Austin Healey 3000

Many years ago, in the 1970's, I was at an Austin Healey show day at Patterson Park in Norwood and was impressed with a red Healey 3000 tri-carb on exhibit. My heart raced with excitement and I swore that one day I would own one of those, come what may!

Recently I heard of one of these beauties for sale in Cape Town and without seeing it, bought it over the phone and had it sent up to Jo'burg on a roll-back. You can imagine my anticipation when it arrived a couple of days later - British Racing Green with black Leather and white piping interior - immaculate condition - an ABSOLUTE dream!

72-spoke chrome wires, detailed engine bay and even a leather Tourneau! Magnificent! Had been a no-expense-spared rebuild back to standard in the U.K. and shipped to Cape Town by the previous owner.

As it came of the roll-back, I fired the motor and boy oh boy! talk about 3 SU growl - the sound is incomparable!

You can imagine that, in 1962, nobody could tune the 3 carbs, so Austin Healey went back to 2 carbs - the E-type proved the rest about 3 carbs.

In my mind, Austin Healey was one of the greatest sports cars ever produced.

The original "big" Healey was the Healey 100, first shown at the Earls Court Show in 1952 and hastily adopted by BMC as the Austin Healey 100 with the 2.6-litre four-cylinder engine from the Austin Atlantic. Bodies were built by Jensen of West Bromwich, central England, with final assembly at the MG factory at Abingdon, Oxfordshire. In no way was the Healey a sophisticated motor car; it had a separate chassis, cam-and-peg steering and a solid rear axle sprung and located by half elliptic leaf springs.

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