[Healeys] As they were produced... ?

[Editorgary at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/5/10 6:43:57 PM, healeys-request at autox.team.net 
writes:


> Each owner would theoretically probably call his own the best. However 5
> recent owners wouldn't know enough about their cars to tell whether what
> they examined was "right" or not. However, you say based on our 2010
> "rules"? You mean standards of what is expected today? Probably the fellow
> who had tweaked the obvious imperfections.
> 
> Rich
> 
Rich is got the right answer: Does anyone remember what the average number 
of flaws and problems was on any car coming out of an English or American 
factory in those days? Some got fixed at the end of the line, some got fixed 
before sale, and a lot only got fixed when the owner returned to the dealer 
to complain.

That's why, when we wrote the standards, we said that the ultimate standard 
was "as the designers intended them to be built." We were very careful not 
to say, "as they were built" in the day.

So, the owner who got the lucky car produced on Wednesday between morning 
tea break and lunch when all of the work force was happy, and then had a good 
dealer to work with to help him fix the things that didn't get fastened in 
correctly, or were missed, or whatever, that's the one that would score the 
highest on the concours inspection sheets.

Cheers
Gary