Even a spin at 150mph on the damp track didn’t slow him down, though it dented his 1-hour average slightly, to 148.12mph

Fifty-four years after the Donald Healey Motor Co set world endurance speed records on the Bonneville salt flats in a 100S prototype, Martyn Corfield returned to the record arena and upped the ante by a large margin. Partnered by Jeremy Welch, whose company Denis Welch Racing developed and built the new endurance car, the team took eight British and International speed records, in the normally aspirated 2-litre to 3-litre class in a four-hour high-speed run at Millbrook’s two-mile speed bowl on Sunday November 15.

These include 100km, 100 miles, 200km, 200 miles, 1 hour, 500km, 500 miles and 1000km records, (all subject to FIA and MSA homologation) and set at over or very close to 150mph, with a fastest lap average of more than 153mph – the quickest a normally-aspirated Healey 100 has ever gone. The Healeys managed 132.81mph in 1954 with their works prototype, driven by Donald Healey, George Eyston, Carroll Shelby and Roy-Jackson-Moore.

‘This has surpassed all my expectations,’ said an ecstatic Corfield after the recordbreaking run. Even a spin at 150mph on the damp track didn’t slow him down, though it dented his 1-hour average slightly, to 148.12mph before he handed over to Welch for the second stint. Three scheduled pitstops kept the Healey in fuel and tyres, though it ran perfectly, and the four-cylinder motor was still bone-dry on the outside when the bonnet was lifted for MSA scrutineers to check after the four-hour flat-out run.

Look out for the full story on Octane soon.