The TR6 and the Big Healeys By Wiley Davis Certain groups of people look upon the string-back driving glove with disdain. They equate boots and bonnets with baby dolls, not automobiles. These people tend to worship the V8. They measure manhood in cubic inches and performance as a function of acceleration alone. Their position, though…
From Moss Motoring 1986 by Norman Nock Stockton, CA Does your Austin Healey smoke? Burn oil? Have less than 15 pounds oil pressure at idle? Have less than 45 pounds oil pressure at 55 mph? If you have the smoking and oil pressure problem, here is a diagnostic procedure that could save you an engine rebuild…
From Moss Motoring 1986 By Reid Trammel, Tampa, FL It’s been a little over seventeen years since the first of the ‘Big Healeys’ rolled out of Abingdon, and although virtually every Healey enthusiast regrets that fact, it had to end. A combination of new US legislation and the vagaries of the British auto industry teamed…
At various times during the manufacture of the cars called Austin-Healey, both big and little ones, the factory’ made available removable fiberglass hardtops for most models. There probably aren’t rarer original options available today that can dramatically change the looks of your favorite model the way one of these hardtops can. What was a roadster or…
Interview with Roger Menadue, Conclave ’93 In 1939, a friend of mine who was with Armstrong Whitworth, the aircraft manufacturer encouraged me to go and work in their plant. I had always been interested in aviation and it seemed an ideal position. However when the war broke out in September we were ‘frozen’ in our…
One of the big problems in restoring an Austin-Healey, especially one that has been modified, or disassembled with all parts thrown into bushel baskets (hence the term basket case!), is that the factory parts manuals don’t always tell the whole story. Such is the case with that stuff you sit on. No, I don’t mean any…
(This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Donald Mitchell Healey, and as such, we would like to present an interview with him which Paul Chudecki undertook in 1986, and which gives an insight into the man responsible for those magnificent machines. Paul traveled down to Perranporth, Cornwall, to interview Donald just…
I’ve been wanting to replace my original 17-inch steering wheel with a wood-rimmed one for some time. For those of us of ample build, or belonging to the “seismically stable” set, the additional clearance of a smaller wheel can make a lot of difference in driving pleasure. Yes, I know that there is just an…
In a recent issue of British Car, there’s an excellent article written by Australian Pat Quinn regarding the restoration of his Austin-Healey BN3. What’s a BN3, you ask? Well, Pat has restored the first of the two prototype four cylinder test vehicles into which Donald Healey and crew stuffed the soon to be introduced six…
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…
