Having been a Sprite owner for the better part of 35 years I never saw any
reason to join the "Big" Healey club. I always felt that most Big Healy
owners looked down their nose at Sprites and did not consider them Austin
Healey's. This attitude was kind of funny when you remember that there was
a time when the original Healey owners had this same attitude toward the
cars where "Austin" preceded the "Healey" in the name. Their attitude was
O.K. with me because I always thought Big Healey owners spent too much time
worrying about how much their cars were worth and I never thought of my
Sprites as Austin Healeys anyway, they were just Sprites or Bugeyes. At the
club leadership level, at least in public, this attitude seems to have
changed. Sprite owners are being actively recruited as members and Sprites
are starting to get some attention in the club magazines. I don't know if
this is a true shift in attitude or just a business decision to bolster the
membership of the clubs. I hope it's the former. The Healey list tells a
different story however, as Patton stated, there is a definite bias against
Sprite's and it makes me wonder how much grief the magazine editors get for
the Sprite articles they print.
In the past year I have also had a change in attitude, I joined the club. I
don't expect to participate in any club events and I don't expect much
direct benefit from my membership. I do expect all of the clubs to continue
their efforts to bolster their membership roles with Sprite owners and to
continue their efforts to include more Sprite articles in the magazines. I
look on my membership fees as support for this effort and as support for the
clubs continued efforts toward the preservation of all Healey's, not just
the "Big" ones.
My .02
BTW Reid, nice booklet.
Larry Miller
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