David,
> ....Then ask yourself if you would do any of those things if it were a Blower
> Bentley, or a Ferrari 250....
You didn't say which 250. I wonder about the street Ferrari 250s--they had
the Laycock overdrive--I wonder if some owners put later 5-speeds in them.
I'm always on a budget and might consider a trannie swap rather than spend
10-20k rebuilding a 250 trans & OD, but wouldn't consider swapping the
engine. Just like I wouldn't consider a V8 in a Healey unless it was a
junkyard car.
With a production of 73,000 the Healey isn't as rarified as these other cars
and by extension not as precious. Maybe a 36 Ford or Mustang or 240Z might
be a more appropriate comparison.
However having said that, one of the appealing things about the Smitty is
the only physical change I had to make was to cut a new hole in my
transmission cover for the center shift, pop-rivet a piece of sheet metal
over the old side-shift hole, and get it recarpeted.
I still have my original trans standing in the corner of my garage--sort of
an aluminum monument, with spiders.
--
Steve Gerow
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