Hello List,
I am about to start on the ground up restoration of HBN7L-605, an early 1959
BN7. The BMIHT certificate checks out. The choke control on this car is
mounted in a bracket that is fastened to the brace that goes between the
firewall and the bottom of the instrument panel just to the right of the
steering column. The Anderson/Moment book refers to "manual choke mounted
under the dash", and the Clausager book says "choke control now on main fascia
panel" effective w/ C.BN7/5234. I just want to be sure that the mounting on
this car is correct.
This car may have some interest for those of you who were in California and
involved w/ Healeys/racing in the 1960s. The car was purchased new by Allen
Grant in 1959 in Fresno. (Allen went on to become a factory driver for Shelby
and drove a Cobra in the 1965 Le Mans race.) He autocrossed it and sold it to
Bob Darby who raced it in California SCCA events and then sold it to Jerry
Satnat. At some point, Allen bought the car back from Jerry and put in dry
storage. In 1979 Mike Garrison in Modesto bought the car from Allen and put
in dry storage until I bought it in 2006. The car is a restorer's dream. NO
rust, NO dents, perfect panel fit. I am going to have fun w/ this project.
When my wife saw the car in my shop she said "This is the first time you did
not bring a piece of junk home."
By a stroke of luck, I discovered that Allen Grant now lives 26 miles from me
in Northwest WA. He is now a distributor for Roush Performance and has an
original Shelby Cobra race car. He is going to come over and see his old
Healey, Neat, huh?
John Snyder
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