Keith’s Blog: How to Get to Healey 75?

I attended the Healey 50th anniversary at Lake Tahoe, CA, in 2002. It was memorable.

At the time I owned an Austin Healey BJ7, red with white coves, in nice fettle. Once Bob Macherione replaced the overdrive switch on the first night in his shop in Eugene, OR, we were ready to roll.

There were 10 of us in our convoy, and the memory I will forever carry with me is of those big 6-cylinder engines firing up in the early morning. Rough and popping and snorting at first while on heavy choke, then smoothing down to a loping idle as they warmed up. It was a remarkable trip. If I had only looked to tighten my fanbelt early on, all of the overheating problems would have easy been solved.

It’s now 25 years later. Healey 75 is on the horizon, scheduled for June 6-12, 2027. Chances are that due to changing demographics this may be the largest gathering ever. Over 700 cars are registered already.

I want to go. It’s about a 600-mile, 10-hour drive from Portland to Lake Tahoe. When I was 50 years old, that was a no-brainer trip, especially broken into two days.

But 25 years later, the miles and hours seem a lot longer.

I’m considering three options for attending the convention.

The first option is both the simplest and most complicated. Find some like-minded souls and just head south, tow company card at hand. Bite the bullet and drive our Big Healey down and back. (There is a back, remember, another 600 miles.)

Except we don’t own one at the moment, so we’d need to purchase a car. But prices are attractive and for $45k, we should be able to find a solid one in our area. Whether a BN6, BN7 or BJ8 is less important than the quality of the car. (Contact me if you come by one.)

The second option still involves buying a car, but trailering it to and from the convention. I know several owners who are doing this. (“I don’t need to see the roads to Tahoe again!”) The upside is no fuss or muss or mechanical worries, and concours prep is a lot easier with a trailered car.

Finally, my son Bradley offered this third suggestion: “If you’re trailering a car, you are just driving a pickup anyway. What fun is that? Why not drive our Porsche 911 C4S?”

We would have a great drive with A/C and good tunes, and far less chance of a breakdown. We could rent a golf cart at the convention and just cruise around just ogling the cars on display and enjoying the swap meet and dinners with other owners.

All that you miss are the “Do you have a voltage regulator that works?” get togethers.

So what should it be? Buy a Healey and drive it 1,200 miles? What could go wrong? Buy one and trailer it? Or drive down in a modern sports car and immerse ourselves in the 700 Healeys and their owners on display? I assume it won’t matter if there are 699 cars there instead of 700.

Let me know which you would choose. I look forward to your comments below.

Read my previous blog posts here.

Subscribe to Sports Car Market and get 12 issues, plus six Insider’s Guides, including access to our complete archive. Join here.