I will always remember my first driving lesson with a measure of fondness. We lived in a tract house in then newly developed Hicksville (don’t laugh) on New York’s Long Island. My father was an airline pilot flying internationally for Pan American World Airways, long before its demise. He’d grown up during the depression, left home in Virginia to attend college in California, pursued his dream of learning to fly and, as a recently graduated cadet from the school’s aeronautical engineering program, joined the Army Air Forces as a pilot. He flew B-29s during WWII and, when PanAm was aggressively recruiting military pilots for their growing airline, he signed on.
While flying for PanAm, he remained active in the Air Force Reserves. Some of my fondest memories are of him taking me out to Mitchell AFB for an air show or to swim in the base officers’ pool while he was on duty. I was even allowed to try my hand in a Link Trainer, a flight simulator used in flight training to give pilots experience under a variety of controlled but potentially dangerous situations without leaving the ground. I remember “crashing and burning” quickly and being terribly embarrassed despite the flight trainer telling me how well I’d done for such a young pilot. I think I was around 8 years old.
Well, it was around that time - 1951 - that my father bought a new Nash Healey. It was like nothing I’d ever seen - a two-seat roadster sports car - and I loved it! Pale yellow with tan leather seats, it had a long hood, whitewall tires, and was truly a sight to behold! It drew lots of attention, of course, since apparently no one else had seen anything like it either. It was the forerunner of the 1953 Corvette and the 1955 Thunderbird.
Once, when we’d taken the Healey to Jones Beach to race it around the huge parking lot (it must have been off-season - there were few other cars) I got my first experience with speed. Mom was in the right seat and I was seated in the middle when Dad decided to see how fast the Healey would go. Mom was terrified and squeezed my leg so hard I squealed. But I was thrilled, as I was with pretty much anything Dad did that included me. I think the experience sparked my love of fast cars and, for that matter, all things fast. Anyway, we parked the car and walked down to the beach and, when we returned, found the little car surrounded by curious gawkers who, much to Dad’s consternation, had lifted the hood to check out the engine.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the Nash Healey, it was a limited production sports car produced for only a few years (1951-53, ‘54 if you include a subsequent hard top version) by Nash Motors (which in 1954 became a division of American Motors Corporation.) Donald Healey, managing director of the Donald Healey Motor Company of Warwick, England, had built a car using a Nash Ambassador engine and drive line which he entered in the 24-hour LeMans endurance race in July, 1950. So well did the roadster perform in the French race (finishing fourth) that Nash decided to contract for a limited number of the sports model.
For the new production Nash Healey, the high-compression, 6-cylinder Nash Ambassador engine was fitted with an aluminum head and dual carburetors. Overdrive was standard. The prototype, which had an aluminum body built by the Healey company, was shown publicly for the first time at the Paris Automobile Show in early fall of 1950.
Production began in December, 1950. During that month, 36 models were built. An additional 68 were produced in January, February and March of 1951 making a total of 104 Healey-bodied Nash Healey two-door roadster convertibles. None were produced from April, 1951 until January, 1952, when an entirely new roadster body was created by Pinin Farina of Turin, Italy. A total of 150 of the redesigned body models were produced in Italy.
The Healey was expensive to build (and buy - $3,982.00 delivered, a bundle in 1951) because of all the shipping involved. The Nash engines and other mechanical components were shipped from the U.S. to Britain. The body was brought from Italy to Britain where Healey assembled all the parts into complete cars. Finished Healeys were then shipped for sale in the U.S. Perhaps for that reason, Nash considered the car a “loss leader” of sorts. It attracted buyers to the showrooms with its exciting appearance and impressive racing credentials, where most buyers gained control of their senses and bought the more sedate and family oriented Ambassador.
But not my father. He was one of the relative few (remember, he was an airline pilot) who bought this piece of history, the first true sports car built in the U.S. in twenty years! The Healey was often compared quite favorably to the Jaguar XK120 and deservedly so. So I can truthfully say that my addictions to sports cars and speed are entirely genetic.
And that brings me back (via the long way - sorry) to my very first driving lesson. It was, as you may have guessed, in my father’s shiny, new ‘51 Nash Healey when I was about 8 years old. I sat in the driver’s seat with my dad to my right. From his position he operated the pedals while I steered. We drove up and down North Drive and, quite intentionally I suspect, Dad waved nonchalantly to our neighbors and many of my friends, all of whom imagined I was actually driving. I was quite the celebrity for several days after and will always remember that very first driving lesson - and my father’s ‘51 Nash Healey - with fondness.