My car has not been running for quite some years and as I try cranking the starter it seems quite sluggish, not like a starter on a regular car. Is this normal for a healey or, if not, any ideas what might be wrong?

A quick check would be to make sure the grounding strap is secured properly. My Healey had problems starting for the longest time until I discovered that the grounding strap was barely attached to the frame. Once it was secured, I haven't had an issue with the starter since.

To a certain degree yes, the original style starters turn slower than most modern car starters.

Is your battery fairly new and fully charged? All terminals clean and tight?

When I bought my car, it was very hard to start -- slow starter. The battery cutoff switch in the trunk was the culprit. The ground was bad. I bypassed that (by connecting the ground cable directly to the chassis) and have had no problems since.

I had checked all the obvious items, as stated above, but after testing, it was determined that the field coils (windings) were "breaking down" (meaning that the wound wire was shorting on itself and not isolated from begining to end).

I replaced it with a commercially available "gear reduction" starter. Now the car cranks and starts so fast that it will startle you!

Wow, who hasnt experienced this problem? From soup to nuts on the wiring from battery to starter and every ground involved for about 10 years I have fought this problem, one or another connection making an improvement for a while. Last week I realized one lace I had not checked was where the ground strap connectors to the lead (?) connector that goes over the battery terminal. Took it apart, strap is about 20 strands of bell wire twisted together, not one strand was copper colored--all coroded. Spread strands apart, put wire brush in drill, cleaned it all up, put it together and have never heard a Healey starter turn that fast.
Jay Glass
'65 3000