1959 Austin-Healey 100-6 - Jay Leno’s Garage

a very powerful card 59 overdrive denne denne welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage the car were featuring today 1959 austin-healey 106 now if it looks a little bit different than the standard 160 you might remember well that's all part of the story you know the best ones for this show are the ones that are a good car with a good story and this one has that provenance let's meet the owner Garth Hammers Garth come on in now this is uh hey Jay how are you good good to see you again my friend we've known each other for years and this was part of your family when you were a child then it was lost then you reek look tell us the story this is the first Healey I ever saw so as you said it looks a little different but it's always gonna look right to me right we bought it off a consignment lot in San Jose in about 1970 three or four and you were how old I was about eight all right so you actually did not buy it your dad bought it yeah my dad yeah yeah so now prior to this was your dad sedan station wagon guy and oh my god what is this or did he always love sport we always around sports cars there was this his first venture into something cool no he had always been a car lover he has brother back in Memphis were always into cars their dad was a it was a Buick salesman oh and they the story about you know the Mormon meteor rolled through town when at one point and they went nuts and there was an apparently an SS or an SSK for sale on some lot and they said their dad said listen you can't get parts for those what are you nuts so but they had the bug you know that's what's so funny because I grew up in a small town also and they're always stories about some car coming through town you know right and you know people who grow up in Los Angeles he tell these stories ago no no it was a big deal because I remember as a kid you'd hang around the McDonald's parking lots of like 10:30 you get home 11 o'clock a Corvette once it was out for another half hour to see the Corvette just drive to a park because she's just you just didn't there was no internet there was really no car things on TV like oh yeah you just didn't see cool cars so the idea that a Corvette would drive through our little town oh my god that was like a huge huge yeah yeah that's very funny yeah okay so what brought your dad from Memphis to LA 90 degrees in raining yeah you know yeah and they had relatives out in Palo Alto I they were gonna go to UCLA but they said oh let's go let's go visit an uncle you know so and they talked him into going into San Jose State okay so worried about my mom and Here I am oh so he got this in college by the early 70s they would have been in their 40s oh my dad had had some cars he had had a I think by then he had had two or three gull wings Wow yeah that did you ride in those as well well my earliest memory of even being a person was of a red and a white gull wing in the garage we didn't drive him a lot but I remember getting in my dad said don't bang your feet you know when you sit on the door sill and I couldn't reach the door and all of that but the sounds that they made everything that the gull wing was about kind of just even just infused itself into me so I became a car guy too but this is the one that really stuck with you it really did you know it was a perfect 100 point show car when we bought it right and the fellow who built it thought for a short time that he was gonna have to move home to Europe to take care of his mom and I learned this story many years later but he had sold his business his building his house his show car and his mom syphilis and your brothers here I guess I'm fine but he'd already sold the car Wow and I think we probably came along on that on that car a lot the same day okay it had a ride so now let's talk about the actual car because it's heavily modified now to look at it one might assume oh I must have a 283 Chevy or you know 264 289 in it because that was quite popular back in the day especially with these modifications but he kept the stock engine he did yeah kepta kept the straight-6 cleaned it up a little bit and said you know it's shiny bright red and then it has three Weber 45s on it oh very nice okay so what else has been done well there are little changes all over the car but the windshield has been cut down about three inches oh right yeah and then it has Porsche speedster seats in it because they sit lower because you need to look through the middle of the windshield right now lower the this the shape of the the wheel wells has been has been changed and I never really knew that as a kid when we had it the first time but you know looking at it now everything is softened and changed the hood scoop runs all the way to the edge of the of the hood panel rather than stopping a couple inches before Bharani wire wheel the wheels aren't but the knockoffs not cause of because the narcos almost look too big for the wheel yeah a little bit hair cuz Ramallah no Ferrari been a larger wheels no okay and those were this is exactly as it was when you remember as a child this is exactly the way it was and when I when I bought it and that's another story you know it hadn't run since maybe the Carter Administration so I mean I you know I had to go through fuel and brakes and go back so yeah your kid you're eight years old when you dad got this mm-hmm how long did he have it we run we probably only had it about a year year and a half well that's also you know yeah we you probably had a twenty years and it disappeared no