by Frank Barret Circa 1960 in Hanover, New Hampshire—a lovely small town nestled in the upper Connecticut River Valley and the home of Dartmouth College—there was never a shortage of interesting European sports cars, either in residence or passing through. My older middle brother, an avid reader of Road & Track, would keep an eye…
The internal surface of the brake servo vacuum cylinder is coated with a dry film lubricant that can wear off with age. This prevents the vacuum piston from moving freely, resulting in erratic brake action. Therefore, I had to look into vacuum relief valve products to repair it. I suffered through several problems trying to restore…
By Warren Mann “Hey Jon, just a heads up… six months till the Invasion!” On a cold March morning, I fired off a text message to my cousin, reminding him it might be a good time to dive into one of his Healey projects so that he’d be ready for the long drive to Stowe,…
Most automotive enthusiasts appreciate the innate differences between sports cars from America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom even if they are unable to articulate what makes them unique. Even the casual car guy can tell you that American muscle cars have large displacement engines; Italian engines make their power with lots of…
With the moniker of Mr. Big Healey, John Chatham has earned his status as one of the storied marque’s most legendary men. Across four decades, Chatham piloted DD300 – an Austin-Healey 3000 – on tracks around the world and became famous as one of the fastest drivers of the era. Chatham’s father purchased a garage…
It never fails to surprise me how much real life is like high school. Back then we were typically identified with a group and that appellation likely stayed with us throughout our entire four years. Jock. Nerd. Slacker. Freak. Sometimes you were lucky enough to cut across such crass distinctions by creating a niche for…
The original Austin-Healey 100 was successful from the start through the winning combination of the inimitable styling penned by Gerry Coker and the surfeit of torque provided by the Austin A90 engine. Not content to rest on his laurels – and aware that challengers like the Triumph TR2 were real threats in the marketplace –…
Even for ardent enthusiasts, it’s often surprising to find out that the overwhelming majority of British sports cars were exported to the North American market. In the early days of Austin-Healey and the Triumph TR in particular, for every car that was reserved for the home market at least ten headed overseas. For these reasons,…
The question is asked of us quite often, “what’s my British sports car worth?” The easy answer, like most things in life, is it depends. British sports car values depend on many factors. What does it depend on? Largely, it hinges on condition, and then is followed by lesser contributing factors like color, timing, trim…
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.” – John Greenleaf Whittier The Swinging Sixties represented the high-water mark for the British automotive industry. The Jaguar E-Type – introduced in 1961 – was widely considered one of the best sports cars in the world and more affordable…
