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The joys of a good reliable Healey driver

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AndrewMawson

Jedi Trainee
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OK Autumn is rapidly approaching and this year I've not had many opportunites to get the BJ8 on the road. When I've been free it's been raining and when the sun was out I've been busy - it's a tough life.

But today was a lovely late summer day in SE England - cotton wool clouds and adequately warm for a cruise, so the wife and I fired up the BJ8, blew the cobwebs out of the engine and did a nice round trip of the coastal bit of Kent - Dover - Folkstone - Dungeness - etc and back to Bromley - about 200 miles in all.

How nice to have a 40 odd year old car that is just as happy on motorways as country lanes, and (fingers crossed) is reliable and dependable.

Although in very good condition mine is not a concourse show car - and to be honest, if she were, I'm not so sure I'd have half the fun I do as I'd be too neurotic about the paintwork !

Oh joy !

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif
 
Andrew,
It sounds like a wonderful day on the other side of the Pond.It would be great to see the countryside of England in a proper Brit sportscar.

I completely agreed with you about over restored or show cars as drivers. I would be unable to drive my Healey if it were elevated to true show car status. I purposely took it to a strong #2 level and am quite pleased to leave it there.
It holds it own in all non-concourse events, but I'm not afraid to drive and enjoy it. These cars were meant to be driven regularly. And they are more reliable and run so much better when they are used often. Unless you're willing to spend every weekend wiping down the chassis and polishing all the fastners, in no time at all a trailer queen will lose its luster anyway.

Here's to the Drivers!

Randy '66 BJ8, '68 E-Type OTS /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Good for you Andrew /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
A great ride on a great fall day that's the real deal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

I too have joined the nice driver club; I have had a number of restored cars, mostly Corvettes, and my longest project was a 1964 FI Coupe that had numerous Gold awards and was correct right down to the 40+ year old NOS bias ply tubeless tires on aluminum knock-off wheels. It usually took 2-3 weeks for those to deflate while the car was in it's Garage Queen storage between shows. It was usually a major event to drive it around the block for fear something would break or a passing bird might mess the paint. My Healey looks real nice, but most of the big bucks were spent by prior owners on paint, redo of interior/top etc, leaving the essential car still attached to it's unrestored Waxoyl covered greasy frame with spots of original blue showing through here and there where I have redone something. It's such a pleasure to go out for a drive and just enjoy the drive, so here's to driving our LBCs /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Hear, hear. My youngest son and I took a wonderful drive out to Maffit Lake this evening. We parked and threw stones in the lake, and looked for arrowheads. Perfect Healey weather - 75 degrees and sunny. We were only out for an hour, but felt like a lifetime... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grouphug.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thirsty.gif
 
yup, mine is also a "surviver driver" and not a "clean queen" im really able to enjoy it that way, thats how she will stay! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
Andrew,

Wonderful. I once took an extended trip with my late mother to show her some of the world. We traveled the coast from Dover to Sandwich, Deal, Margate and many towns I cannot remember the name of. What a wonderful part of the world indeed. Very few tourists (forign ones I mean) so we had a great chance to meet real local folks.

Is this the same area you speak of just driving? Lots of stone villages. Oh great memories!!
 
Owned it for 25 years, over $20,000 invested over the last four years, driven it almost every day, still haven't even started on the interior, but guess what? - It's as safe, or safer, on the road today as it was on /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/square.gifthe day it came out of the factory, and the judges at an event wouldn't give it a second glance. We've stayed true to the marque, but our constant goal has been safe to drive, not concours correct. I have a lot of respect for the Healeys and their owners who do go the other way and restore to perfection, but our goal has always been "drive it every day you can". The bottom line for us has always been the joy of taking it out on the roads through Northern Virginia, Maryland and Pa. every chance we get. Good for you, get it out there more often, find the time!
 
The premise here seems to be that a concourse level Healey is not a reliable driver.However,it is well known that a false premise can lead to a true conclusion. Contrastingly, Don Fisher who has been chronicled in the usual Healey magazines has driven his concourse gold car fully loaded across the US several times with no failures what so ever and the car still meets the gold standard's. The only downside I see using the concourse car as a driver is the tremendous work [Elbow Grease] to keep it at that standard. Certainly, the reliability of the concourse car should be equal to or greater than that of the daily driver, I would think.---Fwiw-Keoke
 
keoke, of course a restored car can be equally dependable, i think we are talking here about some that are not being driven on a reqular bases,the worst thing you can do to machinery is not use it,i dont believe any of us disrespects the individuals that undertake a full expensive time consuming restoration, quite the contrary,we just dont share thier anal anguish. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif p.s. im enjoying a greater level of dependability with my 63 healey then with the two brand new trucks i recently purchased. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
keoke, of course a restored car can be equally dependable, i think we are talking here about some that are not being driven on a regular bases,the worst thing you can do to machinery is not use it,i dont believe any of us disrespects the individuals that undertake a full expensive time consuming restoration, quite the contrary,we just dont share thier anal anguish. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif p.s. im enjoying a greater level of dependability with my 63 healey then with the two brand new trucks i recently purchased. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I knew the flack was coming /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif about them new trucks prolly from GM-or-Ford. I hear they gonna call em
back for a fix-- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif Keoke-AZ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cowboy.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
The premise here seems to be that a concourse level Healey is not a reliable driver.However,it is well known that a false premise can lead to a true conclusion. Contrastingly, Don Fisher who has been chronicled in the usual Healey magazines has driven his concourse gold car fully loaded across the US several times with no failures what so ever and the car still meets the gold standard's. The only downside I see using the concourse car as a driver is the tremendous work [Elbow Grease] to keep it at that standard. Certainly, the reliability of the concourse car should be equal to or greater than that of the daily driver, I would think.---Fwiw-Keoke

[/ QUOTE ]

Keoke, No - you miss the point I'm making - what I'm saying is that if it were concourse I wouldn't want to drive it as much, not so much because of the cleaning hassle, as the degredation, stone chips, etc. Once something is PERFECT there is only one way it can go, and that is WORSE .
 
Andrew! more false Premises, using this concept-implies that the Daley driver must be getting worse too?. But I hear you----Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I like Jay Leno's attitude on this subject (of course he has enough money to cop any kind of attitude /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif ) .. paraphrased .. "restore them as nice as you can and then drive them until they need to be restored again." nuttin wrong with that .. eh Keoke!

Cheers,
John
 
Nope John, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif. But let me tell you about Jay at a meet one time. He had this exotic French car on display. A woman wanted to take a picture beside it which Jay agreed to.The woman feinted a swoon in doing so her diamond ring hit and cut one of the window glasses. Jay looked at it and tears ran down his cheek.Wanting to cheer him up- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I said "Jay the only time you cry about damage to your car is when you can't afford to have it fixed" . /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif---Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
I drove 4,573 miles on my run to Nelson, the aftertour with the OR club and then returning. I had a tail light go out.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I drove 4,573 miles .. had a tail light go out.

[/ QUOTE ]

After that many miles I'm afraid my "tail lite" would go out too! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif John
 
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