If you aren’t familiar with Car SOS, it’s a classic car restoration programme hosted by Fuzz Townshend and Tim Shaw. The duo, combined with the Car SOS team employ graft and mechanical expertise to restore classic cars to their former glory.
The programme originally started life on channel 4 but now airs on National Geographic, and the team have reconditioned 30 cars over three series.
The third series kicked off last month with the first episode featuring a very special car with an extremely interesting history in motorsport. The car in question is an Austin Healey Sebring Sprite, one of four cars built by Healey to enter the 1962 Sebring 12-Hour Florida International GP of Endurance (in the Sebring 3 Hours, GT category, <1-litre engines).
Lighter than the standard model, with race-tuned engine, upgraded suspension and brakes and a racing box, it is the only surviving one of the four, driven by Sir Stirling Moss, Pedro Rodriguez, Innes Ireland and Steve McQueen (all for BMC).
Moss led the race for most of the time but unfortunately ran out of fuel just two laps before the finish and ended up third overall against a brace of very quick Abarths.
The car was parked up in 1968 and since that time was barely used. True to the spirit of the Car SOS series, work on the car was carried out by Fuzz’s team in secret at Fuzz’s own garage, Westgate Classics, trying to preserve as much as possible of the original specs.
“It is always a buzz to unveil a car which has been restored by the Car S.O.S. team and Westgate workshop,” said Fuzz. “However, when the recipient is Sir Stirling Moss, the stress to complete the job to the best of our abilities is increased tenfold. It was great to see one of the most famous racing drivers of all times drive away in a car he had not seen for over fifty years.”
I was lucky enough to be able to attend the filming of the Sprite Sebrings unveiling at the Gaydon Heritage Motor Centre, the car had been presented to Sir Stirling after all the work was completed.
Once the car had been revealed, Sir Stirling took the Sprite for a few hot laps around the outside of the Gaydon motor museum as the crew and the car’s owner – Jonathan Whitehouse-Bird, looked on with pride.
After the filming was done I got to sit down and interview Sir Stirling, he discussed the 1962 Sebring 12-Hour Florida International race that the Sebring Sprite car took part in and talked about Steve McQueen and his ability as a racing driver.
He reminisced about his successful racing career – that included an incredible 212 wins – and also about his particular love of racing in the Mercedes 300SL. After our chat he was kind enough to get a picture with me and then with the MG EX181 – the car he broke the Class F landspeed record in over 50 years ago.
After being given the opportunity to sit down and chat with arguably the greatest racing driver of all time, I can honestly say I feel privileged. It was also great to get a unique behind the scenes look at the recording of this TV special and hopefully the Car SOS team will continue to restore classics for owners to enjoy long in to the future.
