[Healeys] 100M on ebay?

[Awgertoo at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/6/2009 3:07:27 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
robertduquette at sympatico.ca writes:

though,  it is being advertized as:

"1956 Austin Healey 100M Factory car with  Heritage certificate ,all numbers
matching ,100 M Registry and California  clear  Title."
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I assume this is referring to Bill Meade's "100 M Registry".  
 
To my knowledge Bill does NOT maintain a registry that certifies which  
cars are actually authentic M cars (the so-called 640).  It would be  nice if 
that were the purpose of the registry but in fact it serves as  a 
profit-center for Bill.  Cars are listed on his Registry if they  register and pay a 
fee.  Some cars are no doubt real M's and some are  cars that have been 
"converted to "M" specs by owners.  In fact my  1954 BN1 LeMans may be found 
mentioned in the roles of Bill's  registry simply because I chose to send him the 
money (I really liked the  Registry grill badge!).  But I was very clear to 
say that my car is  simply a BN1 LeMans that had been converted to M specs 
by the original  owner in about 1956-1957, though I doubt that the owners of 
all the  cars on the registry may have been as scrupulous. 
 
I'm not being critical of Bill Meade's effort but I think his "Registry"  
may invite abuse as simply saying that a car is "On the 100 M Registry" is  
not a guarantee of authenticity.  Bottomline--M=MONEY!!!
 
Best--Michael  Oritt