Most Healey owners love to find and collect rare spare parts, and this is likely one you haven’t seen before.   Yes, it’s an original Austin gasket set (or “joint washer set”) for an Austin A90 engine, the engine used in the Healey Hundred.

And talk about complete!  There’s even a gasket for “Tachometer pinion bush to housing.”   When was the last time you replaced yours?

This set was gifted to me very roughly 30 years ago by John Wheatley during one of my visits to his home in Worcestershire.  Given the durability of the A90 engine I haven’t needed it yet, but maybe in another 30 years.   And thank you again John!

Everything is relative.  Next to (or under) a monster truck, even a “big” Healey looks like only a dinghy.   These photos come to us courtesy of Lin Rose of Florida.

And if you have a hard time getting into and out of your Healey, imagine the challenge the truck driver faces each time he goes for a ride!  I just hope he doesn’t step on the Healey on his way into the cab.

I hesitate to share these awful pics, but there’s a good reason behind it.

The owner’s name is not important.  When and where it happened, and how it happened, are not important for our purposes.  What’s important is to let it sink in that this could happen to anyone’s Healey on any given day on the road.  This one happens to be a 100M.

I dare say that most Healeys in this condition would be “totaled.”  This one was too, but as a 100M it will be repaired anyway.   It will likely take years and as yet untold thousands (and thousands) of dollars to bring it back.

What I would suggest you think about when looking at this awful wreck is this:

1. When was the last time you checked the age of your tires and your tire pressure?

2. When was the last time you flushed your brake fluid and inspected the brake lines and wheel cylinders and all brake connections?

3. When was the last time your brake shoes and pads were inspected?

4. Does your handbrake work well enough to stop your Healey in a reasonable distance if the brakes fail?

5. When was the last time you inspected the steering and suspension?

6. When was the last time you inspected your wire wheels for broken spokes?

7. When was the last time you inspected the splines on the hubs and wheels?

8. When was the last time you checked the tightness of your knock-off nuts?

Are you willing to wait many months, and more likely at least a few years, for repairs like this to be completed?  How many good years do you have left as a driver?  How do you want to spend them?

We now return you to our regular scheduled programming, but with the hope that you take safety seriously enough to honestly answer the questions posed here.  The driving season is approaching and a word to the wise is sufficient.

After producing the Austin-Healey Club of America’s annual wall calendar for about 15 years and personally photographing every car that appeared in it, last year I struck on the idea of selling the right to have your Healey in the calendar – with the photo taken by anybody – in exchange for a $250 donation to the Donald Healey Memorial Fund.  Well, long story short, we sold all 12 months and raised $3,000 for the Fund.

Now I’m doing the same thing for the 2021 calendar and in fact have already sold five of the 12 opportunities.  So yes, there are currently seven opportunities to have your car featured in the 2021 calendar.

You can contact me via email (editor@healeyclub.org) for details, but it’s really pretty simple:

Send me a check for $250 made out to Austin-Healey Club of America.  I’ll forward it to the club treasurer who consolidates these and forwards the funds to Fred Dabney, co-chair of the Donald Healey Memorial Fund.

Then send me a nice photo of your Healey by September 30.  I’ll contact you shortly after that for some caption info.

That’s it.

Couldn’t be simpler, but as with any unique opportunity, I wouldn’t procrastinate.  As I say, the calendar is already about half sold and we can figure on a rush near the deadline, so act now to make your Healey a true “calendar car”!

Once you become deeply involved with a particular marque of automobile a certain transformation often takes place.  It’s easy to slip from being merely a “fan” or “enthusiast” for a marque into an outlook of “protector of the brand” with a mission to save them all.  So with that in mind I am happy to announced that Kent Lambert and I have jointly purchased another very interesting Healey that we’re going to “save.”

This one is a Right Hand Drive BN2, originally Carmine Red with black interior and hood.  I estimate the build date to be late October or possibly early November 1955.  Of course we will order the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust certificate with all the original data on the car to confirm these things.

We have purchased it from the estate of a gentleman who recently passed away and who bought the car in the early 1960s in England, this explaining why it is RHD.  It appears to have the Le Mans Kit installed.  The correct Le Mans carburetors and manifolds are present, as is the correct distributor.  There’s also a cold air box.  Interestingly we have the registration application form that the previous owner filled out in 1963, and he listed the model as “100 LEM” – LEM presumably short for Le Mans.

I’ll have more reports on this very interesting BN2 as time goes on, but for now here’s a redacted pic of the body number plate and Car No. plate on the car’s firewall, witness to another step on the path to saving them all.

A few minutes ago I received an email from Steve Kirby, president of the Austin-Healey Association of Southern California.  In addition to being a member of the Oregon club, I am also a member of the Association (as well as Cascade, our neighboring Healey club to the north).  The subject of his email was, “Open Letter to the Membership,” and inside he titled it, “AN OPEN LETTER TO REID TRUMMEL, AHASC MEMBER AND EDITOR OF THE HEALEY MARQUE MAGAZINE.”

This came as a complete surprise and I’m going to share it with you here because about half of our membership here in the Oregon club have not joined the Austin-Healey Club of America (AHCA) and therefore do not get the monthly magazine that I produce.

