Henry Grady

At 93-years young, actively working in his shop every day keeps him fit and blissfully content

By John Giltinan

Photographs by Don Gilbert

Time marches on and with it we gain experience, foresight, and the ability to live life more fully. For many of us, retirement provides the time to focus on those things which bring us happiness. Unfortunately for some, the march of time also brings painful hips, knees, backs and stiff fingers. These infirmities impair our ability to crawl around on cold concrete floors while working on our favorite old cars. While some enthusiasts find it difficult to work on their cars when they are in their 60’s or 70’s, others keep moving along well into their 90’s….and beyond.   

          Meet Henry Grady from Palm City, Florida. Henry, age 93, is a true southern gentleman and a certified gearhead. He remains extremely active in the vintage sports car world, maintaining and exhibiting a collection of around 20 European sports and racing cars. Born on July 2nd, 1929, Henry was raised in Kinston, North Carolina. He studied physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and after college joined the Air Force, became a pilot and served tours of duty in Japan and Indochina.

          In 1956 he moved to Clearwater, Florida, establishing Vitesse Sports Cars. The new dealership represented Morris, MG, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. In order to bring attention to the little known Swedish auto maker, Henry took a stock PV-444 and raced it, recalling with a smile: “There was no tachometer so I just revved it until the valves bounced, then upshifted. The car was simply indestructible! I won a lot of races with that Volvo.” 

          Henry and the very quick Begra sports racer he built from scratch, and which he raced at Sebring in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

In 1958 Henry teamed up with Gene Beach to build a rear-engine race car with a tubular chassis, based on Fiat 600 mechanicals. The was the first Begra. The engine was bored out to 725cc and used Hillman pistons, running successfully in H-Modified. A total of six Begras were built; car number four is now part of Henry’s collection. He also machined a custom crankshaft for a friend’s Alfa 1,290cc Giulietta engine to reduce its displacement to 1,100cc; today, this car is also part of Henry’s collection.

          A move to Miami in 1959 led to another successful business, Import Motor Parts, a foreign car parts distributorship. As part owner of a Honda motorcycle dealership, Henry quicky realized the racing potential of the new 1969 Honda 750cc transverse engine, so he built a Honda 750-powered race car that was quite successful. Sold to a friend, this car won the SCCA National Championship at Road Atlanta in 1971 and 1972.

          In 1985 Henry began racing in the SVRA in a Lotus Elan. He was hooked on vintage racing and soon acquired an MG Midget which he raced extensively throughout the Southeast. “That was a great handling little car,” Henry remembers. “I just loved racing that MG.” Henry also competed in the Mille Miglia in a Maserati 200si and an Alfa Romeo 1900 Zagato, and in 1990 with his wife Rachelle (Rocky) returned for a fourth time driving a 750cc Siata. Rocky is also a certified gearhead who loves motorsports, tours, and car shows.

          Today, Henry presides over a 12,000 square foot warehouse which holds the couple’s car collection, a machine shop, paint booth, library, and an extensive spare parts inventory. Henry’s current projects include the conversion of a Proteus-Jaguar long-nose D-Type that’s being reworked to XKSS specs. He ordered it new; the only deviation was the substitution of a 3.8-liter engine, rather than the 3.4-liter engine the original cars came with. Henry raced it in SVRA and HSR competition for over 10 years, but now wants to be able to drive it on the street.

          The Jaguar’s conversion into an XKSS has required several modifications, most of which Henry performed himself. He fabricated two new doors and installed an original short-nose XKSS bonnet that he acquired many years ago. He removed the large fin and the center spine that bridged the center of the interior. He then installed a full windscreen, fabricated the windshield wiper mechanism, and had a new alloy fuel tank made by a local craftsman. “That bladder tank made the car reek of gasoline from day one”, Henry told us.

          Not letting his age get in the way, Henry painstakingly skim-coated and sanded the entire body before sending it out for paint. Currently he is installing a new wiring loom and all the instruments. Now that the British racing green paintwork is complete, the car is being carefully reassembled.

          Another project Henry’s working on is the cosmetic freshening of a lovely 1963 A.C. Bristol roadster. Documented as the last A.C. Bristol to leave the factory, this 16,000-mile car is untouched except for a recent repaint and replacement of the cracked leather interior. Henry and his able assistant, Tim Blue, sanded the body in preparation it for the professional respray; they’re now reinstalling the seats, exterior trim and doing the final polishing and detailing. Fortunately, Henry has a talent for rebuilding crotchety British carburetors.

          Henry and Rocky also own an extremely rare 1958 Tojeiro-Jaguar race car, number three of four made. Originally campaigned by Ecurie Ecosse, it’s had a hard life. The Gradys acquired it in 1997 as a basket case and painstakingly restored it, and now perform routine maintenance and tuning to keep it running well.

          In Henry’s shop there are always projects in the “queue.” Just recently Henry hand-fabricated the unobtainable windshield trim of a 1972 Lotus Europa Twin-Cam which he and Rocky purchased in 1975. Last year he removed the original intake manifolds and finicky Solex carburetors from his beautiful 1964 Porsche 356 SC coupe and installed a new set of Weber carburetors; Henry is in the process of fine-tuning the Webers so the car can be driven to an upcoming event. An original 1963 Grady race car and a 1962 Ginetta G-4 roadster await full restorations, which Henry plans on starting soon.

          While primarily interested in vintage sports cars, Henry and Rocky have been impressed with the new mid-engine Corvette C-8 and placed an order for a new coupe in early 2020. Production has been delayed several times, but they look forward to taking delivery in 2021. 

          Henry’s motto, proudly displayed in his office is: SLEEP LATE, START SLOWLY, then TAPER OFF! During the week, Henry drives his Kia Forte to the shop, arriving at around 10:30 AM. Typically he works until noon when fellow gearhead friends stop by to join him for lunch (a favorite local spot is Southern Pig and Cattle which makes a fantastic Brunswick Stew). After lunch he works on his cars, or researches hard to find parts until around 5:00 PM, when he drives home. Weekends are reserved for car shows or enjoying art exhibits and musical performances with Rocky.

          When asked why he still gets his hands dirty every day working on his collection, he replied “Cars are a sickness, what can I tell you? I have been lucky enough in life to do what I wanted to do and that is not often the case! Working on the cars keeps my mind sharp and my body agile. I am fortunate to have been blessed with good health.”