Dear British Car Netters -
I'm new to this mailing list, and thought I'd introduce myself.
I've been in love with British sports cars since I can remember.
I do seem to remember reading one of those boys books, where the
young lad sees the old (new at the time) MG-TC, which is wreaked
by the owner and sold for a song to the young lad. He promptly :)
fixes it up and proceeds to have a blast outrunning everything in
site (mostly due to the "superior" handling in corners), and ends
up racing it on the local circle track, and winning his first race.
Anyways, my first car at 16 was a '62 TR4. I kind of bent this
car a bit after putting it into the rear-end of a parked car. At
that age, I had little understanding of what effect a small amount
of water had upon the adhesion of what were most likely marginal
tires. Had to sell the beast, as the money to fix it just wasn't
available.
After a number of years, I managed to acquire a '67 Healey
3000 MK III. This one will be with me for a long time. When I
bought it, I had little knowledge of the big Healeys and probably
paid too much for it. It had bad main bearings, incorrect wheels
on the front (48 spokes, not 72), and as it turned out, the wrong
engine/intake/carburators. The engine had come out of a '58 and the
intake manifold/carburators were from the 61/62 models which had the
triple carb setup.
I actually drove it, bad bearings and all for a couple of years.
I had a number of interesting experiences with it too. Like the
spokes which decided to break while going ONLY 20mph. Or the time
the distributor rotor decided to break. Thank goodness for the
super-glue. I think that repaired rotor stayed in the car till the
day I took the engine out. Or the time that the vacumn-assist
decided to let go and the brakes kind of disappeared just as I was
pulling into a parking lot. Fun stuff.
But I wouldn't trade this car for anything. So now I finally
have the large, insulated, heated garage to put it in and will start
the major overhaul it needs. I'm going to do this right, from the
ground up. I'll probably keep the wrong engine/carbs on it, as I
don't have any plans to do serious shows with it.
Look forward to reading your notes......
Bill Wagner Jr. |'67 Healey 3000 MK III | wcwagner@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
University of Illinois |'91 Eagle Talon (DS) | PHONE: 217 244 4136
CCSO Communications | | FAX : 217 333 9758
302 E John, Suite 1608 -------------------------
Champaign, IL 61820 These are my opinions and my opinions only!!!!!!
|