The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Back in the driving seat after 50 years
A FORMER racing driver has been reunited with the car he competed in more than half a century ago.
Ted Evans, 91, once again sat in the driver’s seat of the Austin Healey 100 S he piloted round race courses as publicity for a car dealership.
Mr Evans met up with owner Richard Murphy after he brought the car north from the south coast of England to the annual European Healey meeting at Crieff Hydro before the cars toured around Perthshire, including a meeting at Bruar, near Blair Atholl.
Originally painted cream, the car was resprayed “Scottish Blue” following a crash in 1956. It has since been returned to its original colour.
The car spent a number of years in Australia before being bought by Richard eight years ago.
Just 50 of the racing cars were ever made and only 37 are thought to be left.
Examples of the rare cars change hands for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In 2011 the Austin Healey involved in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, where 84 people died, sold for £ 843,000 in unrestored condition.
Ted was reunited with the pristine car thanks to the efforts of his granddaughter, Kirsty Duncan, who works at the hotel as an event organiser.
Kirsty tracked down the owner and persuaded him to help reunite Ted with the car.
She said: “I asked the organiser from the Austin Healey UK Car Club to see if he could track down the car my grandfather used to race and he finally found out it was back in England after a stint in Australia.
“I got in touch with the owner and he was keen to bring the car up to Scotland, even though he was not part of the event, just so he could meet my grandfather and they could exchange stories about the car.”
Richard had spent a number of years trying to track Ted down himself but assumed he had passed away.
However, after being contacted he jumped at the “unique” opportunity and arranged to have the car towed more than 500 miles north from his home near Worthing, West Sussex. He said: “It was a no- brainer, how could we not do that? I know people were there for the rally but I think this event going on at the sidelines was more significant, because there’s so few of these drivers left.
“There’s a picture of Ted at the start of the Rest and be Thankful Hill Climb in 1956 and he has this enormous smile on his face and when I met him, he had the same smile – he was unmistakable.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
On Tuesday Ted got behind the wheel of the car for the first time in 55 years.
The daredevil pensioner, who celebrated his 91st birthday with an aerobatic flying experience, said driving the car again had brought back fond memories.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said. “But I had heavy shoes on. It would have been better to have lighter shoes on because the pedals are so small and close together – but you forget about that after all this time. “I was just so happy to see the car again. “It’s all thanks to the car’s owner for bringing it up. I told him about driving the car when I was racing and was able to tell him the history of the car.”
Ted, pictured below, learned to drive while serving as a pilot in the RAF in Burma during the war.
After being demobbed he began working for Carlaw Cars in Glasgow, the main Austin Healey dealership in Scotland.
He raced for the company for around two years before giving up and returned to flying as a hobby.