Day tripper, yeah

HALL 2 OF THE NEC in Birmingham was deserted when I sneaked into it at 7am on the Friday of the Classic Motor Show to take photographs of my Austin-Healey. 171 YNO was one of seven cars on display on the JME Healeys stand, and I was able to shoot away unhindered by the crowds that would later be attending the bustling show.

The fact that my car was there at all was due to a chat with JME’s Dan Everard while we were on a photo session back in the summer. JME will be celebrating 40 years in business in 2018 and I will have owned my ’Healey 30 years since purchasing it in 1988. There are other connections. I had known and classic-rallied with the late Jonathan Everard, who set up JME in the early 1990s, and I felt honoured that my well-used car, albeit nicely valeted, should be shown alongside wonderful cars that had had ground-up restorations.

A few days before the show I was able to take advantage of a bright autumn day to make a test drive in the ’Healey to Braintree in Essex – top down, as usual – to photograph the ex-George Harrison Porsche 928. The former Beatle bought the car in 1980, when he was living in Henley-on-Thames, and kept it for three years; it was sold for just £2000 in 2003 to a chap in Leeds who wanted to dismantle it for spare parts – until his wife spotted Harrison’s name in the logbook and suggested that might not be a good idea.

The Porsche was resold at auction earlier this year for £37,500 and is now being restored. I am producing a set of photographs of it for a story and wanted to shoot while the car was still in bare metal, before a new topcoat of gloss black, the original colour, was applied.

The display of the ’Healey at the NEC also coincided with the publication of the second volume of my book in which the car features, so I took time for a bit

of book promotion with a display card on the bonnet and an interview for Scottish radio.

Later, I had a good look around the show, which is vast. Classics from just about every make seemed to be on display, and you could also buy one from the many dealer stands or at the Silverstone Auctions sale.

I headed home after ten hugely enjoyable hours at the event – but left my Austin-Healey behind because it was on duty for another two days on the JME stand.

Above and below Goddard’s ’Healey was one of seven on the JME Healeys stand at the NEC; ex-Harrison Porsche mid-restoration.