Home»All Photographs»Automobiles As Art 1960s (free downloads)»1964 Austin-Healey MkII 3000

This light pastel yellow and white 1964 Austin-Healey 3000 MKII was photographed at the 2013 Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Austin-Healy is known as “the sports car of sportsmen.” One of those sportsmen was my late father who had what I believe was a 1956 Austin-Healey. My dream had been to someday restore it, but upon his death, it was sold.

Austin-Healeys were “engineered to be driven by the man who lives for swift, sure-footed action in its fullest measure; deliberately styled to make him the envy of everyone else,” states the owner’s summary of the car. The Bay Area couple must have been quoting an Austin-Healey marketing sheet.

I loved the rides through the San Gabriel Mountains that my late father took me and my late brother on the wind blowing through our hair and beating against our face when we raised ourselves over the low windshield. Perhaps a bit unsafe by today’s standards, but unforgettable and treasured memories.

“The BJ7 chassis version of the ‘Big Healey’ was the first to offer wind-up windows and a tighter-fitting top, but it retained almost all of the interior elements of the earlier BN/BT-7 roadsters,” according to the owners’ summary.

“This example has a 2912cc pushrod engine with twin two-inch Skinner’s Union carburetors (the same as the Mark III, BJ8) mated to a 4-speed gearbox with a Laycock de Normanville electric overdrive usable in the two top gears.

“There were 6,113 BJ7s built. This automobile was recently restored. It is stock except for the larger carburetors, electronic ignition and lightweight cams.”