I think it's time that the list had a healthy debate, and some fun. I
would propose that the only real Austin Healey was the BN1, designed by
Donald Healey and Gerry Coker. Everything after that was BMC, who never
made a decent car after the 50's, just using what they had to keep
producing the cars, that were for some part good ideas, but bad design.
The mini was a great idea, but mix the gearbox oil with the engine? Oh
dear. The BN2 with a extra gear in a much heavier gearbox that really
added no extra performance, then the 100-6 with that horribly heavy
engine and no more grunt. Why would anyone do that, and just ruin the
balance of the car? Ok after that they added the 12 port head to it, but
the sixes at their best are really ponderous in the steering department
relative to the BN1, which is a nibble well balance car. I'm going so
far as to use an alloy block in my BT7 to turn it back into a descend
handling car and restore the weight balance. BMC basically self
destructed, while the rest of the world moved forward, what a shame.
Cheers
Larry Varley
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