Keith’s Blog: Two Swings, No Hits

So far, our search for an Austin-Healey 3000 to drive to the 75^th annual convention next year in Lake Tahoe has involved a lot of excitement but no car.

Last week we mentioned two cars that had caught our eye. One was a 1960 BT7 Mk 1 with plastic side curtains in Monterey, CA, and the other was a later BJ7 Mk II  with windup windows in Texas.

I owned a side-curtain BN7 that I drove to the 50^th anniversary Healey convention, and I found it delightful. Others have noted that as the windup windows were retrofitted to the side-curtain door designs, the fit of the window glass will not be what you expect from a modern convertible.

My son Bradley has been my able assistant in this search. His dream would be that we find a car 700–1,000 miles away and he flies in and drives it home.

We decided pass on the Texas car. First of all, it was 2,000 miles away, and driving a 63-year-old car with a reputation for running hot across Texas didn’t seem like so much fun.

Second, while it was attractive in two-tone red with white coves, it was originally red , however the owner painted the coves. It also had a new interior but done in an incorrect tan color. The BaT trolls asked questions about whether the frame was really from a later BJ8; the seller said that he did all the work himself on the car and didn’t use a shop and there was no paperwork.

The car sold for $44,100, more than our budget for a car with these question marks and that far away.

The second car in Monterey was more interesting, and we ended up making 10 bids before dropping out at $36,500. The car sold on the next bid, for an all-in price of $38,850.

I had the car inspected by former SCM team member Steve Kittrell, who is now the BaT specialist at Mohr Imports, and spoke to Joe Beal, owner of Classic Coachworks, the shop that had taken care of the car for the last 20 years. He said, “I remember you. Didn’t I help you get one of your Alfas to run at Laguna Seca a few years back?”

Bradley was ready to hop on a plane to Monterey and drive it up the coast. (When I asked the mechanic if the car would make it the 750 miles to Portland with a 19-year-old who is not a trained mechanic driving, with no tools or spares, he replied, “Are you nuts?”)

We liked the car because, as the late Paul Duchene would have said, “It was a right car.” Known ownership chain, no surprises and ready to run.

However, we would have been in the car $40k by the time it arrived in Portland (assuming nothing went wrong) and again, in today’s soft market, that just seemed fully priced. We still have over a year until the convention.

So we’re still in the hunt — you know how to reach me if you’ve got a Big Healey to sell.

Of course, all this action has me thinking about whether we might stretch the budget an extra $10k or so for the upgraded final-model, wooden-dash BJ8. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Read my previous blog posts here.

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