Lots of revisionism and 20/20 hindsight going on here.
I don't think people realise just how bad the British economy was after the
war. Debt to GDP was far higher than it is even in today's indebted times.
When the 100 rolled out there was still food rationing, and plenty of other
things were rationed as well. The formation of BMC was a good idea, the
formation of BL wasn't.
The 2 plus 2 was actually a pretty clever marketing move, and it was aimed
squarely at the US market. I believe there is still a German company called
Porsche that makes a reasonably successful car with 2 very small seats in
the back.
The 4 cylinder engine was to be discontinued in the rationalisation of
engines into the A, B & C classifications. The C series was already
designed by Morris. There was no money available for a new engine to be
developed for a relatively small production car like the Austin Healey.
Derek
On Mon, Jul 7, 2014 at 1:30 AM, Bob Spidell <bspidell@comcast.net> wrote:
> Haven't driven a BN1, and only put a few miles on our BN2/100M but can
> tell it's more nimble than my BJ8. However, I think the BJ8 is a better
> touring car because, let's face it, we probably spend 80+% of the time on
> freeways and straight-as-a-section-line highways, and the big 6 is sweet
> music for the long, straight (boring) roads, and serviceable on the
> twisties. The 3.54 diff helps a lot, too.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>
> On 7/6/2014 12:57 AM, Larry Varley wrote:
>
>> I think it's time that the list had a healthy debate, and some fun. I
>> would propose that the only real Austin Healey was the BN1, designed by
>> Donald Healey and Gerry Coker. Everything after that was BMC, who never
>> made a decent car after the 50's, just using what they had to keep
>> producing the cars, that were for some part good ideas, but bad design. The
>> mini was a great idea, but mix the gearbox oil with the engine? Oh dear.
>> The BN2 with a extra gear in a much heavier gearbox that really added no
>> extra performance, then the 100-6 with that horribly heavy engine and no
>> more grunt. Why would anyone do that, and just ruin the balance of the car?
>> Ok after that they added the 12 port head to it, but the sixes at their
>> best are really ponderous in the steering department relative to the BN1,
>> which is a nibble well balance car. I'm going so far as to use an alloy
>> block in my BT7 to turn it back into a descend handling car and restore the
>> weight balance. BMC basically self destructed, while the rest of the world
>> moved forward, what a shame.
>> Cheers
>> Larry Varley
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> *******************************************************************
> Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
>
> *******************************************************************
>
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