• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Gordon Baxter - The Old Black Healey

Share this page

S

SaxMan

Darth Vader
Country flag
Offline
I'm wondering if anyone has a copy of one of Gordon Baxter's Car & Driver columns from the early 1980s -- "That Old Black Healey". When I was a teenager, I subscribed to Car & Driver, and I very distinctly remember this column, including the little line at the beginning:

"That old black Healey that I knew so well. That old black Healey, it would go like...

It was those days of reading Car & Driver that first familiarized me with the world of LBCs outside of MGBs. The writers would refer to TR3s, MGAs, Bugeye Sprites, and yes, the Healeys, too. Now that I know a little bit more about LBCs, I really want to read the column again and see how much better I can grasp it.
 
I know you're involved in aviation so you're probably familiar with Bax's columns in Flying too.

I read his columns in Car and Driver as well as Flying.....all wonderful stuff. And I recall the black Austin Healey column (but not the details).

I can actually recall seeing C&D when it was Sports Cars Illustrated

Apparently there is a book about his Car and Driver columns. You can find some of the content of that book ~HERE~

On a related note, I really miss the days of the real, irreverent Car and Driver magazine and not the pathetic bird-cage liner it has become (along with Road & Track.....thanks to Hearst Publishing).

I used to read Dick Smothers, Warren Weith, Jean Shepard, Baxter, Brock Yates, Bruce McCall and even the cranky David E. Davis.
Another case where corporate sales and marketing wins and us real readers lose.
Ah well.....I can always read Playboy "for the articles" ;)
 
That's the one, Nial! I recognize the excerpts. Thank you.

I read Car & Driver during the D.E.D., Don Sherman, Csabe Csere, Pat Bedard and Jean Lindamood era, along with Brock Yates' return and Mr. Baxter's columns, which I also read in Flying. Even that incarnation was irreverent and made for a much more enjoyable read than Road & Track or Motor Trend. In a lot of ways, the magazine was a printed incarnation of Top Gear (the BBC version, of course). Frankly, I don't know if there are any large-circulation automobile magazines today that could match the wit, irreverence and genuine impartiality of C&D in its heyday.
 
Yeah I met Bedard, Sherman, Csere at various times at Lime Rock. I saw them run the #00 Pinto and Opel in the old Showroom Stock Sedan Challenge a number of times at Lime Rock.

Yates is in bad shape now with Alzheimer's disease. I used to see him at the Lime Rock Vintage.

You may recall that 3 gals ran Yate's original Cannonball Run; Judy Stropus, Donna Mae Mims and a 3rd gal I can't recall.
I used to see Donna Mae at the PVGP flagging. After she passed away they had her old pink racing Bugeye on display in Pittsburgh. She bought that car from Dr. Jonas Salk.

Lindamood still runs that car website at https://www.jeanknowscars.com/
 
Wow. Talk about a "blast from the past"!

And one of the Sewickley regulars would accompany Donna Mae to those events.

I've lots of stories about those days. <sigh>
 
Back
Top