so it only had it a couple years yeah yeah but it didn't take long for this car to make an impression on me no and I love the color it's just there was some something about the fact that the film at the time I didn't photograph well it always looked brighter red and you got the pictures back but it's really sort of a pre-war Alfa color maybe a little shinier but it is it does look like an Alfa coming out can you mention it now obviously I mean it still looks nice but it was a show car one time and it was at Pebble Beach is that correct yeah it was on the lawn in 1970 he took second in class with it you know at second no no the the the fellow who built it oak so that was we bought it in about 73 now the guy who built it he's still alive he is actually yeah well does he know he's got to be in his 80s oh and he had two sons maybe a little bit older than me and you know I've sort of gotten weary acquainted with them you know since I've bought the car great guys now did your dad still with us he's not he's not he knew that I'd found it but it took me the better part of two years to to convince the fellow eh yes I was the kid who was crying in the driveway when it left and you know okay so let's go back so then it disappeared and you just wonder where it went off to wherever I mean did you always know where it was was it in the neighborhood in the same town what it was kind of in central California yeah and I had to go there for my job to look at some cars right and I booked my flight back maybe a couple hours later than I needed to because I wanted to see if I could find this car right and it was by the thinnest of all possible threads I called my mom on the way and I said now listen go back like three desk phone books ago and look up these people and see if there's an address or a phone number or anything because I'm gonna try to see if I can find this car and and made it to the house nobody's home of course but the kid next door was didn't live there but he was doing laundry at his parents house and said oh ya know the people next door they had cars you might ask the guy with the old car in a retail shop on the other end of town and he goes okay you know that guy's well I haven't heard that name it forever he has a little place a little a little workshop in the other other end of town so I went over there of course nobody's there but again the next-door neighbor came through and I said is there who has cars and he goes oh yeah my next-door neighbor he just has a little shop and I told him the whole story like I was a kid in the driveway and you know show car whatever and and he said listen you know I like your story I'm gonna give him a call and tell him and then if he wants to talk to you oh I'll hand the phone over right and he did and I said listen you know I finally get to the big question do you still have the car yeah I do oh well how long did he had it now he had had it for about 35 years Wow and did he maintain it and it still look like a show car um I think he's did his best you know he had a few other cars and I think you know maybe it wasn't always inside or it wasn't you know was in a portico or something but you know it was the soul of the car was still there when he came over it was it was under you know like a blue blue tarp and and there it is you know haven't seen it since I was a little kid and you know elation disappointment it's smaller than I thought it's bigger than I thought what was the right pretty much exactly the same as I remembered it you know but just maybe you know 35 years down the line yeah a few pits in the chrome and like I said some micro blistering on the the paint but the sole of the car was still there he had added some driving lights and things and I thought I just got to own this car but it took a couple years so he didn't want to sell it no no not at all it was it currently registered or was it just no no it hadn't it had been registered the DMV set up through sometime in the mid 80s or so okay but still has the three Weber's and the whole deal yeah yeah so so I studied it very much on the West yeah so I sort of set myself to I listen I got a I want to own this car right well I just you know I don't really use it but I like having it yeah yeah and that's great I mean a lot of people are like that yeah yeah which I understood but I said listen I just this is the car maybe the car that got me into cars yeah because this was around at the right time and it was cool so you're not a shrewd buyer is what you're saying yeah I gotta have it yeah okay whatever yeah like the kid in Christine when you broke the chip yeah now did you yeah I have a friend of mine who to go check the guy asking thousand I'll give you in 995 okay and they think oh that's my deal you know five dollars we've got the better that guy so how did you finally get it out of the guy well I kept in touch with him but at one point he he just kind of I couldn't couldn't reach him right you know and that went on for about a year and then finally he answered the phone and I said to myself I have to make a deal for this car right now cuz I may never get him on the phone right so we talked and I said listen seriously I really want about how are the man is he at this point fifteen eighteen he's probably in his mid 60s who's pretty young oh yeah he said alright write me a letter this is another step so I go what did he want in the letter said just tell me the story cuz I died I told him the story I don't how many times but he just kind of wanted it on paper right who's this kid you know so I just