Lot number | 100 |
---|---|
Hammer value | £14,000 |
Description | Sebring SX Roadster |
Registration | C237 LTT |
Year | 1999 |
Colour | Light Blue Metallic |
Engine size | 3,500 cc |
Chassis No. | SX2FW1A1045 |
Engine No. | 30A034G2 |
Sebring International has been producing high quality replica Austin-Healey 3000 kits for self-builders from its base in Cambridgeshire since 1994.
This Sebring SX Roadster has had just two owners since it was completed in December 1999, the vendor acquiring it from the first owner in the summer of 2010. As you can see, the car has been constructed to a very high standard and has only covered some 25,500 miles from build.
The striking metallic blue paint finish is particularly impressive for a glass-fibre bodied car, testament to the quality not just of the painter, but also of the body beneath. With a tuned Rover SD1 3.5-litre V8 and a 5-speed manual gearbox, it also has the go to match the show, with more than enough grunt to hustle this relative lightweight along at speeds that would leave a genuine Big Healey choking on its dust.
Much of the other running gear is also Rover SD1 sourced while the back axle is Jaguar XJ6. The interior has wonderfully supportive Saab Aero seats finished in top quality Bridge of Weir hide in black. A polished walnut dash and a Mota-Lita woodrim steering wheel lend the cockpit a suitably retro feel while a double duck navy hood keeps things nice and snug in winter and a Kenlowe fan keeps the engine cool in summer.
Recently fitted with a set of new MWS chrome wire wheels and new tyres, the car simply sparkles throughout. Said to drive superbly, it certainly bowled along at a fair old lick when we were treated to a test drive on the occasion of our visit, with a glorious sound track from the rumbling V8 and twin stainless steel exhausts.
Supplied with a tonneau cover and a full photographic record of the build, it also comes with a Rover 3500 Haynes Workshop Manual, a tuning guide to V8 engines by David Hardcastle and a Sebring International Parts Manual.
MOTd until February 2016 with no advisories recorded, this great British bruiser could easily pass as the real deal to the untrained eye and is only reluctantly for sale due to a knee operation which means that its mature owner can no longer comfortably drive it. His loss, as they say, could be your gain if you bid with sufficient vigour…