Austin Healey Le Mans Sprite

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1995 included the Donald Healey Memorial Race and the car pictured below was one of the participants in this race.

It's Denis Welch's 1965 Austin Healey Le Mans Sprite (though he didn't drive the car in the race - it's shown in the programme of the event as 'driver to be nominated'). Austin Healey had entered Sprites in the Le Mans 24 Hour race throughout the 1960s, usually the Sebring version. In 1965 extensive wind-tunnel testing resulted in a new aluminium body with a truncated 'Kamm' tail which was found to bring far better performance on the long straights. Two cars were entered at Le Mans, the car above retiring late in the race but the other one finished in 12th place, winning the Prototype 1.3 litre class.