Re: Nash-Healeys/magnetism

[Will Owen <nashwill912@domain.elided>]

Karl Doll sez:

"Does anybody else, besides me, harbor secret desires for a Nash-Healey? I'd
call it the "Pantera for the previous generation". Interesting, (but not
"stunning"  IMHO), Pininfarina body and really simple American V8
mechanicals."

Not so fast there, bub. NOT really simple American V8, but rather simpler American inline 6. If I'm not totally mistaken, this was the semi-immortal 232, an OHV reworking of a prewar flathead. There wasn't anything obviously brilliant about this old mill, but it was just a Really Nice Old Engine. Its life ran from somewhere in the '30s up into the '70s, when it was sliced off and reworked into the Jeep's 2.5 liter 4...which was then subsequently added onto to make the current 4.0 6! I think at one time it even had an odd SOHC head, with one cam lobe for each cylinder operating both intake and exhaust.

Anyway, Nash never got a V8 until they merged into Hudson to become American Motors. The Nash-Healy used a derivative of the Healey Silverstone chassis, a massive affair with a truly unfortunate single-trailing-arm front suspension and truly bad steering, although by the standards of the time it didn't seem so hopeless.

Badly compromised Alfa content: I know for a fact that Milanos can be babe magnets - Tania fell in love with the first one she drove, and would not let up until I'd called Spruell and arranged to buy one. It's still her car, and she loves it, though I do believe she'd leave it for the right 164...

Will Owen
Pasadena, CA
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