Paul A Asgeirsson wrote:
>
> Cross Flow Head.
>
> Stan Huntley in Portland Oregon has a cross flow cast iron head for his
> old A series Morris Pick Up racer. Sure have wondered about how much
> improved the engine ran with this mod. Anyone out there with experience
> with this head?
I've chatted with Stan about this (oh, he runs FASPEC Racing, for those
who don't connect the name with the catalog; neat guy, very quick early
Sebring Sprite with mostly standard bodywork) informally, in the paddock
at Laguna Seca, once or twice over the past decade. Stan also allegedly
has one, or most of one, of the Healey Le Mans Sprites from the final
years of development -- yes, the ones that went 147 mph on the
Mulsanne. We talked over a decade ago, before Stan put the helmet
fairing on the rear deck of his vintage Bugeye.
I can verify that for years, he's been mumbling something about using
the 8-port head as a casting model and having a bunch made up. I've
also heard unsubstantiated rumors that Stan knows exactly how cool this
head is, and that part of its coolness is its rarety, and that making a
bunch up would diminish its rarety, and that's why the conversation has
never got past the "Gee, I wonder if I oughta make up some copies of
this factory Le Mans 8-port head..." Haven't had that verified, and
I'll happily stand corrected if Stan reads this and lets me know the
straight stuff. I'll also happily puclicly announce my interest in the
purchase of an 8-port factory Le Mans head if he ever gets it made; I
can't say that money is NO object (hell, if money was no object, I'd be
on the '57 Testa Rossa mailing list), but I'd consider a replica Le Mans
head to be worth more than the alloy A Series head that Moss sells for
about $750, which is what started this thread in the first place.
Of course, if Stan ever *does* get the Le Mans Sprite back together, a
bunch of us have to put on berets, carry around loaves of French bread,
and go stand around his car and tell him the paintwork is fluorescent
and tres, tres dangereux in bad French accents. Just to make sure he's
read the car's history. If we could actually induce a drunken kangaroo
to stand nearby with a paint gun, so much the better.
(And if you don't get that: the French officials at the '67 Le Mans
refused to let the Healeys race their Sprite that year because the paint
was basically day-glo/neon orange. They claimed that it was
fluorescent, which presented a danger -- though exactly WHAT danger was
never expressed -- and pretty well forced the Healeys to run the cars in
BRG. The only shop that would paint the cars had apparently also been
clued in on the deal, so the guy emptied a fire extinguisher into the
cars' gas tanks to avoid whatever danger fluorescent paint might cause,
and then proceeded to charge them a fortune for a paint job that Geoff
Healey describes as something that a drunken kangaroo could easily
surpass. I get the feeling that the top ranks of racing in the Sixties
were just a lot more *fun* than today...)
--Scott "Then there's the Moke in the swimming pool..." Fisher
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