Before the Nash-Healey and Austin-Healey, or even the 1950 Healey Silverstone, there were simply Healeys, sporting cars designed and built by Donald Healey from 1946-1954. Healey had made his mark in the 1920s as an ace rally driver. In the 1930s, he was technical chief for Triumph; he also helped Riley and Invicta win contests like the famed Monte Carlo Rally. By 1946, he was ready to fulfill a long-held dream of building cars under his own name, and set up a small shop in Warwick, a few miles south of Coventry, Britain's automotive center. The Healey was conceived during World War II on the premise that since the Healey family had virtually no money for tooling, the car would be composed almost entirely of components from established manufacturers. Healey thus bought engines and gearboxes, but did manage his own chassis and suspension. All cars built at Warwick (Nash-Healey included) rode a sturdy, box-section platform with a 96-inch wheelbase and an odd trailing-arm front suspension inspired by the 1930s Auto-Union and ERA single-seat racers. Bodies were farmed out to the few coachbuilders active in postwar Britain. The coming years saw four-seat coupes by Elliot, Duncan, and Tickford; convertibles by Westland and Abbott; and a true sports car named for Britain's then-new Grand Prix track: Silverstone. Healey's Silverstone, introduced in July 1949, was a sort of streamlined version of the traditional prewar British sports car, a cigar-shaped roadster with cutaway doors, separate "clamshell" fenders, and a smooth nose with a "waterfall" vertical-bar grille sporting two closely set headlights behind. Seen also were Buick-like portholes! Most Healeys ran with a 2.5-liter (2,443-cc) four-cylinder engine, four-speed gearbox, and rear axle from the postwar Riley RM-series sedan (a few later models used a 3.0-liter Alvis six). The Riley overhead unit was good for 104 horsepower at 4,500 rpm and 132 pounds/feet torque at 3,000 rpm. As a dual-purpose "race-and-ride" sports car, the Silverstone was designed to be light, simple, and functional. Thus, weather protection was rudimentary, while the spare tire was mounted in the tail and jutted out to do double duty as the rear bumper. And at about 2,100 pounds, the Silverstone weighed 400-500 pounds less than other Healeys, which contributed to its success in competition. Because they were assembled mostly by hand, Healeys were expensive. Bodies tended to decay rather quickly in hot, damp climates, but the chassis and running gear proved strong and durable. In performance they were more than a match for most rivals, especially the Silverstone, which could top 110 mph and zip from 0-60 in 11 seconds. The Silverstone is the Healey with the most appeal today. Unlike some specialty cars of the period, the early Healeys sold in fairly high numbers. A total of 781 were built in less than eight years -- but only 105 of them were Silverstones. A pity, since today's demand far outstrips the supply.

In my opinion, the Dodge Monaco 2drHT had the most appealing full-size designs from 1969 through 1973. This '73 model with its black body, black vinyl top, and black brocaid-patterned cloth upholstery . . . was the most complete, sensible, and classy color choice. Detroit threw us some of the most obnoxious paint charts in the early seventies (specifically, some of the most sickening greens imaginable) that fought and defeated even the best automotive designs. Then, to top off a distressed clown appearance, they often mixed these miserable color applications badly. It was not unusual to see cars on the showroom floor with some three-way-awful combination. For instance, a yellow body, an interior in one of the putrid greens, and a black vinyl top. These were not special-order "mistakes" by individually stupid customers. The bad dreams came straight from Detroit. Another reason that black was the sensible color of choice for 1973 was because of the large, stumpy, black-rubber front bumper pads mandated by our U.S. gummint (an intermediate stop-gap before shock absorbers were designed inside of the bumpers). With every other body color besides black, these big front bumper pads stood out like adolescent pimple sores. I'm surprised we lived through the growing pains. I'd like to point out that each photo image in this '73 Monaco series demonstrates some relatively simple manipulation tricks for dressing up the display area. If you compare each main image with its original photo referenced in the comment area, you might see how background flaws were erased or deftly extended to improve and simplify the presentation. For sake of argument, let's call the maneuvers "arty interpretations". The tricks are not as realistically perfect as they could be with a big-time commercial Photoshop Program. The issue here is that all manipulations were accomplished with simple editing tools found in any standard computer. The alterations, including enlarging the background area, can all be accomplished by anyone with patience and rudimentary skills. Send me a note if you want to hear more about the process. The focus and detail sharpness is not wonderful in these scanned archive prints. But when you are restoring your digital Memory Lane scrapbook that may be as good as it gets.