Our club is a chapter of the AHCA and I truly believe that you are missing out if you don’t get the AHCA magazine, Healey Marque.  But don’t take my word for it; consider instead this unsolicited testimonial:

Dear Reid,

Yesterday I received my March 2020 edition of the Healey Marque, which you so competently edit. I settled down with a glass of red and didn’t put the magazine down until I had read virtually every page! What a treat!

How you are able to gather such extensive and interesting material month after month is beyond me. Profile of long lost car with a fascinating back story, history of Nash Healey written by Nick Maltby of the Warwickshire County Record Office (UK), a copy of a July, 1963 letter from BMC concerning the Le Mans Kit, an original article about Tommy Wisdom written by John Nikas, background on the Donald Healey America company, Club news from around the country (including AHASC), a report on Healey sales at recent auctions, all embellished with beautiful photography including some photos that may never have been published before! And the Tech Articles, brilliant. Wow, how do you do it?

Please keep up the good work! You are providing a great service to the Healey World and are making our Club proud.

Steve Kirby
President, Austin Healey Association of Southern California

A MESSAGE [FROM STEVE KIRBY] TO OUR [AHASC] MEMBERS

The Healey Marque magazine is a monthly publication (printed on real paper!) of the Austin Healey Club of America (AHCA). Fewer than half of our Club members are also members of AHCA, and therefore do not receive this fantastic magazine. You are really missing out. I am a member of a number of car clubs in the US and UK and none of them produce a newsletter or magazine anywhere near the quality of the Healey Marque.

Well that’s one for the scrapbook!  Thank you Steve.

I encourage all members of the Austin-Healey Club of Oregon to also join the AHCA, our national affiliate, and receive the monthly Healey Marque magazine.  Here’s a link to the website where you can join online.  Thank you.

www.healeyclub.org

We Healey owners, like most “collector car” owners, love our regalia.  Who among us has not succumbed to buying an aftermarket shift knob with the Austin-Healey crest displayed on it?  Who among us hasn’t shopped for just the right key fob to complement our Healey?   And who among us hasn’t bought a shirt or a hat with a club insignia?  When I look at my own wardrobe, it’s tough to find anything without a club or marque logo on it.

Well, following the advice that you can never get too much of a good thing, I had a couple little things made that you might like.  I work with a graphics company that frequently offers specials, and so when the opportunity arises to get 50 peel-and-stick decals made for a measly $9, I jump at the chance.  Here are two recent examples:

This one, above, is two inches in diameter and the quality is really outstanding.

This one is three inches across at the largest point (to the tip of the ribbons in the lower right).  Its quality is also superb.

These aren’t for sale, but next time you see me at a club event, mention them and I’ll give you one of each, while supplies last.   They’d look great on your tool box, or maybe covering a scratch on your Healey’s dash!

I believe that most of you have heard of “Conclave,” the big annual meeting of the Austin-Healey Club of America, but few of you have attended one.  That’s not surprising since Conclave is usually held “somewhere back east.”

However, last year it was in Deadwood, South Dakota, and I drove my Portland-based Bugeye (I also have one based in Louisville, Kentucky) for six days to get there, with Chad Cansler – owner-operator of British Motor Care – along for the first three days sharing driving duties.  I also took six days to drive back, taking in the Southwest Idaho All British Field Meet along the way.  But that’s another story.

Next year Conclave will be held about as close to the Pacific Northwest as it has ever been.  Our neighbors to the south (well south), the Austin-Healey Association of Southern California, will host it.  The dates are May 16-21 and the place is Big Bear Lake, California.  Not exactly our backyard, but a little less distance than Deadwood, and certainly “doable” for the road warriors among us.

Perhaps something to put on your long-range planning calendar?  It’s only 15 months from now.

By the way, this blog is provided at no cost to the club.  As a $$$ contributor to the British Car Forum I qualified for free hosting of a blog, and this is how I decided to use that benefit.

I’m also the moderator of the Austin Healey Forum within the British Car Forum, and in fact I was the first moderator recruited back in the year 2000 when the BCF was launched.  It seems hard to believe that I’ve been at it for 20 years, but here we are.

In any case, I highly recommend that you make the British Car Forum a regular stop in your web surfing.  Check out the Austin Healey Forum in particular and you’ll find a wealth of searchable content covering many aspects of maintenance and repair, among other subjects.

It’s a great place to post questions and we’re fortunate to have many experienced and skilled owners share their experiences there, and as a moderated forum you need not fear personal attacks or the “acting out” that occur on many unmoderated forums.  We simply do not have that type of person or that type of activity there (and as the moderator I make sure it stays that way!).

There’s no cost to register and participate, and you can easily benefit greatly.  Take a look around in the British Car Forum and I think you’ll be impressed!

The next event organized by the club will be, as usual, on the second Saturday of the month, and in March that’s not until March 14.  We’ll meet at the vintage British car repair shop named “British Motor Care” at 5114 NE 42nd Avenue, Portland 97218, at 10-10:30 a.m.

Chad Cansler, the owner-operator, will make a presentation titled “The Three Threes”:

• The three most common causes of breakdowns and what to do to prevent them.

• The three most important things to check before a road trip.

• The three most important things to carry with you (in addition to mobile phone, credit card and comfortable walking shoes!).

Pizza and soft drinks will feature prominently in this event, so plan to attend and see Chad’s impressive shop and learn something, possibly contribute to the discussion yourself, and enjoy some sustenance on the club.

I wonder what toppings a British-themed pizza would have?  Come to the event and find out!