B.M.C. Quality

[HealeyRick]

Healey quality starts at 2:48

Fitted with a hardtop, the 3000 BT7 Mk II registered 699 DON ("DON" for Donald Healey?) was the "Autocar's" test car dated December 22, 1961: https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/sets/72157640748979293/

 

[bighealeysource]

Very cool Rick ! Seeing this and other period videos ( guess film is more correct) brings back memories of being a 16 year old in 1964 and visiting the MG/Healey dealership and lusting after an MGB or 3000.Didn't have the money for one but eventually got a very tired 1962 Sprite in 1968 or so. That got me hooked and finally got a big Healey in 1978 and it too was a very tired Healey blue BJ8 with fiberglass fenders but I finally had one !

 

[HealeyRick]

Wonder why they didn't show the Healey on the tank test track?

 

[DerekJ]

699 DON 'lives' about 20 miles from me. Its owned by the Comp secretary of Healeysport and is in works rally spec.

 

[HealeyRick]

699 DON 'lives' about 20 miles from me. Its owned by the Comp secretary of Healeysport and is in works rally spec.

Thanks, Derek. Good info.

Seems a few of the press cars have survived. PJB 828, the 100/6 press demonstrator used in Terry Thomas's movie "School for Scoundrels" was later turned into a rally car by Ted Worswick: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20145/lot/154/

The first road registered Bugeye shown here is still around, too:

PBL 75 was the first road registered Sprite: https://www.ridedrive.co.uk/classic-first-sprite.htm

 

[Editor_Reid]

Fitted with a hardtop, the 3000 BT7 Mk II registered 699 DON ("DON" for Donald Healey?)

Of course! Because as we know from the ads, most Healeys were once personally owned by Donald Healey. I mean, they couldn't say it if it weren't true, right?

 

[HealeyRick]

I find the British approach to "personalized" numbers registration interesting. Where generally we can go to the DMV and order a plate to our choosing for a relatively modest fee, our British cousins have to find a plate and letter/number combination that matches or comes close to what they are trying to spell out and then try to obtain it. So a plate like "BUY 1" that Jaguar owned and reassigned for the first E-Type delivered to a customer was quite valuable

Unlike the U.S., the British allow registration numbers to be privately sold and reassigned to unrelated persons and the prices for sales and auctions for sought after numbers can be stratospheric:
https://www.nationalnumbers.co.uk/registration-plates.html

 

[DerekJ]

Rick

The first ever number was, not surprisingly, A1. Registered in London. Not sure who owns it now.

My old home town had the letters EO as its base. Back in the 1960s a local well off solicitior owned the numbers CEO 1, CEO 2 and CEO 3 for his three cars. Back then nobody in England used the title Chief Executive Officer. However I understand that these three were sold as set a few years ago for about £200,000.

 

[EV2239]

This was Sir George White's Panhard Levassor, he found the Bristol Aircraft Company amongst others and his Grandson still does the Brighton Run in it. Note the early Bristol registration number.

Sorry images doesn't appear, but I don't understand this forum.