BMC Austin Healey 100-6 3000 Rally Race Car New Book

In nine eventful years - 1957 to 1965 - the six-cylinder-engined Austin Healey evolved into a formidable and increasingly specialised rally car. By any standards, it was the first of the "homologation specials" - a type made progressively stronger, faster, more versatile, and more suitable for the world's toughest International rallies.

Though the motorsport foundations had been laid by the Healey Motor Co. Ltd, the work needed to turn these cars into rock-sold 210bhp projectiles was almost all completed by the world-famous "works" BMC Competitions Department at Abingdon. It was because of their vast experience that the "Big Healeys" as they were always affectionately known - became fast and tough, nimble yet durable, so that they were capable of winning major events wherever traction could be assured. Not only did the "works" Austin Healeys win some of the world's most famous events - including Liege-Sofia-Liege, Spa-Sofia-Liege and the French and Austrian Alpine rallies, but they were also supremely fast on events like the Tulip, and came so close, so often, to winning their home event, the British RAC Rally, which traditionally ended the season. Not only did these cars turn their drivers - Pat Moss, Donald Morley, Rauno Aaltonen, Timo Makinen and Paddy Hopkirk among them - into heroes, but individual cars seemed to take on a character and reputation of their own.

This book lists each and every success, each and every notable car, and traces exactly how the machinery developed, and improved, from one season to the next. Over time, the "works" cars not only adopted aluminium cylinder heads and body panels, much-modified chassis, transmission and exhaust systems, but they also became supremely strong and could withstand a true battering on the world's toughest events. This book relates how the cars were improved by the engineers, how the drivers came to love their heavy and sometimes self-willed steeds, and how the management team got the most out of everything - machinery, personnel, drivers, and regulations. . Heavily illustrated and packed with technical detail this book will make a welcome addition to any motorsport fans library.

Features:
• Full detailed history of each marques rally career
• Full detailed story of concept, design, development
• Unrivalled coverage of people and influences behind the cars
• Step by step coverage of technical evolution
• Description of cars, why, how and when evolved
• Description of principal people (managers, drivers, engineers) involved
• Many many pictures, not only of cars in action, but of details and people
• Comparison with rivals
• Complete listing of important successes
• Complete listing of ‘works’ xcars

• The car and the team
  • Inspiration
  • The Big Healey’s importance in rallying
  • Abingdon – the home of the works rally team
  • The Big Healey – mountain master
  • Facing up to rival cars
  • Homologation – meeting the rules
  • Building and homologating the 3000
  • Engineering features
  • Motorsport development and improvements
  • Structural changes
  • Engine
  • Transmissions
  • Aluminium panels
  • Was the Big Healey unique?
  • Building and running the works cars
  • C-Series engines
  • Personalities and star drivers
• Competition story
  • 1957
  • 1958
  • Safety – what safety?
  • 1959
  • The arrival of the 3000
  • 1960
  • 1961
  • 1962
  • Pace notes
  • Spa-Sofia-Liège
  • 963
  • 1964
  • 1965
  • 1967
  • 1965: was the Big Healey at its limit?
  • Mission impossible? A successor to the Big Healey?
• Major European rally successes
• Works rally cars (and when first used)

Australian Classic Car - March 2008
It's hard to imagine an Austin-Healey 3000 as a top notch rally car. But the 3000 formed an integral part of the British Motor Corporation's Competition Department during the 1960s, and were thrashed from mountain top to river valley over the most inhospitable of road surfaces. This new book by the prolific Graham Robson is one of a series in his 'Rally Giants' collection.

The rallies of the '60s are very different than today. Back then, they were events of endurance when the cars and drivers would be hard at it for days on end. While it was the Big Healey that really put the BMC Competition Department on the map, under their direction, the Austin-Healey evolved from a quick road car into the first homologation special.

Read how its suspension was beefed up, carburettors changed and the car became lighter and stronger. Writer Robson includes a chapter on the personalities involved – including those behind the scenes and the drivers – before looking closely at the events and Big Healeys used from year to year. There are a number of books covering the Works Austin-Healeys, but there is always room for another good one.

Classic Cars - March 2008
An entertaining history of one of the most feisty stalwarts of British rallying – the Austin-Healey. Robson's book introduces all the major protagonists in the car's blast to glory, with plenty of anecdotes and photographs of the events themselves. It doesn't have the room to go into great depth, but will give you a sound introduction.

Classic & Sports Car - February 2008
'Austin Healey 100-6 & 3000' is the latest in Veloce's handy Rally Giants series. The prolific Graham Robson briefly covers model development and competition history to match the wealth of photos, including plenty in colour.

Austin-Healey Club of America - January 2008
UK publisher Veloce has just introduced a new series of publications titled 'Rally Giants', and 'Austin Healey 100-6 & 3000' appears at the top of the list. Graham Robson, author of the series, holds a worldwide reputation as a motoring historian; indeed, he has long been close to the sport of rallying as a team manager, competitor, reporter, and observer. For the series he has chosen those cars which offered something unique in their time in comparison with their competitors – cars that raised rallying's standards far enough to consider them Rally Giants. Of the A-H 100-6, Marcus Chambers, BMC's first competitions manager, is quoted as saying, "We needed a car with long, hairy legs to stride over the mountains and great lungs with which to rush up the hills ...".

'Austin Healey 100-6 & 3000' reveals how the BMC Competition Department brought the six-cylinder 'big Healey' to be a formidable and specialized rally car in the era from 1957 to 1965. The Austin-Healey 3000 became the world's first 'homologation special', and as such, it started a trend of development and refinement of the total car to take advantage of whatever regulations or categories that were offered by motor sport at the time. The reader learns how the original 100-6 engine of 102 BHP became a fire-breathing 210 BHP rally winner in only five years.

The rally events and the personalities behind the big Healey rally cars, including noted drivers Pat Moss, Donald Morley, Rauno Aaltonen and Timo Makinen, come alive with Robson's memories and descriptions. Many of the 100 well-captioned photos are published for the first time.

'Rally Giants: Austin Healey 100-6 & 3000' provides a richly detailed description of an important part of this marque's history – the big Healeys were outstanding rally cars of their era. Whether you are a casual observer of Healey history or an ardent student of the marque and its rallying successes, this tidy little title will yield a fascinating read and must be on your bookshelf.