kind of set the back of my head to working on writing the letter you know over the next couple of weeks and then one night after work I just sat down and wrote it out yeah and then copied it down longhand and you know there was an offer in there and mailed it off and waited a couple of weeks and called I mean he bumped me up a thousand bucks right and I said alright you know I'll be there Saturday okay fee so then you got it okay oh yeah you didn't drive it home no not at all like I said it hadn't run in the longest time buddy of mine has a ramp back truck so we took off about 5:00 a.m. you know setting off her and how long ago was that that was March of 2012 okay okay now as he tried to buy back from you like you bought it from him he hasn't no but I'll tell you who who really would like to have it or the sons of the guy who built it oh and I've I've kind of made a promise to them okay is a cigars listen you know we my brother and I you know we spent a good part of our childhood cleaning these wire wheels on the dining room table and coloring in the the Pirelli logos with with yellow lumber marker yeah you know seemingly every weekend all summer so if you affect car over sells it needs to come to us and that sounds fair yeah yeah but you're not gonna sell it I don't have plans to sell it but let me tell them to write you a letter all right very cool I let's get back to the car itself can we open the hood and let's yeah look yeah let's see what she looks like yeah and there's a three speed or 4-speed it's a four-speed with overdrive and you drive which works perfectly okay just what is it one of those with a laconic I think so yeah but you know you just throw the switch before you get on the freeway yeah and then when you get into third you hear oh you hear a little so you always should throw the switch under power because people have a have of taking your foot off the gas throw the switch and you get a clunk if you throw the switch while you're accelerating it's much smoother interesting okay have you tried it try it no I never have you'll see ya know I've it's in my Thunderbird also yeah you always want to do that when I'm stopped but maybe not all right no a bit of a little bit of show car prep in here the better part of 50 years ago so it's flocked under here and yeah there was a there's a little a little light that he would turn on to just kind of illuminate the side of the engine and whether this valve cover come from you know I've seen that you know the when you pick up the old rodent racks and the accessories in the bag looks like a JC Whitney or a Coughlin house are made one very similar but it's at off it had its name yeah I think that I am stag that had a three 2017 Offenhauser valve covers but I've never seen one exactly like it but I think it was a period accessory yeah and then I like I said three Weber 45s I think you could probably run this car pretty well on one of those right so you're making about what 160 horse one I'd like to test it sometime yeah yeah but I mean cam Pistons all stock yeah as far as I know it goes really well at the end of course the air with much cleaner back in 59 so there's no air cleaners yeah that's all you need advanced yes wide open yeah you know but the fellow who built it also made these these little manifolds to adapt you know ever to you know just made him out of that a solid you know solid aluminum this brakes in the front drum in the back yeah yeah and I think he added the disc brakes in the front now what is that Delta powered well it had you know aftermarket ignition box on it when I when I got I got ya and I really tried not to change anything at all do you want it as exactly as it was back in 73 yeah 73 74 34 so there's no thought of I'm gonna turn it back into a show car again and bring it to Pebble well you know that would be repainting and all of that so I I could go that route and now that it's been you know seven or eight years you know I said okay I can refinish the top of the radiator I don't think that's so much of a crime which I haven't done yet but there was an auxilary fan that was that was added in here and I thought oh you know the fan wasn't in there when we had it right then I looked at how it was mounted and I thought somebody really took a lot of time putting this in here maybe once I started running I know see if we need it and you know you're running around LA you have to have that fan now is this eligible for preservation class even though it's a modified from original well it depends on the show but yeah you know there are a lot of shows that would like to have it because it's you know it's an interesting thing you know and it's a period a period modified carbon but strict preservation probably not explain the badge well that's that's the fellow who built it this is Arnold zukie Zuki okay yeah the Z Z is it normally bizarro but in this case exactly yeah that's that's his uki that's his coachbuilding stamp you know and yeah did he do a lot of cars I mean our other zukie cars out there have you contact these owners or I think there was a Healey before this okay that had a little bit more of a Jaguar d-type sort of front end okay and I know that there have been a couple of other projects that he's had long term but I think I think really he's been he's been like an alpha race tuner and right but a really respected guy he still still find him out at the track you know working with well that's great he must get a kick out of this to see that all the effort you went through this he's happy I have it he's happy to know