• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Comments, anyone?

Share this page

roscoe

roscoe

Jedi Knight
Silver
Country flag
Offline
I'm sure most if not all of us have heard comments from bystanders or Healey aficionados that made your day or were at least long remembered.

I went to the local hardware store today and as the bell on the door of the store jingled, the woman behind the register, who had seen and heard me drive up and head in park next to the pallet of chicken feed on the sidewalk, asked what kind of car it was. I told her it was a 1956 Austin Healey and added it was not quite was old as I was. She said something along the lines of there being no way I could be that old. I'm still smiling. I guess at some point my age and condition might have become more important to me than the car. As Billy Crystal used to say " it's better to look good than to feel good". I'm not sure about that but I guess in that moment the two things came together and that worked for me. Now where did I leave that Ibuprophen?

What unsolicited comments were noteworthy for you?
 
Noteworthy to me are the couple times LEOs have stopped to have a chat while I was fueling-up; once near the border as we were preparing to cross into Canada, and once in remote Nevada 'trading post' (both seemed to be delighted with the car; lots of cops are 'Car Guys'). One time in Chico, CA we were struggling to exit my BJ8 in a parking lot after two weeks on the road; a little boy came running and yelling 'Mom, look at THAT car!' and we heard her say 'But look how hard it is for them to get out of it!' Lots of 'Nice car!' of course. Just a few years ago, when I was swapping out a fuel pump on the side of a highway a friendly CHP pulled over, but my navigator did all the talking with him (it was nice having a black-and-white 'covering my rear'). In all my years driving Healeys I've only had one disparaging comment, about it being a 'gross polluter'--from a tree-hugger type in Oregon; I told him (paraphrasing) he could 'Jolly well F himself.'

Side note: Does anyone else start talking a bit like a Brit while driving a Healey?
 
When we we’re driving US 50 out to the Open Roads 2002 Conclave there were 3 cars from the UK in the group. One of them was stopped by a state trooper in either Utah or Nevada. As the trooper walked up he failed to notice the car was RHD. To listen to the two driver/passenger repeat the conversation was hilarious. When the trooper figured it out he was amused by his mistake and forgot about their speeding. I can’t remember the details, it’s been too long ago. The told the story in a restaurant that was in a old jail house in Ely, NV I think.
 
The bugeye is always great for kids' comments and I always enjoy asking them if they'd like to sit in it and watch their smiles. I went to a lot of lengths to make the Nasty Boy look stock, including bringing the tailpipes to the left-hand side to look like an ANSA system, including appropriate decals. I got a great kick out of a comment from a guy at the British Invasion in Stowe that he didn't know an ANSA would make a Healey sound so good.
 
Back
Top