[Healeys] bn

[Peter Svilans]

Further to the BN 4:

The Healeys were no fools.  They did not see the addition of two shallow
tractor seats as anything much different than a TR3 with a flat one-inch foam
pad behind the seats, and which was certainly not called a four seater.  So it
was a two seat tourer.

Perhaps in 1959 the Austin lawyers got on their case saying "If we are
marketing it as a four-seater, it had better be called one !"   In "The Healey
Story' Geoffrey says:
"The Austin engineers could not comprehend that the vehicle was designed to
carry a maximum of two adults plus two children.  In their book cars were
two-seaters, four seaters, and cars to carry more than four people.  The
Austin Road Test Department insisted that the car should be tested with four
adults squeezed on board like any of their other products.  As a result, the
rear springs had a higher rate than those on the four-cylinder cars".

So maybe this unyielding attitude was responsible for the change to the "T"
designation.

Peter