that it's out and you know right seeing the light of day again and how many miles on the car just over 18,000 actually that's all yeah I've put about 1,700 on it since you know since I've had it running again Wow so nobody really drove it a whole lot no I think it was a when he started on it was like 67 or 68 when he bought it I think in Livermore now was it a damaged car I mean was ever been an accident he you know restored it and changed it or was it a nice stock original never been hit card you know I have one picture of it before he started its it looked like just a really nice Healey yeah in a black-and-white picture and what color was it that he was white white oh yeah okay right now okay let's close up though yeah again interesting all the little places he chose to chrome oh yeah for the arbitrary yeah yeah well that was kind of a good thing at the time you know it's got a little bit of lacquer right this fiberglass no it's all done metal what is metal oh nice nice yeah and then steel out here with it with a little divider and of course these well these are Italian I guess they are yeah I've only ever seen those my Mira had though I was gonna say a Miura yeah and there's they disappeared in the paint they disappeared in the paint department yeah yeah I love the speedster seats and it looks great yeah they've worked out really well and they obviously they're incredibly comfortable they hold you in you know right right yeah and and then he did a the wheel and a you know custom wood he wanted the stock center but it's I think slightly smaller and a little bit fatter did he make the wheel as well I think he had a woodworker do it he may have but moledo it's not an aftermarket no no no he's just he took the stock hub which he wanted to retain and then right you know did special wood and then I think as a 106 it would have had the side shifter in it you know I'm on the side of the tunnel remember alright yeah and that's been converted over to the center shift I think that was in a 3000 and of course you still have a bitter was it near the sea because I know she'd better rust on your wheels here I think it's just dirt sitting on them for years and years now which wicks moisture through well he wasn't close to the coast but just 35 years and of course the we call them nerf bars yeah I'm not sure what you call them I guess it's still nerf bars nothing well I I know him as nerf bar is it yes this car that's how I learned the term these are the bumpers here uh and yet but they're not in the front just the rear just the rear yeah okay I think he just he wanted the the nose to kind of stand on its own does this still carry the spare in the trunk yeah yeah and the the spare would have been a little you know centrally mounted and such but it just sits in the trunk and it has the original tire on it that still has the yellow oh can we open up yeah yeah yeah well it's a special configuration plan to open it that much this is the original handle off the trunk but this this little cover here is off of an outside latch etype and you just kind of feel around for the there you go oh they okay yeah no that's the original Pirelli that's yeah it dates back to 1969 or say oh yeah this is the yellow yeah lumber marker there any kids put on you know and they'd have to redo it in between every show yeah and he tells a story the restorer Arnold tells a story about chroming the outside and then the inside of the few of fuel filler neck is it you know some judges just they have to mark off for something's no such as a perfect car and the guy said oh there's no chrome inside the filler neck so he took it all apart and polished it inside chromed ins it shows how judging his change because now you'd lose points for that because it didn't leave the factory with a chrome you know no exactly yeah yeah you know but at the time you know there were there were gull wings on the lawn at Pebble with with chrome under the hood and polished everything well the funny thing is is more parts available now than there were forty years ago I remember the early car show you'd see a Duesenberg with one white wall three black walls and when the truck tire because there were no there were no tires you know yeah any old tire you get that fit yeah that's what you that's what you do isn't that amazing those old old photos Wow look at the tires on this yeah well you know yeah you didn't you didn't have all those yeah mail-order tire outfits so and then the little cover here and the brownies sticker with you know in the Healy logo he just he really kind of thought of everything a little chrome valve cap you know this is all exactly the way it was you can see the imprint with it that's just lying there right that's not this just laying there go around a corner and that's gonna dent defenders it's gonna slide it well my colleagues would say I would never take a corner that yeah but no it's it's it's on Wilton wool carpet so it doesn't it doesn't really move but if it were promised I was gonna really go drive it and probably take and it was their top ever for it yeah yeah actually there's a soft top I was on when I rolled in this morning oh of course he had to redesign it it's a little bit short meet a windshield it's three inches lower then he made side curtains for it that are little shorter yeah I remember these because he used to call it the poor man's jag sort of mm-hmm but it was my English tans it's a big car with a big engine vi oh yeah yeah that's why they're called big Healy's yeah and in England six cylinders were like eight cylinders