[Healeys] Tulips and other obscure terms

[Peter Svilans]

I've gone through all of the books in detail and found absolutely NO reference
to a "Tulip engine".

The Tulip Rally was a road rally run around Holland, France and Belgium.
Healeys were entered from 1958 to 1965 and covered themselves in glory.  The
rally used a particular type of diagram instruction, which were known as Tulip
instructions.

The close ratio straight-cut-gear Tulip gearbox was so named because of its
use in this rally, with its varied terrain.  There was also an overdrive-less
"Sebring" gearbox with ratios suitable for that Florida circuit.  Sebring cars
had iron blocks with aluminum heads, and yes, there is a dyno sheet for it.
Geoff Healey only once refers to an experimental all-aluminum engine fitted
into the car prepared for the RAC Rally which was cancelled.  They were
disappointed with it, probably because of the poor alloys used.  There is lots
of juicy technical behind-the-scenes stuff in Geoffrey's books, and also,
incidentally, In Marcus Chambers' book "The Seven Year Twitch".

I have no problem with the building of replicas.  It gives us a chance to see
and realize the full potential of these fabled, rip-snorting high performance
cars.  It also allows us to see the Austin-Healey the way the Healey family
always saw them, from an engineering development and tuning perspective,
rather than the more mundane production cars.

What I DO object to is the fuzzification of history.  We assume when we see a
re-stored car that there is some sort of allegiance to history, the way these
cars were in the past.  Unfortunately, history means nothing to an awful lot
of people.  It only serves to vaguely inspire something current, using
technology we have available to us now ( like the wonderful Australian 3.8
litre alloy blocks) .  And when its all done, you look for something to
legitimize your 2009 creation.  And you look to history, because that's where
the real value ( $$ ) lies- in provenance.  And so to provide a tenuous link
to the past, you use words like "in the spirit of...", "or "a tribute to..."
or "to model...".  The auction catalogs are full of this type of language.

The trouble is this is an easy way to distribute misinformation.  Already, our
noted contributor Alan has asked about information on the Tulip Engine,  when
there IS NO Tulip Engine !  Down the road someone else will say, "I've heard
on the internet that there was a Tulip engine, maybe I'll buy one, I hear the
Australians make them".  Somehow, insidiously, history is being rewritten.

So lets not lose track of the genuine, legitimate mark these cars have made on
automotive history, by not forgetting the way they really were, instead of the
way we can make them now.

Best regards
Peter