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Tough Old Healeys

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CDK

CDK

Jedi Trainee
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I have not posted for awhile so I am on a bit of a binge.
Have been reading a book about Pat Moss (famous Healey Rally driver). The way the Healeys were treated during the Rallys was rather rough, not on purpose but just the nature of the Rally. I have always respected my various vehicles but have demaned a lot from them, I would not even think of doing some of the things that tended to be normal parts of the rallys. These cars were truely tested by fire when new and the mere fact that you finished was a feat let along winning repeatedly. D.H. being a rally driver himself deffinetly designed this into the cars. So the next time you are tenderly driving your car around do not be afraid to give it a little extra, as they were built as little sporty tanks and can take more then most of us could ever imagine. From the stories I have just read these cars are one tough machine. But then again we all knew that.
CDK
 
They were certainly tested 'under fire' on the Rally circuit, but don't forget that they had a major back up operation behind them. If you read the 'Healey Story' by Geoffrey Healey it seems it wasn't at all unusual to be changing major items during a rally.

The good thing is, like all racing development, that the failures could be examined and components redesigned accordingly. Wheel hubs being a classic example.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif CDK, Don't beleive everthing you read in the Tomes of yesterday---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
When I drove rallys and hillclimbs in Greece with my 100-6, I think I helped pave their roads with mufflers and spokes. I solved the muffler problem by running streight pipes, but the wires were a constant pain.
 
The impression I get from the books is that the early rallys were more on the level of amature participation then that of the factory teams. Not that some of the teams did not have some factory support. Your support often was a car (not much more then stock if not stock) and maybe some travel money. This of course grew as all things do untill the rallys became almost all factory teams with massive support. What I found interesting was how brutal some of the courses were and the toal they took on basicly stock vehicals, that you then drove back home. Once again times have changed and I am getting softer as I have driven a car across the U.S that I probally would not take down to the deli now.
RVMAN car to tell us more about your rally exploites. The years that you raced the type of and or names of the rallys you were in, ect.
CDK
 
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