Just For You Austin-Healey Lovers Out There!

Austin-Healey 3000 Mark III (click to enlarge)

While on our recent road trip, my friends and I stopped in Ashville, North Carolina for a night.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that same weekend the Southeastern Classic hosted by the Carolinas Austin-Healey Club was having a get-together, rally as well as other events.  What luck!  One of my favorite automobiles.

I used to be much more of a 'car guy' than I now am.  As a kid and into my 50s, I read as much about automobiles as I did about photography.  However, over the past decade or so, I've lost much of my enthusiasm about cars.  I'm not sure why.  I guess my interests slowly changed.

I bought my first car at age 16 with my life savings—$140 US.  That was in 1968.  Today, with inflation, that is approximately $1226.  It was a 1955 Plymouth 4-door sedan.  Light green over dark green.  Really an unattractive car, the last thing a teenage guy would want, but it was a CAR and I owned it!  I sold it a year later for $150 and bought a 1966 Ford Mustang with about 35,000 miles on the odometer.  Much more my style.  :-)  I drove the Mustang until my senior year in college.  When I sold it the car had 100,000 miles on it but, with minor exception, I never had to put money into repairs.  (In case you are wondering it had a 289 cu. in. V-8 and a three speed manual transmission)

There are a few sports cars that have been my favorites.  Four (in no particular order) are an  MGTD, a Jaguar XKE type, an Aston Martin DB4 and the Austin-Healy 3000 have always been favorites in car designs.  I would love to have an excellent copy of any of them but, sadly, are all unaffordable to me now.  A friend of mine in college had a 3000 and he let me drive it once.  I still remember.  His was "Austin-Healey Blue" and cream white.

I think I've owned most every type of car/van/SUV but one vehicle I've never owned is a pickup truck.  I've always wanted one, especially a newer one that is more decked out with features and more comfortable ride.  One that could serve as a daily driver.  I almost bought one in 2020 when I was shopping for a newer car, but my wife nixed that.  Remember—happy wife equals a happy life?  lol  Oh well.  Back to my Austin-Healey story.

Not only were about fifty 3000s parked behind the hotel, there were also a number of Bugeye Sprites, a smaller (really tiny) and less expensive vehicle produced by the manufacturer.  Did I mention tiny? (I once drove an MG Midget and I would equate the two as similar in size.)

Most of the attendees of the club drove their vehicles to the event.  A few trailered them in.  I spoke with one woman who told me they drove from Alabama.  She also said, she and her husband drove all over the country in their 3000.  Now that is a fan!

Talking to a couple of the owners, it seems a 3000 in excellent condition can sell for upwards of $100,000 US!  If you want one, I recommend shopping carefully.

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The people who were running the event were really nice.  After talking to them for a while, they invited the four of us to hang out with them, have some food, sit and listen to live entertainment and enjoy the evening.  Perfect!

Here's the point of this post.  In my opinion, any time you have a like-minded group (2 or more) of people who get together because of common interest, only a portion, maybe less than half for some, of the satisfaction and pleasure that is derived from the get-together is realized from the object or activity or hobby or interest shared by the group.  More satisfaction, or at least as much, has to do with sharing the experience, the camaraderie, the other people, the conversations and the exchange of personal stories as it is about why they got together.  Does that make sense?

I'll use my own experience as an example.  I've attended get-togethers with other photographers, railroad enthusiasts, Corvette owners and as told in this blog, with lifelong friends.  There may be others but those four immediately come to mind.  My experience has been that the "getting together" for any reason is just an important part of the event as why you got together in the first place.

Whether a couple of guys get together to go fishing, skiing, a road trip, parachuting, reading, discussions of world events over coffee, etc., it seems to be as much about sharing the experience with people you like and respect as much as what brought you together.  I know I dreive more satisfaction sharing an experience as doing it alone.  

This is just an observation I've made over the decades and I'm sure you have thought of it as well.

In the case of the Austin-Healey owners, what I saw was people talking, laughing, eating together, listening to music, telling stories and interacting more than standing around each others' cars.  They seemed to enjoy each others' company as much as the pride they had in their vintage automobiles.

In any case, I enjoyed seeing the cars and talking to a few owners.  Hmmm.  How much camera gear would I have to sell to get one?  lol

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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