here that was yeah most cars before you had a sit oh my god you know v8s were fairly not as its popular because of the fuel and everything else so the big Healey six it rivaled the the Jag sir yeah yeah and for quite a bit less money yeah yeah no it's a beautiful car and of course the exhaust system and is that one of the ones they used to advertise in the back of rodent Rhino is heaven it was an Abarth I think yeah yeah it has everything but the sticker yeah and I think it really may be in a bar system as I look at it yeah yeah mg mitten they used to have all those ads yeah oh sure the guy with the moustache you have driving gloves he driving an obstacle you're on it right right yeah very fantastic very cool can we take it for a ride definitely oh I love it they didn't shave the door handles nope if you kept them on oh boy I love these seats yeah that's nicely right it does fit by your room in here and you really sit down low not bad [Music] Lennie's into our key little engines they are these are all lusty engines lusty is the word the English with you lusty like a time well it it does because it just it pulls from down low which is fairly unusual for English cars you know so it's sort of revving it and everything but it's one of just seems too I really like it it's you know it has a nice power curve once you get above you know just it runs out so this really was built to be a show car when he set up the carbs and everything I you know it would just it would just go across an awards ramp pick up a trophy go back to the trailer and I you know again I come 30 odd years later wanting to make a road car out of it but it was the road car when your dad had yeah we didn't drive it much it was so nice yeah I barely remember ever taking it anywhere and they're back my dad would open the door he'd have a handkerchief in his hand didn't want to touch the inside of the chrome on that floor hands unfunded oh so we didn't think we didn't drive it that much it let's try it under power in third see my just goes right in see how smoother it is take it over good go you're doing that yeah can you do it yeah I got it in the same driving economy yeah try it you know it's it's like sort of an animatic doesn't want you to be awfully gasps the same for the modern roaring this way you got a nice gear between third and fourth that's right yeah got new functionality now that's funny you know they never put that in any of the books when these were new you can strip you can shift it under load you always wanna shift under load yeah you know there's a nice feel to original that you just don't get under snow well I'm always talking about that I think that is that is original original paint original interior original door panels anything you know make an effort to keep that yeah it's just it isn't gonna smell the same but it isn't gonna feel the same yeah well I was thinking just from the standpoint of the way the front end is set up the way it handles there's a tightness it just feels right you know as it goes down the road really well and bless it it's less we're on the unit is it could you while you're not doing that you're making it sort of known how much where that is but I was just happy that it that it worked really well yeah overall it or anything you know just overdrive that works but this is a very powerful card 59 horsepower wise by American standards meant by European standards it's a this was a pretty capable thing you know it didn't didn't have the horsepower rating of an e-type but it attracts very nicely and it's aligned really well but yeah a new set of tires fading huge dudes different is amazing you know I put a set of those modern radials on my xk120 oh my god what a pleasure tell you it was a real thrill to fire this up for the first time yeah I can imagine I brought it home in March and the first time I drove it was but it was a long time you know I sent the Trump's how to be surface guy I've always thought that if they had to bait so many of these cars and make a lot of it by the end in seconds it's such a beautiful design and if you know and it's but you know it's funny how you decide the value of something when I was a kid or a teenager anyway I remember the saying the Mustang would never be collectible because they made a million up in the first year for that say precisely why it's collectible because people remember it you know Americans don't save stuff these cars really bring people together yeah you know this car from ba is like it's like reaching back into the past yeah get Minds being my dad reminds me it's a lot of fun to have it and it's fun to take it places lighten up my Ford Galaxie that was a car my dad had to seven later one yeah and I wanted to recreate it but I went back to the tree I wrapped it around and it wasn't I've had pieces left so I had to find one like it yeah yeah yeah you know I've got as I said before I got great car with a great story and I love the fact that you search this at your whole life but a good part of your life and you drive it it down yeah and now it's yours - its kind of fun hey thanks for the opportunity to drive it I appreciate it absolutely put a little overdrive Lana Lana Lana [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 596,821

Keywords: Austin-Healey, 100-6, Gooding Auction Co, Pebble Beach, Concours d'Elegance, car stories, family car, 6 cylinder, roadster, straight-six, Garth Hammers, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: saZY4k8_Chw

Length: 30min 24sec (1824 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019