G'day Rick
I stayed with Bill Woods in 1975 and while he did collect quite a few cars
during that period I don't know if Bill recognised the import of the 100S
and 100M long before the rest of the Healey community.
In 1974 Australian Joe Jarick worked hard at the Donald Healey Motor Company
in Warwick to gather together the factory records of the 100S cars,
including the record breakers. It was through Joe that at one time during
the mid 1970s that Australia had a total of 11 100Ss. I recall sitting at
work one day in 1974 when the phone goes and it was Joe in the UK offering
me a 100S for Aus$3,500, but I had to make the decision within 3 hours. I
had bought the BN3/1 just the week beforehand and as a 23 year old at the
time my finances were limited.
I was in the UK after the US with my good friend Alan Jones (another 100S
owner - and sadly killed in 1979 in a motor vehicle accident)that we saw
quite a number of ex Works cars parked on the streets as they were just old
sports cars. I bought the BN3/1 in 1974 way before anyone knew what it was.
At the time Austin-Healey owners knew what the 100S and 100M were but they
were things you read about in books.
It was only during the late 1970s and early 1980s that the rest of the world
became aware of the wonderful heritage left to us by the Donald Healey Motor
Company. Being heavily involved at the time I would say that the catalyst
that started the worldwide Healey community was not long after Alan and I
visited to clubs in the US and the UK that Kevin Faughnan of the AH Club
Pacific Centre produced the first international publication. It was while we
were working on that (difficult in those pre email days) that we came up
with the idea to invite DMH to the US.
The interest quickly grew and the rest as they say is Healey History.
Hoo Roo
Patrick Quinn
Sydney, Australia
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