MORE THAN A HEALEY
The badge is unfamiliar but not the evocative lines. In all but name, the HMC MK 4 is a born again Austin Healy 3000 MK 3, cherished icon of the ’60s. True, it is an imposter, but only purists blinded by provenance and pedigree would dismiss it as a tasteless forgery. That was how the upper crust English Country Life magazine tackled the thorny issue of provenance when they tested it in 1997.
Less concerned with breeding and more with how it works, we lauded, in our feature on this particular car in the last issue, the Holmes brothers who developed this car for adding many worthwhile features. For example the car is better finished, more luxurious, and the stiffer chassis means the doors no longer fly open half way through a corner.
This reimagined Healey 3000 is what could have been had Healey stuck around to create a subsequent model to their 3000.
The very strongly built fiberglass body sits on a zinc coated frame. The fuel injected 3.9L Rover V8 engine drives through a Rover five-speed gearbox and breathes out through a stainless exhaust. And it all sits on stainless wire wheels.
This car has been in the care of the same owner, only the second, and a fastidious engineer, for the past 19 years. Only 26,500 miles on the clock, it is the only roadregistered example in Australasia and one of only 183 built.
Read all about it in last month’s New Zealand Classic Car. Contact Lawrence Bennett 07 829 9191.