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What a Healey might be

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fordtrucks4ever

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What current vehicle would best represent what the Healey would look like if still in production today?
 
Well, the Wiesmann to me looks like an AH3000 body with Jensen CV-8 headlights. The pictures on the link I gave are poo. It was driven and reviewed on Top Gear and they loved the car. Kept oozing about the british-like beauty of the body work paired with german running gear.

For the price, I'd drive a healey, but I'd certainly want to test drive. :smile:
 
I've gotta agree w/nevets. The bimmer does it all without the interesting chassis dynamics. As a plus there is the coupe which is a reasonable "today" version of the similarly (but not the same) powered MGC/GT.

Looking forward to a drive in Sir Leaksallot tomorrow. Mid 60's partly sunny in NE Mass. Not trick but surely a treat!

Chris
 
Hey Chirs, I have the same year car as you and live in southeast Mass. We should get our cars together for a reunion.

As to the original post... I think the BMW votes are probably right. I'm just not a big fan of the body work on the Z4. When it was time for me to buy a new sports car, I looked at the M3s (Z4 was not out yet) Vettes, Boxsters, Miatas and the S2000. Honda got my money. I'm not sure that means anything, but as a guy who always loved Healeys big and small, the Honda hit a note with me. Six years later, I'm still loving it.
 
If we enlarge the "current" requirement to include the little-known electric variant(unfortunately not shown in the literature) of the following car then this would be it for me:

https://sbiii.com/cyclops/cyclops.html
 
I'd have to vote for the Z3 rather than the Z4. My fiancee owned a Z3 and I previously owned a Z4. The differences were stunning. I felt that the Z3 was far more responsive and had significantly more road feel. I felt that driving my Z4 was like driving a computer. A fast computer, but a computer nonetheless. It did just about everything I ever asked of it, including when I pushed it, but I felt like it was looking back at me wearing a lab coat and shaking its head disapprovingly. Our new Mini Cooper S is tons more fun to drive than the Z4 ever was! Just my humble opinion.
 
Hi everyone, There were articles back preceding the intro of the BMW MINI and the Z3. BMW's intent was to retro the clasic lines & engineering concepts of two of the most disireable of the early British sports cars. They bought the rights to the now defunct British Leyland Corp design and engineering concepts with the original intent to retro the Mini and the Big Healey just as the big three eventually did with the Mustang, Challenger and Camaro. What they didn't know when they bought those rights is that they didn't own the rights to the Healey name. Donald Healey just worked under contract for 'Old Nuffy' and the BMC never really owned the Healey. The Healey family to this day still maintains all rights to the name. BMW had already done all the engineering for the new cars and they went ahead and produced the MINI, but they hit a road block with the Healey. They couldn't call it 'Healey'. The Z3 is the car that most represents what the Big Healey might look like today because it was designed for that purpose. It has the classic long front end or bonnet, with slightly rounded cresting front fenders with a dip to the headlights. The moderate lower door rail, and the short stubby curvingly rounded rear fenders. All classic design points of the early British sports cars. And if you have ever seen a sky blue Z3 roadster with a removeable hardtop zip past you on the freeway, you'll know that they executed this theft of concept masterfully.
( I believe 'Z3' was the prototype/production numbering for the car when it was in it's development stages... as someone else has mentioned, they even went so far as to produce the Z3 coupe which is a direct derivitive of the prototype Coupes that Donald Healey was hoping to mass produce. )
 
Speaking of BMW, have you seen the Z8.
It has the same lines from the side as the Healey. Front and rear wings.
 
Another nod for the Z3, especially the ///M (Motorsports) version!

Having both, I make the comparison all the time. The BMW straight six (I6) is also an undersquare design, with the stroke longer than the bore is wide, and ready with bags of torque with the slightest prod of the throttle.

Yes, the 98-02 BMW M Roadster is what the Healey would be when all grown up :wink:
 
AUSMHLY said:
Speaking of BMW, have you seen the Z8.
It has the same lines from the side as the Healey. Front and rear wings.
Click to expand...

AUSMHLY:
By far the best approach to the Healey.
I have always enjoyed the look and the lines of the Z8.
It is a spectacular auto.
I have been waiting since it was introduced for the price
to come down to a point that I could afford.... no such luck.
I can only dream.... nice choice.

<span style="font-weight: bold">I'm with you.... great car, the Z8</span> :thumbsup:
 
The z8 is a spectacular car. But is alittle upscale (an understatement in deed) of market nich that the Healey and the Z3 were targeting. More in the nich of the Jag. Of coarse VERY SPECTACULAR.
 
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