[Healeys] Healey Fiesta

[Kees Oudesluijs]

A bit to quick on the send button.

I love high revving engines. The best ones were the small Honda's in the 
60's like the S800, 4-carb 790cc DOHC all of 75hp at 8000rpm and in race 
trim quite a bit more at around 10.000rpm. Very fast on the track 
together with the Fiat Abarths and Mini Coopers of the time. Ran rings 
around the mustangs.

These cars are much better suited to European roads than heavy US iron. 
On long straight roads with a bad surfaces the US cars were on top though.

It culminated in the Honda S2000 of some years back.

Kees Oudesluijs



Op 30-11-2020 om 18:12 schreef Bob Spidell:
> re: "... They are a hoot to drive thanks to the high power/low torque 
> engine ..."
>
> I think that's a European take; Americans like torquey engines. Even 
> my Mustang, with 480HP--and comparable max torque--and a 7,400RPM 
> redline annoys me with its lack of torque below 3,000RPM (a bit of 
> clutch slippage is required for launch). After over 13K miles with it, 
> and 120K miles with a previous model, I still manage to stall it 
> occasionally at launch; I never stall my grunt-heavy Healeys (you can 
> pretty much dump the clutch at idle, it might ping a little but it'll 
> crawl off). Maybe that's why Americans preferred Healeys over many 
> high-strung European cars?
>
> Many torquey pushrod engines are still in production and popular 
> here--Chevy and Dodge come to mind--and, for better-or-worse, diesels 
> are common where I live. Of course, drag racing is more popular here 
> than elsewhere.
>
> Bob
>
> On 11/30/2020 2:35 AM, Kees Oudesluijs via Healeys wrote:
>> These two cars are totally different and cannot be compared. The rwd 
>> Sunbeam/Talbot Lotus was developed from the Sunbeam Ti as a pure 
>> rally beast with the Vauxhall slant 4 derived 2.2 ltr Lotus 911 
>> engine (an enlarged 907) and was very successful at that. Around 
>> 250hp in rally trim and 160hp in standard road trim. They are a hoot 
>> to drive thanks to the high power/low torque engine, the low weight 
>> and the short wheel base.
>>
>> The US spec fwd Ford Fiesta was just jazzed up slightly with some 
>> small engine (80hp) and bodywork mods. Healey had very little to do 
>> with the car, he just lend his name for well needed cash. Only one 
>> was made versus around 2500 of the Sunbeam/Talbot Lotus cars.
>>
>> Kees Oudesluijs
>>
>>
>>
>> Op 30-11-2020 om 10:59 schreef Peter Dzwig via Healeys:
>>> I think of the H-F as an oddity and of historic interest because it was
>>> the last car that the Healeys made (but a shame, perhaps, that it was a
>>> Ford!). I have no recollection of its handling.
>>>
>>> Although I too never drove a Healey Fiesta, a friend had a Sunbeam
>>> Talbot Lotus which was a very similar car in concept (fast hatchback
>>> worked on by a well-known sports car company) with great performance as
>>> I recall and good handling. It was a model of what a car might be that
>>> in its turn led to things like the VW Golf GTi, whatever you think 
>>> of them.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>
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