By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Don writes: “Do you know how you’re gonna die? I do!” Um, yeah, I can see that. Learn more about this awesome 1964 Austin-Healey Sprite on his ride page!

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

What’d I tell ya about the barn finds yesterday? Here’s another, a 1960 Austin-Healey BT7 being offered for $7,950 out of Osseo, Minnesota. From the seller’s description:

1960 Austin-Healey BT7 3000, barn find, stored for 35 years, good restoration project or use it for parts, solid car minimal rust, missing front bumper.

He’s from Minnesota, so he should know that a solid car with minimal rust sure ain’t a parts car for any Northerner.

By David Wallens

Grassroots Motorsports

You know, I don’t think I have shared this one with you guys yet. Or maybe I have; my memory isn’t what it used to be. Anyway, it’s your traditional rat rod built on a not so traditional donor: It’s an Austin-Healey Bugeye body on a Triumph GT6 frame. Yes, it rules.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Check out this great photo essay over at VWVortex.

By Chris Allen

Motorfanatics

Today we set out for Detroit from South Bend. I was looking forward to being somewhere familiar, but I soon remembered why I moved to Cali. Crappy roads, horrible drivers (alright, SoCal’s no better there), and humidity. I do miss all of the American iron, and boy was the meet at Metro Beach chock full of classic iron. Easily the biggest yet, it was nice to have the sun out over acres and acres of cars.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Power Tour Day 4: Homecoming" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Watch the video! The guy has an M3 and his wife drives an Austin-Healey.

Austin Healey might have existed as a brand for less than eighteen years, but the success of its cars is still evident at any large auction or car show. I’ve always been enamored with the company’s first product: the 100, and it is a 1955 example of this classic that an Olympia, WA-area collector let me drive.

Brainchild of small-volume sports car builder Donald Healey, the prototype Healey 100, (correctly pronounced “hundred,”) was unveiled at the 1952 Earl’s Court show in Great Britain where it literally stopped show-goers in their tracks. The height of its curvaceous steel and aluminum body belied its ladder frame construction. Executives from BMC’s Austin division made the decision at the show to bring Healey’s car to production.

The Austin Healey 100 BN1, the first of the line of Big Healeys (a nickname differentiating the 100/100-Six/3000 line from the upcoming, and much smaller Sprite,) debuted in 1953 with specifications that seemed less than sporty. It featured the frumpy Austin A90 sedan’s inline four-cylinder engine and four-speed transmission. Healey specified a high state of tune, though, so horsepower was a more impressive 90. The engine’s improved torque also made the ultra-low first gear superfluous, so it was blanked-off. Electric Laycock d’Normanville overdrive, however, was standard.  At $2,985 it slotted above BMC’s MGA and Triumph’s TR-2, yet below the Jaguar XK120 in terms of price, luxury and prestige. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Big Healey Provides Big Fun" »

There are certain cars that, on paper, seem like they should be very exciting. The 2008 Saturn Sky Redline is one of those cars. Sexy two-seat configuration, swoopy styling, top down motoring, and best of all 260 turbocharged horses lurking under the hood. But for most of my week with the car I was decidedly underwhelmed. Maybe it was because the car I had came with a five-speed automatic. In the end it took a very special set of circumstances to turn it all around for me. More…

It’s no secret, especially here on CarDomain, that I have an extremely soft spot for the Pontiac Fiero. I have made some detailed comparisons between the Fiero and the normally aspirated Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky twins. I just don’t feel that there’s been twenty years of progress from the last Fiero to the current Solstice and Sky. Some of my observations have been empirical, based solely on the numbers, while other are subjective, due in part I believe to familiarity to the five Fieros I’ve owned over the years.

Initial impressions on the Sky Redline centered around two things, the awkward top mechanism, and the car’s almost total lack of luggage space–especially with the top down–which combine to make the Sky (and the Solstice) basically a second or third car. As other small, inexpensive 2-seaters like the Miata have solved this packaging problem, I’m having a hard time accepting that GM couldn’t have come up with a better solution. And I know that I’m not alone in this observation.

