Brendan Seery

SOMETIMES of an evening, Henry Cass will take a glass of whisky and sit in his garage, just looking at his cars. There may be those who think he is a sad example of an extreme petrolhead… until you see his collection.

Few other men can sit and look at not one, but two examples of the vehicle Enzo Ferrari once described as the most beautiful car ever made – the Jaguar E-Type.

Cass’s brace of Jags are both from 1964 – one a Roadster (with a convertible soft top) and the other a fixed head coupé. Even 50 years on, the two cats look lithe and ready to pounce, their 3.8 litre, six-cylinder, twin-cam engines still capable of propelling them close to 250km/h.

Two E-Types in one garage would be enough for most mortals… but Cass has more. And to call his garage a garage sells it short. He refers to it as his “showroom”. I stand and take it all in. From left to right, there is a veritable Who’s Who of iconic British sportcars from the 1960s and 1970s.

There is a Sunbeam Tiger, the two-seater that was given a steroid injection with the transplanting of an American Ford 260 cubicinch V8 engine. This finally gave the anaemic Sunbeam Alpine the muscle it deserved. The first engine transplant was done by Carrol Shelby, the man who turned the sportscar world on its head in the early 1960s by shoe-horning a Ford 289 V8 into a British AC sporstcar body to create the Cobra.

Next up is a Jaguar D-Type replica, built by a specialist in Pietermaritzburg from an imported British kit. The D-Type copy looks almost exactly like the ones which conquered the Le Mans race in the 1950s.

Cass says it must have taken serious guts to pilot those cars at 300km/h down the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. The engine is a Jag 4.2 litre, but hotted up and breating through triple twin-choke Wever carbs, just like the race cars.

Would I like to hear it? asks Cass. Sorry, Sir, but that is a very stupid question…

As he hits the starter button, six angry Jag cylinders burst into life and the floor seems to shudder. The race nature of the powerplant is evident in the lumpy idle and the fact that, every now and then, there is a backfire through the carbs. Petrolhead Heaven. “This car is so fast, I am scared to take it out… ”

But, we’re only just getting started.

Next up isCass’s Jag XK 150S, the streamlined coupe which was one of the last in the XK Series which made the brand such a force in export markets like America.

After the matching E-Types, comes the car which Cass says (after a lot of thoughtful deliberation) is one of his favourites in the collection: an Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII.

Even 16 years after he completed the full restoration, the big Healy, in superb light blue metallic paint (an original factory option, says Cass) is still a head-turner. The 3.0 litre straight-six motor in the cramped engine bay is clean enough to eat off.

The car is one of the ones Henry is most proud of. After its restoration, it was among a group of 20 South African AustinHealeys whose owners took them to England for a meeting of the Austin-Healey Club there. The Brits were gobsmacked by the quality of the South African cars, which picked up more than half a dozen awards between them. Cass’s was one of those award winners.

But, the car was not just there for the show: On that trip, Cass and his wife did more than 5 000km of travelling on the narrow twisting roads on the 3000’s birthplace.

That was fun, although Cass does admit that weather-sealing was not the car’s best feature, even when it was new. On the trips around the UK, he would often take the car’s floor mats into their hotel room to dry out on the heater after a day in the rain.

Next up are a trio of MGs: an MGA, an MGB V8 and an MGB. All are in immaculate condition. Henry starts up the MGB V8, which has the Rover-made (but originally an American, Buick, design) 3.5 litre engine. It barks into life and throbs and vibrates away, waiting for a chance to get out on the open road.

At the back of the “showroom” is another iconic, and quite rare, British sportscar from the 1960s, the Daimler Dart. The two-seater used Daimler’s 2.5 litre V8 which, Henry tells me, was directly related to a Triumph motorcycle engine. That still has to be restored and is a work in progress.

Finally, there is a Triumph “frog eye” Sprite, a little twoseater so-called because its raised headlights resembled the eyes of a frog.

In the background, almost as an afterthought, are some German Messerschmidt and BMW “microcars” from the late 50s and early 60s.

But, it’s abundantly clear that Henry is deeply connected to British cars. Why is that?

“I will never forget, as a kid, waiting for the school bus, seeing a Healy go past. And thinking to myself: I will have one of those one day… ”

It took more than 30 years for Cass to realise that particular dream, but he was already on the way to being a passionate collector.

“I’ve always thought that British cars, particularly from the late 50s and early 60s – before the quality started going down the toilet because of the unionised factories – are the essence of what sports cars are all about.

“Somehow, American cars just don’t appeal to me.

“Sure, they are powerful, but