Use your car as it was meant to be used

[dougie]

Most Europeans I know laugh at our silly cars and coffee and show and shine events. While we're sitting in a foldable picnic chairs telling spectators about the history of our car, in Europe they're making history in theirs. How can we change this here in the US?

 

[vette]

Drive em baby, Drive em. How ‘bout some organized road trips. There are some good ones organized around the country. Classic Motorsport magazine has more than one every year. I’ve done two with them. One in the Healey one with the old Vette. Neither car broke. Many good people, good food good places. Of coarse the guy that drove his Healey to Enclave from Cal already did his share. Beats sitting in a sunny parking lot.

 

[Bob McElwee]

Regional Healey club meets are also good ways to take road trips. The nice think about being retired was we could two-lane it both ways. One to five or six cars is always fun.
Once you get there you get to meet a bunch of great people.

 

[John Turney]

..... How can we change this here in the US?

Join a California Austin-Healey Club.

• Golden Gate AHC has an annual mileage award for whichever owner drives his/her Healey the most miles during the year from our first event to the Christmas Party. It takes about 10K miles to win, but second and third place are not far behind.

• Our (GGAHC) event lineup for this year includes:

• Saturday March 4th TECH SESSION
• Saturday March 25th SEASON OPENER AT RYDE HOTEL with Tour
• Saturday April 15th DAFFODIL HILL Tour
• Friday May 12th – Sunday 14th FEATHERBED RAIL ROAD - two days of touring
• Saturday June 10th NICOLINI WINERY with Tour
• Saturday Aug 5th ALICE’S RESTAURANT/SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS Tour
• Monday Sep 18th – Friday 22nd 2023 CALIFORNIA HEALEY WEEK - Several Tours
• Friday Oct 6th – Sunday 8th SIERRA PASSES - two days of touring
• Saturday Oct 21st ENKIDU WINERY SONOMA with Tour
• Saturday Nov 4th OR Sunday Nov 5th DISNEY FAMILY MUSEUM with Tour

• Steve Kirby of the Austin-Healey Association of Southern California has arraigned several Austin-Healey Tours which have included New Zealand, Scotland, the Black Forest and in 2022, Goodwood to Tuscany.
• We often have drivers and Healeys from Southern California at our Northern California events. It's typically about 300 miles, each way, for them to get to our starting spots.

 

[Editor_Reid]

Dougie, since you're right here in the Portland area, I can't recommend highly enough the Lewis & Clark Classic Rally. You can drive it as:

• A competitive Time-Speed-Distance rally.
• A tour in a follow-the-leader format (group of 8 or so cars).
• A tour-on-your-own.

 

[John Turney]

Like this?

Glenn Stephenson became a proud owner in July of a 1960 3000, and for the next two years enjoyed his new toy in a conventional way, motoring around the back roads of the Bay Area.

After about 4,000 miles of pretty plebeian motoring he decided to try drag racing, which had become very popular on a plethora of tracks throughout California and the West. My own memories are that the sport was pretty casual at the time: run what you brung, with street tires, few if any modifications, and drive it home, very much the same philosophy as the early days of SCCA racing. It didn’t take long for Glen to decide to dedicate his Healey to the sport, particularly after he won his first race in Lodi.

The hook was set, and from 1962 to the early 1970’s Glenn was on the road throughout the West, from Canada to Mexico wringing the car out. He never lost a race….and has a collection of trophies to prove it. What was his secret sauce? The motor was stock (the class he ran in) so nothing was done to the internals that gave him any advantage. He had figured out where to purchase the best 101 Octane gas in the area, and he did replace the spaciing springs between the rocker arms to reduce friction, but no hot cam, lightened rods, over bore, etc. He just ran hard, ignoring red line to shift at 6,000 with the knowledge that if it broke, he could fix it.

Glenn continued to dominate the circuit with ‘’the Eliminator” until 1972 when the rules were changed to prohibit foreign cars to compete against American manufactured vehicles. Apparently US vehicles had their feelings hurt that big V-8’s were getting whipped by a 6 cylinder up-start. Glen did have one secret that no one figured out. He had found a specialty machine shop in England that could produce gear sets for the rear end. They asked what he wanted. An order was placed for a 5.12 to 1 ratio that made his starts like a scared rabbit, actually lifting the front end a bit off the ground. The acceleration was startling, and he would be 1,000 ft down the 1,350 foot run, tapped out on horsepower and starting to slow down before any competitor was even close. Talk about intimidation…

Unfortunately, Glenn passed away suddenly last October, but has been a regular participant in Club events.

From GGAHC Healey Happenings, August 2022.

 

[dougie]

John _
I love that story, great history on a true Healey guy lover!

 

[kozelding]

"The Eliminator" drag car article sparks so many questions: like, was he running a stock (side-shift?) gearbox? With O/D?

