Now we already know that your typical 'Big' Healey is a splendid beast, as manly and British as Old Spice. So it's a bit noisy and uncomfortable, and the handling's not quite what it should be - what's wrong with you boy? Next you'll be asking for mineral water at the bar... In fact, Steve Norton at Cape International has known for some time that his customers, real ale drinkers or not, wanted more from their Healeys. He knew, too, that several decades ago Donald Healey had been frustrated in his efforts to rid his cars of certain inherent faults while BMC management dithered. So why not finally say goodbye to the ill manners, and produce a sports car that could be driven not just in anger, but in relative comfort too? A car that would transport husband and wife across Europe on a Healey Club tour, but still cope with an adrenaline-fuelled rally or track session at the end of it.

It took a long time, and some serious investment for Cape to develop the theory into the CapeSport 3000, but at least most of the uprating parts already existed as off-the-shelf Cape products. I've been waiting for this moment a long time too, having seen the car in its early stages. In those days it was just a totally rebuilt, jig-aligned chassis, awaiting its all-new aluminium-panelled body and a mix of rebuilt and brand new mechanical components. In a corner of the workshop lurked a modern Getrag five-speed gearbox, while in the Cape office telephone negotiations were taking place to secure the Quaife limited-slip differentials of legend that would be crucial to the CapeSport's power delivery and handling. This was always going to be the ultimate road-going Healey, rather than the more banzai red-with-white-roof no-compromise works rally replicas that we're used to.

Now it's a whole car, too muscular to be called pretty, but lovely all the same. Steve and his team fuss round, checking the last details, before we're off - and it's interesting that it's only photographer Charlie who's taking long looks at the rapidly darkening skies above us. The CapeSport 3000 is designed to be usable, whatever the weather. I turn down Steve's offer to let me drive the first few miles; after all, it's his baby, and I'm content to be sitting in a very comfortable black and grey bucket seat, protected by a subtle roll hoop inside the hardtop, and strapped in by a three-point harness. The carbon fibre dashboard in front of me might prove to be a controversial CapeSport option, but I rather like it. The first test is Cape's mile-long driveway. Its unavoidable speed ramps are every Healey owner's nightmare, but the CapeSport rumbles over them without fuss. An intelligent re-design of the exhaust system, optimised ride height and the light weight of the aluminium wings, boot and bonnet where normally Healeys are steel have combined to rule out Healey foible number one - lack of ground clearance. Then we're out into winding country roads, and I'm watching the clocks carefully as Steve gradually pushes the revs higher and builds up the speed.

The needles are rock-steady, courtesy of modern electronics behind the original-style faces. It's funny how such simple touches increase your confidence in a car. We're both beginning to grin now as Steve guns the CapeSport through a series of bends and up a long hill, with Charlie clearly having to work his car hard behind us to keep up. There's no wizardry involved in the way that this car pulls and pulls, just a sensible workover of that big Austin six-cylinder engine, topped off with triple 2in SU carburettors and a twisty-turny tubular exhaust manifold. It should be pushing out around 170-180bhp we reckon, a sensible level for a Healey that doesn't compromise low-down pull, reliability or fuel consumption, but does provide a useful boost over the stock engine's 132bhp. The engine's internals have been lightened and balanced, but Cape have been careful not to shave too much weight off the flywheel, for fear of inducing a lumpy idle and jerky progress. The cylinder head has been ported to improve gasflow, and of course it's been converted for lead-free fuel - this is a car for the 21st century after all. In fact, there's also a modern spin-on oil filter and a rear crankshaft oil seal conversion to prove the point.

The CapeSport certainly still sounds every inch a Healey, with the characteristically tappety engine up front, and a pleasantly muted exhaust note behind. Side-exit exhausts, the usual fare of modified Healeys, sound more aggressive and business-like, but this rear-exit system is easier to live with, while still burbling loudly enough to make gunning the engine under bridges and through tunnels a highly satisfactory affair. We're still grinning widely inside the CapeSport. The roads open up, and we revel in its competence at high speed. The fifth gear brings the revs right down, so that 70mph is as relaxed as it's ever going to feel in a classic sports car that has had its sidescreens left lying in the boot.

The suspension's riding Coventry's bumpiest roads pretty well, too, with none of the bangs and crashes you can suffer from a big Healey. Uprated coil springs at the front and leaf springs at the rear are nothing out of the ordinary, but combining them with adjustable telescopic dampers in place of the old lever arms improves the car's reaction to bumps. In the meantime, the handling's finer points are sorted out with an uprated front anti-roll bar with beefed up and rose-jointed links, adjustable front trunnions to optimise the camber on the front wheels, and an uprated Panhard rod at the back to keep the axle in line. The effects of the changes are to make the Healey feel more solid on the road, holding its line through bumpy corners and turning in to tight bends cleanly and without fuss. There's an anti-tramp bar kit on the way, to keep the rear wheels from misbehaving under hard acceleration, although that Quaife limited slip diff keeps them pretty well sorted anyway - you can feel it doing its stuff as you catapult the CapeSport out of angled road junctions, the inside rear wheel initially squeaking its displeasure before being tamed by the Quaife.

