"Putting style on the road"
The story of Haldane Developments and what happened...

Production at Blantyre
In a small unit in Blantyre and with only one body and a set of moulds, Alasdair set about designing a ladder-frame chassis for the semi-monocoque body shell, and, in view of the narrow track, chose to employ Chevette suspension parts.


Left: This was to become car number 1: Q315 RDS. The red body acquired from the company in Nottingham was painted white.
Right: Newly designed chassis by Alasdair Scott.

The chassis Alasdair designed was based on rails fabricated from 80x40x3.2 mm steel. The front suspension was taken from the Vauxhall Chevette in order to retain the original track width of the Healey 100. Revised spring rates and adjustable shock absorbers were used in this otherwise "standard" front suspension.

The rear axle from a Vauxhall Chevette was used. The torque tube was removed and two box sections were welded to the axle housing to obtain a five-link set up. Coil over shock absorbers were used at the back.

The semi-monocoque body shell had three bulkheads, two at the front and one behind the seats. The body was fixed to the chassis by thirty-two bolts. The front wings had the pressing of the Healey 100-6. The front of the body, below the grille, was not as curved as per the original Healey 100. This was deliberately done to be able to separate the front section from its mould more easily.

The engine and gearbox used were from a Ford Cortina. The Vauxhall cars could not provide an engine with enough power. The Ford Cortina 2.0 litre Pinto engine and 4-speed gearbox did have enough power and a wide selection of tuning components was available. These engines were mainly used in the first series of Haldane cars. Two were also fitted with Toyota twin-cam units by their builders.


The first car built was taken to its first car show. The car did not yet have a windscreen.

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