Gary, my understanding has been that the special arrangement enjoyed by the
Donald Healey Motor Company with BMC (that gave DMH exclusive rights to
market the cars to U.S. forces in the UK) applied only to Austin-Healeys.
Do you (or anyone else) know if that is so or not?
While it's true that nowhere in Geoff's letter does it mention Austin-Healey
or any other marque, a literal reading of the text suggests that he is
talking about Austin-Healeys only -- especially the use of the words
"factory" and "The Cape". But that is just how I've been reading it.
"The plaque is one of those fitted to cars supplied by the factory at
Warwick. This is not unique, but was our way of indicating that we had
supplied the car and it added a personal touch to the car.
We supplied lots of cars to members of the U.S. forces but relatively few
were specially-prepared at The Cape and yours [HBJ7L/22219 - S. Byers] would
have been one of the last."
It would be interesting to know what "specially-prepared" entailed. Geoff
was not exactly correct about the BJ7 being one of the last unless the
plaque was really a rare item. One of the BJ8s that got this plaque was
HBJ8L/38734 manufactured 25 - 28 October 1966. The strange thing about this
car was that it was not dispatched from the factory to Compton, CA until 19
February 1968. Along with HBJ8U/42758G, it was the last car shipped from
the factory to the USA. While it's interesting to speculate why the car
hung around Abingdon between October 1966 and January 1968, the BMIHT record
states "the build record indicates that this car was altered by the factory
between the 1 - 25 January 1968."
Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC USA
-----Original Message-----
From: healeys-bounces@autox.team.net [mailto:healeys-bounces@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Editorgary@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 1:17 PM
To: healeys@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Healey dash plaque
In a message dated 12/24/09 8:35:46 AM, healeys-request@autox.team.net
writes:
SInce it doesn't specifically say "This Austin-Healey supplied..." if this
is a relatively early MGB, it could have been sold by Donald Healey at his
BMC retail dealership in Warwick.
Gary
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