Description
In 1959 the competition department at Abingdon became serious and prepared three Twin Cam coupes to race at Sebring and shipped over a mass of spare parts and a fourth practice car. Entered through the MG concessionaires, The Hambro Corporation, all three cars finished in a very wet race including a second and third place result in the 1,300cc to 1,600cc class. A class win at Le Mans also added to the momentum so in 1960 Abingdon once again prepared the factory team, this year with many more modifications. For racing the three cars got bigger SU-carburetors, a close-ratio four-speed gearbox, locked differentials, bigger fuel-tanks, a modified cold-air inlet system and additional oil coolers. The bumpers were deleted, lightweight alloy-hardtops from Vanden Plas, and a special cockpit tonneau panel to accommodate a hypothetical traveling suitcase (a new FIA requirement for 1960). two additional spotlights, while the whole car got a typical painting in British Racing Green with different stripes per car to distinguish them on the track.
The three race entries were registered UMO 96, 93 and 95.
This car, UMO 93, scored fourth place with US drivers Jim Parkinson and Jack Flaherty at the wheel behind its sister car YD2/2575 with start number 39 and Canadian drivers O.D. Leavens and Fred Hayes driving it. After the race Sebring based BMC dealer Ship & Shore Motors sold the car to collector and racing driver Dr Paul Buchanan in Charleston/South Virginia, who raced it until it blew two valves in Daytona in 1963 at which point the car was placed into
storage.
Four years later Twin-Cam expert Lyle York tracked down the car, bought and repaired it. Until it suffered a clutch failure in 1970 it was used rarely, which explains the mileage of only 5,139 miles back then. He put the car onto blocks and kept it in original condition until 2003 when it was finally sold. Since then, the cylinder head was repaired and the engine’s bottom end remains as built by the BMC Comps Department, as does the rest of the car, which has never been restored and has been maintained in highly original form. As offered, YD2/2571 proudly shows traces of its rare original Ash Green paint under the Brooklands Green racing finish, of which a great majority remains. A welcome entrant to the worlds most prestigious events, it was displayed to great reception at a previous concours d’elegance at Hampton Court Palace. Beautifully preserved and showing less than 6,500 miles from new, this is a very rare and exciting opportunity to acquire such an evocative and charismatic ‘works’ Twin Cam in such an original state.