And then there’s the interior. There’s no way to get around it–it’s tight, and I’m only five foot eight, 190 slightly overweight pounds due to too many fast food breakfasts on the road. I simply couldn’t get situated properly, feeling that I was up too high, which caused the windshield header bar to often obstruct my view of overhead traffic signals. This is an almost fatal flaw when it comes to selecting a car.

And my initial impressions driving the car–albeit I was stuck in notorious Southern California traffic–weren’t positive at all. First, the car was delivered with the top down, and, as it simply wasn’t practical to use my Bluetooth hands-free phone adaptor, I attempted to put the top up. It’s a manual top and it’s not easy to operate. And if the handle isn’t folded just right, it’s impossible to latch the top to the header panel. It took a few minutes to figure it all out.

And driving the car, it felt disconnected, heavy, and not at all engaging. Again, my immediate point of reference wasn’t one of its direct competitors but rather my own 1988 base Fiero 4-cylinder coupe, where I feel very much at home. To make sure that I wasn’t alone in this observation, I had a good friend–another car guy who gets to drive a lot of different cars every month–take it out for a spin. Without any prompting from me, his feelings mirrored mine almost point for point.

It took a very special drive to turn it all around for me. I am an automotive photographer and this involves many sunrise photo shoots, which means a lot of early morning wake up calls–in this case 3:30 AM as I had to drive 90 minutes from home to a site just outside of Barstow, California to meet the owner of a car I was shooting for one of the magazines I contribute to.

After a stop at Jack in the Box for a #24 Cibatta Breakfast (large upgrade so I would get a sufficient dose of caffeine) I headed north through Riverside enjoying the fact that there was virtually no one else on I-15. The Sky and me started to come together as the caffeine kicked in as I started the climb up through the Cajon Pass. It was then that I popped in a favorite surf music compilation disc, Surf Fiction, that I picked up at, in all places, a gas station outside of Munich, and fast forwarded to track 28, a Ventures’ medley with an updated re-recording of Hawaii 5-O.

Into the tunes and not really paying attention, I continued my climb and started to take advantage of all 260 horses under the hood. It was then that I felt the Sky was in its element as it pulled strongly in the upper rev ranges as I climbed over the summit and down into Apple Valley through Victorville on my way to my pre-sunrise rendezvous with my subject. As I was running a bit late, I will admit that I was traveling faster than I probably should have, but the sun waits for no photographer.

As I approached Barstow I knew it was going to be tight as I could see some faint rays of light reflecting off of the top of the front fenders. It was then that the seductiveness of the Sky’s shape hit me. I was unfair to compare it to my beloved Fieros; rather it should be compared to ballsy, classic British two-seaters. A big Austin Healey six immediately came to mind, its combination of brutal beauty and brawn was a much better counterpoint than the lithe Fiero.

I met my subject with just a few minutes to spare, and afterwards we had breakfast reviewing the images before heading back to LA to return the Sky. As I had a little bit of time, and to avoid rush hour freeway traffic, I flipped the top into the trunk and took back roads, including parts of Route 66 on the drive into the LA basin. I tried a few more CDs and each helped to enhance the drive as I cranked up the volume and got into a certain rhythm.

By the time I was on the 405 approaching Torrance, my opinion of the car had turned 180 degrees. All its flaws were still there, yet they melted into insignificance as I pulled into my destination. At that point I just wished I’d have more time in the Sky Redline, not wanting to hand over the keys. In the end, that speaks volumes about the car. Ultimately it comes down to the right car, wind in the hair, a great road, and the proper tunes; together it’s an intoxicating combination.

Continue reading "Burly Brits" »

Peter acknowledges that tackling this rusty ’61 Austin-Healy was a completely insane decision, but that hasn’t stopped him from plugging away. In the three years since starting on it, he’s cursed in three languages, discovered that rust can survive acid dipping, and learned how to weld. At the beginning, this baby had the structural integrity of a hunk of swiss cheese, but check her out now! There’s very little of the original metal left, and Peter has done an incredible job fabricating all the missing bits. Obviously, there’s still a ways to go, but when it’s done, this British beauty is sure to turn heads. Hang in there man, we’re pulling for you!