Herewith another Nigel Matthews photo from the inaugural Barrington concours where he was a judge and, luckily for us, unofficial Classical Drives reporter. I chose the 1950 Healey Silverstone for today's blog because I'm an admirer of bare-bones sports cars built, not for comfort, but for sheer driving fun. It arrived several years before the Donald Healey/Austin collaboration which gave us the much more famous Austin Healey. Only 105 of these hand-built machines were built during their 1949-1950 run so obviously the survivors are rare and expensive. According to conceptcarz.com the Silverstone was driven by a pushrod twin-cam Riley 2.5-litre engine which produced 106 horsepower, more than enough for a lightweight, aluminum-bodied vehicle weighing just 2050 pounds. Top speed was an impressive 110 mph. There were no bumpers and very little luggage space but it did have an independent front suspension and must have been sheer pleasure to handle on the narrow, winding British roads of the day. The concours car is owned by David K. Hans of Barrington, Illinois.
What memories this site has evoked! I owned Silverstone D5 (one of the first)from 1964 to 1989, raced, rallied and toured it all over eastern Australia. The Riley motor was closer to 3.0 Litres and putting out considerably more than the original 106 BHP towards the end and had no trouble seeing off standard Austin Healey 4′s, XK120′s etc. in Classic Races. I would dearly love to know it’s whereabouts now – not even sure if it is still in Aus.
July 2, 2008 @ 8:43 pm