[V8] $59000....nope

[Roger M. Woodbury]

My particular example was a 1961 3000.  It had a four speed gearbox with a
rather awkward gear change and Laycock de Normanville electric overdrive.  

The wirewheels were NOT capable of being properly tensioned by anyone,
including the dealer in Providence, Rhode Island.  Add to it new Dunlop
square tires, and it was sort of difficult to understand why anyone would
want to ride in one.

That great tractor motor up front was sluggish to say the least.  Oh, the
car would go bloody fast, but the engine was a slow turning thing out of the
thirties and somehow always felt lifeless compared with the smaller, lighter
tractor engine that had been in the TR-3.

The wind up windows were a pleasant change from the sliding panels in the
TR3, but the carriage work in general was of such quality that the car had a
quite a lot of cowl shake.  My car had around 13,000 miles on it when I
bought it.  

And then there were those not quite winter, not quite summer days.  The
engine would roast your feet if you dared drive the thing in humidity with
the top up.  

And then there were those rainy days with a lot of water standing on the
city streets as I drove to school in South Providence. The distributor was
mounted relatively low on the side of the engine.  If there was enough
standing slush on the road, the distributor would get just wet enough to
stop the car dead in its tracks.  It would restart after a bit, but it made
communting a kind of adventure that I simply didn't need.  According to the
dealer there was a rubber boot available to encase the entire distributor,
but they had never seen once and couldn't give me an estimated date of
delivery...certainly not THAT year.  

Too bad. The car had arguably the sexiest lines of any car that I have ever
owned.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Kent McLean [mailto:kentmclean at comcast.net] 
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 8:54 AM
To: v8 at audifans.com
Cc: Roger M. Woodbury
Subject: Re: [V8] $59000....nope

Roger M. Woodbury wrote:
> ... and bought an Austin Healy 3000, which was arguably the worst
automobile 
> ever invented.  

You are dead to me now. :)

My first car was a '59 Austin-Healey 100/6, (ab)used. Maybe because
it was my first that I remember it so fondly. I still own a '56 100
(4-cylinder, not a Sprite), bought in April of '74. It still needs
to be restored. :(

-- 
Kent McLean
'91 200 TQA #1, for sale
'91 200 TQA #2, no name yet
'94 100 S Avant, "Moody"
'89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy", up in smoke

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