At the second annual Moss British Car Festival this year I got asked by two separate Healey people “How do you install the scuttle seals? I can find no information on how to do this task.” Well, they were right. There is no currently published set of instructions on how to do this pretty complicated…
The offerings from Gooding & Company typically represent an outstanding cross-section of collector cars and the selection at the 2014 Scottsdale auction ranged from MGAs to a Ferrari 250 GT Series I Cabriolet that sold for $6.1-million. British cars were in abundance and these are some of the more interesting selections that were offered. …
Originally printed in the 1959 issue of Road Test Magazine The parallels between General Motors in this country and the British Motors Corporation in England are many. Both are the largest in their respective countries, both build close to half of all cars produced at home. Also, both build sports cars. But whereas GM builds…
Originally printed in the 1959 issue of Road Test Magazine In a country like the U.S., where change is often made just for its own sake, not every import which has remained basically unchanged for six years can continue to sell well. Was the Austin-Healey really so good originally, or have refinements kept it abreast…
It was a dark and dreary night in 1964 as the young student rolled onto the Kearney College campus in his newly purchased used 1959 Austin Healey Sprite. His pride and joy was a sports car that constantly drew admiring glances from the young girls, and life was good. The student used it for all…
Everyone loves Big Healeys: They’ve been the top-o-the-pops sportscars with Americans since the first BNI was dropped on the dock in 1953. The car was designed and developed by British sporting-car legend Donald Healey for British Motor Corporation (BMC). Healey built some mighty fine Riley-based speciality sportsters just after WWII and worked with the American…
If there were an all-time award for car cuteness throughout the entire history of automobiles, the Bugeye Sprite would sweep the honors. With an almost-giggling grille smile and astonished, star-struck eyes, no other car model projects a happier disposition than the original Austin-Healey Sprite. It’s easy to imagine this little speedster as your best friend,…
The thought of hurling across the salt lakes of Utah at 200 mph is terrifying to most. There was a time when land speed record holders were kings and those speeds were not for people with weak bladders. Heroes like these were living out the dreams of little boys who plowed their toy cars through…
Nine short years is what Carroll Shelby spent as a race car driver. During his abbreviated driving career, one cut short by a heart condition that would partially confine his career, but never define him, Carroll Shelby raced heads up against some of the most prominent and preeminent drivers of the 1950s. Sterling Moss, Juan…
A World Champion gets his first Healey ride. A dark sky, rain threatening; early Sunday morning 18 June, 2000, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, site of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Canada. “Follow the course marshal’s instructions and DON’T SCREW UP! We’ll be in front of tens of thousands of people and…
