1959 Sebring MGA - These were 1500 style Twin Cam cars, originally roadsters but converted to coupes by the factory. Of four cars built (YD2 931-934), only one is known to survive.

See TC107-932 (Twin Cam section) for the only known surviving car from this set.

From the 1959 Sebring Entry List, the three competing cars were:
28 M.G. Twin Cam, 1586cc, Class-E, 6, Hambro Auto Corp., New York NY,
driven by Gus Ehrman, Ray Saidel, Sherman Decker - YD2.932
29 M.G. Twin Cam, 1586cc, Class-E, 6, Hambro Auto Corp., New York NY,
driven by Jim Parkinson, John Dalton, *(to be announced)
30 M.G. Twin Cam, 1586cc, Class-E, 6, Hambro Auto Corp., New York NY,
driven by Ray Pickering, Jack Flaherty, *(to be announced)
P- M.G. - There was a 4th car #P that was shared for practice (photo below).

Team at the garage in Sebring in 1959   -   Team at the start of the 1959 Sebring race.

For photos at left, visit Racing Sports Cars web site. Externally visible modifications include a single leather bonnet strap, driving lights, an odd appendage on end of front bumper looking like a miniature overrider, lamp over the numbers on the front fender, large fuel filler cap in center of boot lid for the long distance fuel tank. Also a small air scoop on center of bonnet, use unknown, but all of the 1959 Sebring MGA had these features.

1959 Sebring MGA line-up, from the BARC Boys.
For larger picture and more pictures see:
http://barcboys.com/MGA%20home.htm
http://barcboys.com/MGASebringHome.htm
http://barcboys.com/MGASebring59.htm

Car #28: -- Gossip from the past:
From the MGA Twin Cam Enthusiasts Group (on the Yahoo groups server) dated November 13, 1999, Robin Barker wrote:
".... Sports Cars Illustrated .... In the July [1959] issue there is an article about the same car as it was driven from Florida to California along with one of the Twin Cam coupes".

To which Jonathan Stein replied (on November 13, 1999):
"Where are the 1959 Twin Cam Coupes? They'd be very easy to spot because they're the only coupes with YD2 prefixes. .... someone--or four someones could easily have sent a Sebring car to the scrap yard. -- You mentioned the Sebring T/C Coupe that was driven in tandem with one of the Sprites. That T/C coupe was driven back west by its new owner, current AutoWeek Publisher Leon Mandel. It still sported its Sebring numbers. He was also ticketed - I think in Arizona - for a speed which just wouldn't have been possible in a pushrod car, even with a tail wind and a good downhill stretch. He was actually pretty proud of that. -- He raced the coupe once - and that was enough. He never really enjoyed the car that much. At the time he was a salesman for a West Coast dealer. It was either Jack Flahrety or Jim Parkinson - I forget which. I once spoke to Leon's late wife about the car. She and Leon both thought that the light green - was it Ash Green - was pretty hideous".

Leon Mandel passed away in 2002 (note from Autoweek March 5, 2002).
His son Dutch Mandel might be contacted via this event in 2010:
http://www.sempca.org/p4/2010/P4_Aug10.pdf
It is hard to trace Leon's racing history beyond 1958.

On 2/9/2012, Michael Eaton wrote:
"From what I've determined, the 3 CA cars were not raced much because according to Gordon Whitby, they were not as competitive as the ones that they had already perpared at the dealership. Gordon beleived that this was likely as they were built for distance and not sprint".
#28 - Leon Mandel Car - I've got a relatively good scan of the Mandel picture and you can just barely see the bottom edge of the hood number, so you can tell that it was the flat edge of the bottom of the 2 and then a rounded edge which has to be an 8 since the 29 car was in the LA area with Parkinson and was driven out separately as mentioned in the acticle by OCee (no spelling typo it is OCee) Ritch in SCI. According to Jonathan's interview of Leon, Leon raced it once at Tracey Airport and I have that program and confirmed it. This was his only race in the car he called the A-bone".

Car #29:
On 2/9/2012, Michael Eaton wrote:
"#29 - Went to Gough Industries in LA for Parkinson to drive ... not too successful and assume sold off by dealership. Per Gordon Whitby".

Car #30:
The 1959 Sebring MGA car #30 was driven by Ray Pickering and Jack Flaherty. He later went on to drive the #60 car in 1960, 61, 62, then on to MGB's,
http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/archive/Jack-Flaherty-USA.html.

On 2/9/2012, Michael Eaton wrote:
"#30 is a mystery - But, I beleive it went to CA as well. Jonathan Stein's interview with Mandel mentioned that Flaherty brought out one of the cars as well, which would have to be the #30 car since Leon had #28, and #29 was in LA".

On 2/9/2012, Michael Eaton wrote:
"#P28 [the practice car] Went to a dealer in MN. Former owner contacted me when he saw my discovery article on my car in Sports and Classics a few years back. He did race the car a few times and I found some entries for it in SCCA mags. It later sat in his yard until 65-67 and he had it towed off. I think this is the car that must have been in Wacky Arnolt's dealership at some time. Steve Johnson bought the service manual that came from the dealership that had all the notes of which twin cams had been in for repair and one of them was a Sebring VIN. So, I think that was likely the P28 car that went to MN. So it may be still languishing somewhere in the Chicago area".