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Web site for the new Healey

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JamesWilson

JamesWilson

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HFI Automotive who's recently acquired the rights to use the Healey name and has proposed introducing a modern Healey now has a website in place.

HFI Automotive

The current issue of Octane magazine has also reported that www.healeysportscars.com is to be used as well, but that site does not yet apear to have been activated....
 
james,tried to pre-order but coldnt find the final purchase price for the car,guess if your trully interested you wont use thier internet form, your either not concerned what the price is or youll call them,but still how would anyone pre-order anything without at least seeing an artistic rendering of the front of the car? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif if this is an example of thier advertising campaign how good is the car going to be? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
From the article it sounds like all the details of what it'll look like haven't yet been fixed- a prototype is said to be running and all will be revealed later in the year. Supposed to use a steel space frame chassis, all independent suspension with a composite body, and a straight six 3 liter engine... with a roadster to follow. The article talks of 203 cars being made initially (from Healey's speed record at Bonneville) with a price to be announced. Though the article mentions a £1000 deposit to hold one for you.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif can't seem to find my cheque book at the moment, though.... in any case my 40 year old Healey is hemoraging enough finance to make a brand new one infeasible, even if they do get to production.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
There is just plain something weird here. With the claim of a working prototype for the last few months, doesn’t anyone think to bring a camera along when they test it? Maybe set up a photo shoot? Most cars these days are designed with CAD software. I would think at the very least, a computer rendering of the car. May be time to hire another marketing company.
 
I was all fired up by this and actually was prepared (read that: had permission from the Mrs.) to make the $1,700 deposit.

As I understand it, (and please don’t quote me), the prototype for the first go-around was probably the ‘tempest’ project. Krish Bhasker designed the ‘Tempest’. Bhaskar was supposedly hooked up with Nanjing, the Chinese auto manufacturer. Who, if I’m not mistaken, actually announced they would manufacture a car based upon the Tempest prototype at Longbridge. Nanjing acquired Rover, et. al., including the rights to the Austin name. But the neither Bhaskar nor Nanjing could come to terms with the Healey family.

Here’s the Tempest, and who can deny its origins?
(See attachement)

So, enter Tim Fenna, (Frontline Spridget) and other investors who form HFI and they come to terms with the Healey family, but now the prototype ‘Tempest’ and the Austin name are gone, the tempest to the designer and the Austin name to the Chinese.

In a very protracted email exchange with HFI, they assured me the car would be available in the US, but who really knows. Deloren and Briklin tried and failed, they both had cash and government subsidies. BMW had a better shot at a Healey revival type revival, and they declined the opportunity.

No one loves Healeys more than I do, and I’d love to see this happen, but, this is all a pipe dream right now, sure it could happen, but for starters, where is the distribution and support network? And, as you’ve rightly pointed out, there isn’t even a car.

Hey, I’d be happy to make a deposit on a prototype like Tempest; even if I was uncertain about the final price…I’d be happy with a ballpark figure. But an artist’s rendering? At least Donald Healey had a vehicle to unveil and BMC’s Lord to lend manufacturing and dealer distribution.

I’ll wait and see.
 

Attachments

  • 197423-tempest_healey.jpg
    197423-tempest_healey.jpg
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OMG, that is lovely. I do have a birthday comming.
 
So, what's the concensus...$40, $50, $60,000?
 
[ QUOTE ]
OMG, that is lovely. I do have a birthday comming.

[/ QUOTE ]

---Yep, an you gonnah see a few more of them birthdays before you see that car Jlaird.---Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Tony!, at least 50K--Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
Only 50K, can I pick the color?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Only 50K, can I pick the color?

[/ QUOTE ]

-----WOT! You must be opaque---Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
My guess is the 'Tempest' has a better chance to see the light of day than whatever HFI is proposing, but of course it would be called an Austin, not and Austin Healey...but would you care? It's not a 100, or a 3000, it's a modern interpretation.
 
[ QUOTE ]
keoke,im gunna use my 63 bj7 for a "trade in" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Hogwash, it ain't wurf a nickle.---Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Hogwash, it ain't wurf a nickle.---Keoke- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ] keoke,so itll be an even trade. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif
 
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