 

[John Turney]

"The Eliminator" drag car article sparks so many questions: like, was he running a stock (side-shift?) gearbox? With O/D?

As I understand it, the only significant modification was the 5.12 rear end. Transmission swaps were not common when these cars were new.

 

[Editor_Reid]

How these cars were "meant to be used" is actually a very interesting question.

You could say that since they were street-legal and came with bumpers and weather equipment, they were supposed to be street-driven, all-weather transportation that would be parked where bumpers would be needed.

Since they were marketed as "sports cars" (that were street-legal and had weather equipment and bumpers), they were meant for sports car club events such as road rallies, something that was very popular in the 1950s and 60s.

Since performance options were offered by the factory, you could say that they were, on a rare exception basis, also meant for racing. (And if they were meant primarily for racing, they would have come without bumpers or weather equipment, and probably a cut-down windscreen and an all-aluminum body ... they call that one the 100S.)

I'd say that they were meant primarily for street/road driving and mild competitive car club events on public roads. Anything else was an exception, and to say that thrashing them in "historic" rallies is all well and good if you really want to do that to a street car, but the factory entered them in grueling competitive events only for the publicity that resulted, not as a demonstration of how they were "meant to be used."

If Europeans want to laugh at the way we use ours, I'd counter that it's a pity they are thrashing and crashing and hyper-modifying these dear old street cars, using them up and losing their originality in exercises of willful self-indulgence. And how can we change that? We probably can't change that, but thankfully they can't stop us from enjoying and respecting our examples and preserving them for future owners to enjoy.

 

[John Turney]

If we only preserved original cars, mine would have been junked for parts before I bought it 33 years ago.

 

[HealeyRick]

"The Eliminator" drag car article sparks so many questions: like, was he running a stock (side-shift?) gearbox? With O/D?

The Eliminator was auctioned on eBay in 2015 in rough condition in 2015 and was featured on BarnFinds with some extra details about the car's set-up in the comments: > 1960 Austin Healey: The Eliminator < I wonder if the knight on the trunk was a nod to the TV show "Paladin, Have Gun Will Travel"?

 

[dougie]

The Eliminator was auctioned on eBay in 2015 in rough condition in 2015 and was featured on BarnFinds with some extra details about the car's set-up in the comments: > 1960 Austin Healey: The Eliminator < I wonder if the knight on the trunk was a nod to the TV show "Paladin, Have Gun Will Travel"?

Looking at the original pics John posted, the pin stripping could be the early work of VonDutch, > Feature: Legendary pinstriper Von Dutch <

 

[Michael Oritt]

Austin-Healeys definitely were not meant to be used on a 1/4 mile drag strip but obviously they could certainly be made to fill the bill.

One of my favorite things to do when I was in High School (1958 to 1960) was--when they were out of town-to fill my parents' Cadillac convertible with four or five friends and take it to the drags at Amelia Ehrhart Field in Opa Locka (Miami). I'd put the seat forward so I could reach the gas pedal, take off the air cleaner and hubcaps, write a number on the windshield in white shoe polish, and drive up to the line. The Caddy was good for 18 or so second 1/4's but I didn't really care about winning: the mere thrill of going down the strip as fast as I could was enough. And not getting caught for having "borrowed" the car was an extra added attraction.

 

[HealeyRick]

Austin-Healeys definitely were not meant to be used on a 1/4 mile drag strip but obviously they could certainly be made to fill the bill.

Little know fact - Geoff Healey was a hot rodder. From the Warwickshire County Records office:
The Healey collection contains many rare images relating to the family and their cars. This one features all three of Donald's sons (Geoffrey, Brian and John Healey). They are outside Donald Healey's house in Leamington Spa (no longer extant unfortunately). The car is a Hot Rod, a motor vehicle that has been modified to give it extra power.

We understand that Geoffrey was one of the founders of the British Hot Rod Association. It is likely the image was taken about 1953.

You may also be interested to know that an exhibition featuring some of the archive is now open at Warwickshire Museum, this Summer until Spring 2022. Check the museum website for access information!

 

[dougie]

Little know fact - Geoff Healey was a hot rodder. From the Warwickshire County Records office:
The Healey collection contains many rare images relating to the family and their cars. This one features all three of Donald's sons (Geoffrey, Brian and John Healey). They are outside Donald Healey's house in Leamington Spa (no longer extant unfortunately). The car is a Hot Rod, a motor vehicle that has been modified to give it extra power.

We understand that Geoffrey was one of the founders of the British Hot Rod Association. It is likely the image was taken about 1953.

You may also be interested to know that an exhibition featuring some of the archive is now open at Warwickshire Museum, this Summer until Spring 2022. Check the museum website for access information!

View attachment 85580

That was probably the beginning of builds like this....