Steve, I have a set of earless knock-off nuts which I only use to get my car
through the once-every-two-years inspection of our Ministry of Transport -
nuts with ears are considered to be 'protruding parts' and therefore
dangerous to other road users (yes, we do have silly laws here in Holland as
well!). It also sounds realistic to me that knockoffs with ears were (and
probably still are) forbidden in Germany and Switzerland, but maybe Josef
Eckert in Germany can throw more light on this matter.
A fixed jumping Jaguar, a fixed Rolls-Royce angel, non-flexible rear view
mirrors, they are all forbidden in Europe and are only allowed when they
flex.
Jack Aeckerlin, The Netherlands
1964 BJ8 29432
2011/3/26 BJ8 Healeys <sbyers at ec.rr.com>
> "Earless" knockoffs were available as early as BJ7s, according to the BMC
> parts manual, and so were not produced in response to the USA NTMVSA.
> HBJ8L/25316 (built 6 - 13 Dec 63) and despatched to Germany, and
> HBJ8L/26359
> (built 15 - 23 Apr 64 and despatched to Switzerland) are just two examples
> of early BJ8s with octagonal knockoffs. Although it isn't possible to
> determine it from the parts manual, registry evidence suggests that all
> cars
> for (at least) Germany and Switzerland had such knockoffs from the
> beginning
> of BJ8 production.
>
> One very interesting thing I have noticed from the mass of BMIHT data in
> the
> BJ8 registry: "Wire wheels (w/octagonal nuts)" were on cars for the USA
> built as early as December 1964 - but ONLY on those that were dispatched to
> Philadelphia. Anybody have a clue why that should be?
>
> Steve Byers
> HBJ8L/36666
> BJ8 Registry
> Havelock, NC USA
>
> It was the NTMVSA that sounded the death knell for the big Healey.
> Attempts
> were made to bring the car into compliance (e.g. removal of the knock-off
> ears
> so that innocent pedestrians wouldn't be sliced to ribbons) but it just
> wasn't
> cost effective to do bumper and steering column mods. Of course, that may
> have been a BL smoke screen as the Healey at that point was already past
> being
> long in the tooth and BL probably wanted to concentrate on federalizing the
> MGB and the "Healey replacement" MGC.
>
>
> Rick
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