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Re: Cutting Up Them Big Healeys

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Cutting Up Them Big Healeys
From: camacho@optilink.dsccc.com (Don Camacho)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:53:11 PST
George Malits wrote:
>I briefly described a friend's ongoing project of
>installing a Ford V8 into a Big Healey.

>Donald's comments were generally that he felt the Healey line
>would have eventually progressed to a V8 engine, and he seemed
>to enjoy inspecting the work that people have done along that
>line.

I have a '54 100-4 with a 283 Chevy drive train in it and think its
story should be told.

        The original owner, a doctor in Los Gatos, Ca., was getting blown away
by his buddies in their 'Vetts.  So The Good Doctor perscribed steroids -
a 'Vette engine.  This was professionally implanted with no cosmetic side
effects.  The operation was perhaps too successful; he had to change the color
of the car in response to the Los Gatos police's attention.  This was 1957!
The Cobras weren't even a gleam in Carrol's eye yet.  Maybe he was in one
of those 'Vettes The Good Doctor "cured".  Would Donald Healey have done
the same?

I'm not sure if I would return the car to stock form if I could.  It seems
to me that this car's history is important to preserve.  I certainly
wouldn't do a conversion on a Healey in these times, but in 1957 the
Healey was part of the cutting edge of automotive engineering, and the
Corvettes needed a little humility.

Don Camacho             camacho@optilink.dsccc.com


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