The Healey Factory

The Healey Factory

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Posted 2019-08-01 by Neil Follettfollow

Before I qualified for a driving licence, I dreamed of owning a sports car. You know, one of those cars that the soft top could be removed or folded down for open-air motoring.


In my day, as a youth, sports cars were the fastest vehicles on the road. I achieved my dream three times, but alas a baby does not fit into a two-seat car.


Now, of a more mature age, the dream has returned, and can be achieved, at a price, at the Healey Factory.


The Healy Factory operated in Ringwood for 24 years, before moving to the current Mitcham site in 2012. It is highly visible as you pass it in Whitehorse Road. Owner Rob, initially specialised in Austin Healeys but has now broadened into a classic sports car specialist.



Wandering through the showroom, memories and images of the past come flooding back seeing cars such as MG, Triumph, Austin Healy, Jaguar, Sunbeam, Lotus and many others sitting before you, all in pristine showroom condition.


The Healy Factory has a staff of 27 who have a wealth of racing, rallying and car building experience and are mostly Classic Car owning enthusiasts.

Their tradesmen include mechanics, body makers, panel beaters, welders, automotive painters, fitter and turners and toolmakers. Most of the staff have vast experience beyond their trade, skills learnt from enthusiasm to do things better.




Not only does the Healy Factory sell cars, they service them, repair them, and have a huge range of spare parts.


The Healy Factory is well worth a visit. It shows what motoring was like in the 1960s and allows the more mature to drool over their boyhood dreams. The staff don't mind you just dropping in for a look, as long as you don't drool onto the showroom quality condition of all their cars.

My drooling commenced before I set foot inside the showroom. In the window was a Triumph TR-5. I owned one in 1969. Brand new, it cost me around $4000. I eagerly read the price tag. $75,000. Shattered dreams, but I promised the salesman I would return, the day after I won the lottery. "I've heard that before," he replied. One day I hope to make both our dreams come true.




If I did win the lottery I would also buy an E Type Jaguar, the only car I dreamed about, but didn't own, although I did get to drive one once.


If your dreams don't match your budget, a MGB could be affordable, at around $17,000. Division two in Tattslotto would give you a good you a good deposit on one
.
Take it from me, open-air motoring is a unique and different experience. The sounds, the smells and the scenery are all increased, as is the wind in the hair, if you have any left. An experience to remember is driving at night with the top down after a very hot day is pure ecstasy. Natural air conditioning.

Even if you only have a passing interest in motoring of yesterday, the Healey Factory is worth a visit.

#automotive
#mitcham
#outer_east
#unusual_things_to_do
%wnmelbourne
170395 - 2023-06-15 06:59:17

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