Random Reflections

By Steve Wurster

It is often said that when you ponder past events and deeds, you remember the good times more than the bad. I find this is certainly true when I recall all the cars I have owned. One day as I sat and day dreamed, I listed all the cars that I have had the pleasure of owning (or co-owning with the bank). I was amazed, shocked, and confused. Where did they all go? How could I have sold some of them? Why did I even consider buying a couple of them? No answers here, just good memories.

All told and listed, I found 27 cars from 1965 to the present day! That wonderful spring day in my Junior year of High School when I made a $50.00 down payment to buy a 1951 Ford “Woody” wagon, was a grand day indeed. That car became the source of some of my most pleasant memories. It was bright orange with fairly nice, well varnished wood. The flathead V-8 had lots of power, even though much of it got lost in the Ford-o-matic two speed gearbox on the way to the rear wheels. I’m convinced that the Ford Flatheads taught the British how to make a car over-heat! I found, hanging in the backroom of a local garage, an Offenhauser tri-carb manifold with 3 single barrel Holley carbs. I was able to get this set-up for two weekends of changing tires, pumping gas and clean-up work. I might add that when I later sold this car I re-installed the stock parts and sold the “Offy” set-up for $200.00. A kid in high school in the mid-sixties with $200.00 owned the town. I sold the “Woody” to a Mexican field worker for $150.00 and was sad to hear later that he died and the car went to a junkyard. Hopefully, it’s now been rescued and is in Los Angeles cruising Sunset on Saturday nights.

I could fill page after page listing all the splendid (to me) cars I owned but I’ll skip on to the more exciting ones. My first British car was a 1963 Austin Healey 3000 BJ7. I really lucked into this one! My dad had gotten me a good deal on a 1965 Dodge pick-up, the compact stub nosed version. I bought it for $125.00 and packed what I owned in it and took off for college. Leaving central California bound for Idaho, I got to the middle of the Nevada desert before the slant-six engine bit off and swallowed the impeller from the water pump. To make a long story short, after having my wallet lightened considerably I was ready to unload the Dodge for anything that would move under its own power. I was called by a local farmer who saw my “for sale” sign desperately scrawled on the tail gate and offered me a “no account sports car” that his son had abandoned next to his barn under a tarp. This turned out to be the big Healey mentioned earlier. All this guy knew about it was, the clutch slipped a year and a half ago and it had been parked and forgotten. I would have traded for a Borgward at this point, but settled for the 3000!

Changing the clutch was a breeze and a pleasant surprise. The car ran like a dream and turned out to be the best car I owned before or since. The love affair with the big red Healey was up and down, however! Up was when the sun was out and on starry Idaho nights in the warm night wind. Then I loved it. The down days were cold snowy ones like the day I stripped the splines from a rear hub and transformed my pretty sports car into an off road, 3 wheeled snow plow. Driving the car to California and back twice on school breaks was the most fun
I’ve had behind the wheel. Then comes the really sad part. We’ve all heard the story a thousand times but I got married and the wife demanded and got a “family” car. I traded the Healey for a 1973 Fiat sedan. Don’t ask me why,  I still don’t know! Years later I traded the Fiat and the wife jointly for some much needed peace of mind.

The years that followed saw a couple of Jaguar E types come and go, along with a myriad of boring American cars. I tried to recapture the fun spent in the Healey, but could only come slightly close. There were the Jags, a couple of fun little autocross Cortina’s, a very strange but delightful Consul Capri from England and a Saab 99 EMS–very nice car. I am now driving, along with a plain but reliable Ford Escort, a cosmetically ugly but mechanically sound 1969 MGB Roadster, close to the Healey in motoring fun.

Who knows what I’ll be driving in the years to come. One thing I do know, I’ll enjoy them because most of them will be British. I’m hooked on them, oil leaks; SU fuel pumps and all!