Scott -
Boy o boy. There are some Atlantics, and then there are others that I
wouldn't want to touch with a barge pole. Unfortunately this is the
latter.
The problem with trying to shoehorn an overdrive into one of these is
you have to cut away the chassis to get the OD to fit in. Plus the
original column shift on these cars is finicky but lovely to have when
working. These cars were originally 4 speed, some PO didn't even know
enough that if they just switched the BN1 gear blanking plate with the
old gearbox he would have converted the gearbox to the proper 4 speed
set up, rather than the "3 speed" as advertised - beware the work of
Sunday mechanics who do not know of such things!
In addition adding Jaguar disks to this is not really worth the effort
(the saloons had pretty good braking). Switching over is huge job (I
bet pulling the wheels off the rear is neigh impossible now) - the
wheels would have to be Jaguar wheels which explains why this car
doesn't have its original hubcaps.
The value in these things is when they are left as original as
possible, this car has had so many modifications (dual tail lamps,
dual fuel fillers, "Vanden Plas" which there is no such thing as an
Atlantic Vanden Plas). Even when original, these Saloons can be quite
cheap, I bought mine only 18 months ago for about $12K US from New
Zealand, not sure why I would pay $40K for what I can buy a fully
restored, perfect LHD Atlantic Convertible for the same price.
Have a look at mine, it is about 98% original (except for the jet hot
coated headers!):
http://picasaweb.google.com/Healey.Nut/1952AustinA90AtlanticSportsSaloon
and here's a lovely A90 Convertible from Australia, that is prototype #4:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Healey.Nut/PeterSAustinA90AtlanticPrototype
As with the 100, I think the original metal dash on these cars had
their charm, the wood dash doesn't work for me. It's a lovely saloon,
but given all the likely problems the new owner will have, I would
much prefer to wait to get one that is mostly original.
Cheers,
Alan
'52 A90
'53 BN1
'64 BJ8
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 10:12 PM, J. Scott Morris <jstmorris@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Interesting eBay auction.
> --Scott Morris; Simcoe, Ontario, Canada; '60 MkI BN7 & '62 MkII BT7
>
> Item number: 150262494251
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Austin-A90-Atlantic-Healey-100-1949-Austin-A90
> -Atlantic-Sports-Saloon-Healey-100-RARE_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6126QQihZ0
> 05QQitemZ150262494251QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
Healeys@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
http://www.team.net/archive
|