[Healeys] Original Car Radio

[svilanspeter at xplornet.ca]

Radios were not always the throwaway items they are now.  The first car
radios in the early fifties, at about ten times an average weekly
salary, were found in only the most expensive cars: Rolls/Bentley, etc. 
Prices came down dramatically through the later fifties and sixties.  By
the later fifties, they were around twenty to thirty pounds, still about
four weekly salaries' worth.  The first all-transistor car radio was
introduced by Motorola at the London Motor show in 1956 at a whopping
forty-two pounds. 

If you ordered a radio from the factory with your car, it would have
been one of a dozen models of Smith's Radiomobile, depending on your
budget.   In 1961, The Donald Healey Motor Company would install a
Radiomobile 50T pushbutton for 36 pounds, 8 shillings with installation
at 5 pounds ten shillings.  This meant the radio went under the heater,
the tube amplifier on the bulkhead next to the steering column brace,
the speaker in a cardboard enclosure screwed to the carpeted bulkhead,
the antenna on the left front fender (away from the coil on the other
side), and various noise suppressors under the bonnet. 

Pictures are from the Smith's Radiomobile Austin Healey 3000 install
sheet from July, 1959.  Note that the radio was not screwed directly
into the heater box, as many dealer-installed jobs were,  but "floated"
slightly below it on brackets. 

Best regards, 

Peter
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