At first I know this only by watching Steve have his fun with the car, but it's not long before he hands me the keys. By this time we've pootled through town, charged along dual carriageways and whooped up and down undulating twisty Warwickshire lanes. The CapeSport has taken it all in its stride, with the big electric fan kicking in occasionally in traffic, cooling off a high-efficiency aluminium radiator. An oil cooler and air ducting from the beautifully fashioned works-style front grille do the rest. I, in the meantime, have the task of catapulting £55,000 worth of Healey out of a nearly blind junction onto a busy bypass, having never even sat in the driver's seat before. Trucks and speed-crazed reps hack past, and I dither like a learner until a decent sized gap appears. Then I'm off, straight up to speed with the minimum of drama. Oh, that was easy.

The clutch is lighter than I'm used to from a Healey (turns out it's a modern-spec 9.5in diaphragm clutch rather than the old 10in coil spring thing), and the gearshift as is as fuss-free as you'd expect from a 'box that's also used in the hottest 3-series BMWs, among many others. The accelerator action is wonderfully smooth, thanks to a simple cable conversion that outs the awkward Heath Robinson system of rods and levers that plagued the Healey with play and notchiness from new. It's only the steering that takes some getting used to really, as something in my head tells me to expect play and low gearing from a wheel so big. Of course that's not the case from any Healey - can't think what I've been driving lately to make me think like that even - and it doesn't take long to adapt to throwing the CapeSport through the bends with reasonable fluidity, even if I'm way off matching Steve's confidence. But hey, he's been driving big Healeys every day for years.

The view from the driver's seat is fantastic. A Derrington steering wheel has always been something special in Healey land, but original 1960s items are so rare that Cape have now had them remanufactured, and it's this lovely new-old accessory that's now filling my immediate vision. To either side there's just fresh air, an uninterrupted view of the countryside while the sidescreens are off (and there's little need for them on even in the rain when you're driving), while above me there's easily enough headroom for all but the lankiest frames. I feel like I belong in here. It takes a while to realise what's missing from the Healey experience - sweaty feet! The big Healeys are famous for having excruciatingly hot footwells, and yet here we are after several hours with the coolest feet in the business. Not only has the fresh air ducting been changed so that it's directed at both the passenger and the driver, rather than just the passenger, but there's also a wad of heat insulation (and soundproofing) between engine bay and cockpit. You can't see the insulation in the pictures, because Cape have sandwiched it between the original bulkhead and a new, shiny aluminium false bulkhead in the engine bay, which also hides much of the new, beefed-up wiring loom that has been specially made to cater for the new alternator (instead of dynamo), electronic ignition and works rally style spotlights. The heat insulation also surrounds the gearbox, on the inside of the transmission tunnel, and the exhaust is specially shielded. Result - a cool cabin. Perhaps it seems ironic then, that the CapeSport's heater works like a Healey heater has never worked before. The original inner wing-mounted heater blower and under-dash matrix have been ditched in favour of a compact modern combined heater and two-speed fan unit fitted totally out of sight behind the dashboard, and still using the original controls. It's especially good for demisting the screen, another Healey failing.

Having explained the comfort items, Steve continues his verbal tour of the CapeSport by pointing out the safety features, while I do my best not to test them out. He's already demonstrated just how good the brakes are, and I'm now doing the same, impressed that they pull the CapeSport up as quickly as any modern car. With cross-drilled discs and beefier calipers in place of the weedy standard discs (early Healeys had drums at the front), and a rear disc conversion in place of the original drums, this thing will haul up from high speed over and over again, without problems. But then there's also an integrated roll cage, most of which is out of sight, with a removable diagonal bar in the hoop. For normal use, leave the bar out so you don't restrict rear vision or look like you're just off the race track. For an historic rally or a track day, bolt it back in. The harnesses and bucket seats follow the same philosophy, in that they're comfortable enough for normal use but perfect for competition (although the latest electronically-controlled inertia reel harneses would be even better). And then there's the collapsible steering column, a product that Cape introduced recently to replace the old solid column. Within weeks it had been put through the ultimate test, when a customer rolled his Healey down a ravine on a rally, and came out unscathed. Nasty chest injuries would have been inevitable without that column.

This is what the CapeSport is all about; turning the beefiest, best-loved British sportscar into something with all the character and enjoyment of the original, without making its occupants suffer for their efforts in any way. It's less than nine months until the week-long celebrations of Austin-Healey's 50th anniversary, and a car like this would be perfect to take part in the tours, track days and concours that are already planned. And so, secure in the knowledge that I'm in arguably the safest, most reliable Healey ever built, I head off again for open roads. The CapeSport squats down, bellows its approval and encourages the game. This car is now for sale, or you can order a CapeSport to your own specifications. Many of the parts used are available from Cape International - call for a catalogue.

Reproduced with kind permission of Classic Cars magazine January 2002
Words: David Lillywhite CapeSport3000 Photography: Charlie McGee

Close Article