Just to clarify the point regarding 1411 WD.....it did race at Le Mans in 1961 driven by Colgate/Hawkins and retired in the 8th hour with engine trouble.
The photo of it with truncated tail was not at Le Mans and neither was it entered there in 1963 or 1964.
I have the history of the car and now just need to tie up the racing number of the event that it was photographed at - I'll add that shortly.
Apparently the photo of the car wearing the number 47 was taken at the Nurburgrin 500km in 1964.
Below is a little information provided by its one-time owner Mike Garton:
QUOTE
1411 WD was the first all-alloy Coupe built by Geoff Healey for the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hours. The car is also depicted in Bill Emerson's book on pages 184 and 185. It had wire wheels in Le Mans form but in the action pictures shown in the book it has Healey alloy wheels and is actually being driven by Mike at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch..
The photo above also shows the car with the Healey alloy wheels and at this time it had a 1098cc engine. Up to 1964 the Nurburgring 500kms was restricted to capacities of 1000cc.
The car was later modified to a Kamm Tail design, and was known as the 'Bobtail Sprite'
Mike explains the story of how this modification came about
' After collecting the car from the Cape I was at Snetterton where we had a class win and a third in a 1600cc class. A couple of weeks later was the Arhie-Scott Brown Memorial International 100 miles race where Geoff entered Chrissie Carlisle in one of the Spridget bodied cars. Dunlop had supplied me with a set of the new lower profile 500L tyres. Too keen to impress Geoff and beat Chrissie with cold tyres in practice, I lost the back end going into the old Esses and hit the bank sideways. I collected the bits, the rear screen etc, and in the paddock AHC members seem to come from everywhere and we had the car looking quite tidy on the grid. We had a class win ahead of both of the Dick Jacob's Midgets.
The extended rear body was on outriggers that also supported the large 70 litre fuel tank used for Le Mans. ( I always used the smaller 45 litre tank, particularly at the 'Ring as the car handled better). We found that the accident had weakened the rear body so we talked to a firend of a friend who was the body man at BRM, who were located at Bourne near my home in Peterborough.
We took WD to his home workshop and after discussion I decided I wanted the rear end cut off. The supports were shortened and a single sheet of alloy was shaped and cut giving a small gurney type lip. This was then alloy welded ( a beautiful piece of work), the original lights were re-fitted after re-painting and so the "Bobtail Sprite" was born.
UNQUOTE
