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10 Questions with HealeyRick
HealeyRick is a long-time member of the BaT community whose username lets you know exactly where his interests lie. He’s a wealth of knowledge on anything British, and Austin-Healey cars in particular. And for someone who can spot correct-ness down to the stitch, he’s refreshingly appreciative of aftermarket improvements. But we’ll let him speak for himself! Please enjoy 10 questions with HealeyRick.
1. Where are you based, and what do you do for a living?
I live on Boston’s North Shore and am a retired attorney.
2. It seems clear that you’re a Healey fan – what else catches your interest?
I have quite eclectic tastes, really. As a kid growing up in the hot rod/muscle car/sports car era, I loved them all. I can be thrilled looking at a Deuce coupe, a ’67 Z/28 or any manner of vintage sports cars, mostly British and Italian. But my head is just as easily be turned by a C8 Corvette Z06 with that incredible sounding flat-plane crankshaft motor, or any modern supercar.
3. What was the car that got you into cars?
Probably one of those heavy steel pedalcars I had around the age of six. I brush-painted it and scratched the name “Deadhead, Jr.” on the front after a local truck driver that called his truck “Deadhead.” From then on, I was building model cars, chopping them up with hacksaws and customizing them. My first car at the age of 17 was a clapped-out Bugeye Sprite that I bought from my cousin with my lawn-mowing money. I owned it for about a year, and it was a wretched daily driver in the Massachusetts winter, but it was so great in the summer it began a lifelong addiction. The smell of freshly mown hay or salt air mixed with old British vinyl, damp carpets, and burnt oil still brings back memories.
4. What’s in your stable right now, and what’s your daily?
Not surprisingly, a couple of Healeys. The first is a 1959 Bugeye Sprite that I’ve owned since 1977 and totally restored with many period Special Tuning parts used on the ’59 works Sebring cars. Hot 948cc motor, ribcase transmission, disc brakes, wire wheels, Armstrong lever-action adjustable rear shocks in the rear, and a 4.55 rear end. It’s just great fun on windy coastal roads around here.
The second is a 1963 Austin-Healey 3000 BJ7 that was an SCCA racer from new and then turned into an autocross car. As a result, it didn’t suffer the ordinary rust issues of Northeast cars. I drove it for awhile with it’s triple HD8 race motor and then decided it needed more power. I had always loved the idea of a V8 Healey since my college days when a local guy used one to beat Corvettes in the street-racing scene. I put in a 345-horsepower, small-block Ford engine and 5-speed transmission, but left the car looking otherwise stock. The V8 just transforms the car and it’s a thrill every time I drive it.
The daily driver is a 2006 Chrysler SRT8 with 425 hp, which was a huge amount when new, but has since been outpaced by the newer stuff. It’s still big, comfortable, and fast.
5. What’s one car you’ll never sell, and one you wish you could get back?
I think the Healeys are probably with me to the finish line, but sometimes after a breakdown or particularly difficult wrenching issue I sometimes fantasize about what I could buy if I sold them off and got something a bit more modern. They both escaped my wrath when tempted by the 3rd gen. RX7, the BMW M Roadster, the Lotus Elise, and the Alfa 4C. These days I threaten to replace them with the aforementioned C8 or a Cayman GTS. The ones I wish I could get back were ones that got away, most notably an Aston Martin DB2 with a Corvette motor and a ’67 Shelby GT350 that had been totally stripped and was sitting in a local junkyard. I was going pay the $500 to buy it, but it was sold out from under me back to the original owners who stripped it. They had stored the original parts in their garage, collected the insurance money, bought it back, and reassembled it.
6. How did you hear about BaT and what got you to write your first comment?
I’m thinking I probably learned about BaT from one of the Healey car forums to which I belong. I had watched the site for about five or six years before commenting. My first comment was almost five years ago and was one of my typical wise-guy remarks about a Morgan, “I can almost smell the “Eau de Olde British Sportscar from here”
7. We know other commenters have appreciated your encouragement (further evidenced by your 17k likes!) and your detailed contributions to discussions on all things British. Who are some other BaT commenters that you love to hear from?
I like some of the classic British Car Guys like SM_Minis, Jags_in_the_Barn, a bunch of the Healey guys like editor_reid, Austinhealer, Sliproc, Fleming35, glemon, Dellorto, and a number of others that I’ve overlooked. It’s always fun for me to try to figure out the identities of the Healey guys from their handles as I’ve known so many of them over the years. Then there’s the classics like Raffi, Ed_L, and Gear-ku, whom I miss.
8. What is your favorite post or listing ever on BaT?
Has to be the Gurney-Weslake Ford powered Austin-Healey 100 that was the BaT Peoples Choice for 2010.
To me, that car was just about perfect in power, color and execution. I would have liked it with a five-speed manual, though.
9. You tallied your first BaT sale (a well-kept Austin-Healey 3000 BJ8) just a few weeks back. Anything else coming up? Or anything else you’re waiting to see pop up?
That auction was to help out the wife of one of our good friends who had passed away. So I hope it was a one-off. It made me realize how much work goes in to making a good auction presentation.
As I write a monthly column called “Auction Reports” for the Healey Marque, the magazine of the Austin-Healey Club of America, the experience will help me fill up some column inches.
10. Right this instant: any car, any road. Where would you be?
What a great fantasy question! I’ve had the good fortune to drive two marvelous works Healeys: the 100S owned by Jackie Cooper (AHS 3504), and one of the works Sprites prepared for the 1967 Sebring race. Since this is fantasy, I’m going to throw a time machine into the mix and say I’d drive the 100S in the 1955 Mille Miglia or the Sprite in the ’67 Targa Florio.
In my mind, I’d be starring in one of those old Castrol films like my favorite on the Targa, Mountain Legend. If I had to come back to today’s reality it would probably be a Boxster Speedster or Cayman GTS along the Pacific coast from San Diego to the Canadian border. But reverting to fantasy again, BaT would have to clear all the traffic and Highway Patrol off the route so I could fully enjoy it.
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