shaped aluminium bodided alpine that also ran. The kamn tail alpines of the following year were quicker, though they had more powerful motors.

The Harrington also had an underbody tray to help it and apparently was a 135mph car down the mulsane.. and this is a car that was on stock zeniths.

I think olivers comments were interesting.. as i stated, the rebuilt nose does not look more than a passing resemablence to the original.. which is such a shame as that original car IMHO was a really good looking sunbeam.

Oliver... i do like the kamn tail cars, i do like the Harrington that ran in '61.. but im also partial to the LM Tigers... they are not the most beutiful cars, but they are purposeful and tough, especially on the original Dunlop alloys.
 

RootesRooter

Donation Time
If it's going to continue to be vintage-raced, better to leave the Holbay in it. No sense risking blowing up the original motor. The fact that it stayed with the car all those years is amazing.


It is a lovely looking beastie but it has lost a bit of its special-ness by loosing its original front however well recreated and its post race 'return to original.... :confused:,. Odd that the nose was lost at all. Hmmm.... And why stick a Holbay in for whatever reason except penury when you have the correct historic block and head. Hmmm... I saw pics of the resto and can't say it looked like a 'best of the best' sort of job, a bit casual as far as one could tell. A great project for a purist with the money to play with but at that estimate and with the loss of a lot of originality and some questions over quality I'll watch with mild interest.

Now that nose and a Kamm tail, that would have been one gorgeous 'never was'. Lovlier than the Lister Tiger by a long mile.

Oliver
 

agmason

Donation Time
"It came in second in class. All it won was the Thermal Efficiency award. Sounds like a consolation prize to me."

Guess who won the "Thermal Efficiency Award" back in 1967, the year that the Ford MKIV driven by Foyt/Gurney won the race in record time? The #1 Ford MKIV driven by Foyt/Gurney. Sometimes the award went to the winner of the race and not to some back marker.
 

RootesRacer

Donation Time
"It came in second in class. All it won was the Thermal Efficiency award. Sounds like a consolation prize to me."

Guess who won the "Thermal Efficiency Award" back in 1967, the year that the Ford MKIV driven by Foyt/Gurney won the race in record time? The #1 Ford MKIV driven by Foyt/Gurney. Sometimes the award went to the winner of the race and not to some back marker.

A good reason for this is may well be that you have finish the race to win either award.
 

Limey

Donation Time
Oliver... i do like the kamn tail cars, i do like the Harrington that ran in '61.. but im also partial to the LM Tigers... they are not the most beutiful cars, but they are purposeful and tough, especially on the original Dunlop alloys.

The Lister is not an ugly car by any means. It looks strong. Its just the great Kamm tail makes an Alpi:cool:ne look like it hauls
 

lemansvk

Donation Time
"It came in second in class. All it won was the Thermal Efficiency award. Sounds like a consolation prize to me."

Guess who won the "Thermal Efficiency Award" back in 1967, the year that the Ford MKIV driven by Foyt/Gurney won the race in record time? The #1 Ford MKIV driven by Foyt/Gurney. Sometimes the award went to the winner of the race and not to some back marker.

I think it's easy to underestimate what the Rootes team did in 1962. Not the largest manufacturer in the UK, and certainly without the budget of other firms, they took a car based on a small commercial van with leaf springs and a hotted up Hillman motor and averaged 90 mph for 24 hours at 19 mpg. The Alpine wasn't particularly light; the engine was not large and was far from peak of mechanical sophistication for its day. Look at (most of) the marques that finished in front of them: Ferrari, Jaguar, Porsche, Lotus, Alfa-Romeo.

Just my thoughts...

Vic
 
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