Leonard Berkowitz wrote:
> We all love our Healey's or we would not own them. But do we really
> appreciate them? We drive cars today that all out perform and out
> handle our Healeys. I don't care what we are driving, from the lowest
> Korean import to the exotics, or the luxury models, they probably all
> blow the doors off our beloved beasts. I realized the other day when I
> was driving my recently restored 1950 Dodge Coronet 4 door sedan what
> driving a Healey, in it's day, must have felt like. The cars of the
> 1950's and 60's mostly could not compare to a Healey in performance or
> handling.
> The ride of the Dodge is more comfortable but certainly much
> more boring. For any of you who can get the opportunity to drive a
> family sedan of the 50's or 60's it would most certainly give you better
> understanding of how truly wonderful our beautiful Austin Healey's
> really are.
Those of us who were driving in the '50s in the rural Midwest
experienced nothing but American iron, for the most part, so my first
Healey experience -- a Sprite, before moving up to a BJ8 -- was quite a
revelation. Driving an American sedan was very uncomfortable after
getting acclimated to the Healeys. Without exception, they handled like
pigs (although some were reasonably fast in a straight line) and
stopping distances were just awful.
Things have changed a lot since then. Tires, suspensions, engines,
brakes, etc., have evolved so much in the past 40-50 years that if you
could take a "garden variety" sedan like a Maxima back the '60s, you
could probably keep up with a Healey on a road course, but that in no
way diminishes the magic of the Healey marque, then or now.
--
John Miller
http://cll.emory.edu/instructor.cfm?ins=873807244
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