AH based Jamaican on BaT

[JodyFKerr]

This just popped up: https://bringatrailer.com/2012/02/10/1967-austin-healey-fiberfab-jamaican-project/

For those into the jamaicans this looks like a heck of a project!

If I had but space, money and time.

Jody

 

[HealeyRick]

Equipped with the appropriate accessories, a Jamaican is a very desirable automobile:

Bill Spohn's Jamaican has to be the best one out there:

The designer of the Jamaican was Chris Beebe, good friend of Road & Track columnist Peter Egan.

This has to be one of the loveliest designs of kit cars. But '70s kit cars are not like ordering a Factory Five Roadster today. It takes a lot of work and skill to make one of these presentable.

 

[Rob Glasgow]

Speaking of Peter Egan, I think he is one of the best automotive writers around. He always seems to be able to articulate the exact feelings and memories I have had related to cars and many other things in life. I do remember one Car and Driver article where he described the sweetest exhaust sounds. The two I remember from that article were the flat head Ford V8 and the big Healey. He's written about quite a few wonderful times with his buddy Chris Beebe.

 

[HealeyRick]

And now one of the even more rare gull-wing Banshees has shown up:

I really have a deadly attraction for these things, even though I'm sure I'd regret every moment of buying one.

There's supposed to have been only 25 of the Banshees made. Here's the ebay link; https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1959-REPL...forcev4exp=true

 

[Healey_Z]

Oh, I dig that. Cobra coup-ish

 

[HealeyRick]

Here's some promotional material on the Banshee:

Note how the Banshee name has been changed to Caribee. Fiberfab sold off the Banshee name to GM which was going to use it as the name of the car that eventually became the Firebird until Pontiac found out "Banshee" was a Scottish spirit that screamed to announce an impending death.

It's pretty easy to see how the owner of a clapped out Healey with good mechanicals would think that a Jamaican or Banshee or Caribee would be just the ticket to breath new life (well, maybe not the Banshee) back into the old gal.