Taking John Healey, son of Donald Healey, for a spin in the Midget was an amazing way to start off 2003.

Chris Dimmock's last minute 'all points bulletin' through the Australian Spridget Yahoo Email Group calling for Austin Healey drivers to ferry members of the Healey family to a wedding on 2 January 2003 got me motivated.

OK, so a Midget's got the wrong badge but as we all know, it is really a Sprite underneath and it was created by Donald Healey and his team.

But this was happening only 5 minutes from my home - I was an unwitting neighbour to a member of the Healey family so ABP 102 had to be in it!

To appropriately emphasise the Healeyness of the event, ABP 102 brought up the rear behind five big Healeys and Bert Langford's Bugeye Sprite as we parked outside the home of the bridegroom, John Healey's son Graham. The plan was to maintain this formation to the church at Mona Vale, a northern beach suburb of Sydney.

The cavalcade awaiting departure led by Chris Dimmock's BJ8 - ABP 102 is at the back

Being an avid video maker, John wanted to shoot the cavalcade of Healeys with passengering family members from front-on as it departed Graham's home. ABP 102, the last car in the line, was to pick him up as we continued on to the church.

Chatting to John and his wife Joy before we left the house it became clear that they both led very active lives maintaining Healey and Austin Healey connections around the globe. You couldn't imagine two more friendly and natural people who put their conversational partners totally at ease.

Graham Healey, like his parents friendly and welcoming, travelled in the lead vehicle, Chris Dimmock's black and white Austin Healey 3000 Mk lllA.

Here is the page 2 story from the January 3, 2003 edition of the 'Manly Daily', Sydney Australia - our local newspaper.

Once on the move, it soon became clear that to get the best shots of John's family travelling in the Healeys, we would need to move alongside and past each of the cars panning the camera.

So that's what we did - creeping past each Healey then slowing down to focus on the very happy passengers - with the indulgence of other traffic along busy Pittwater Road, the main traffic artery along Sydney's northern beaches penninsula.

In the process, John chatted about his interest in finding a replica Austin Healey rally car and his exploits with other members of the extended Healey 'family' in Australia. And your correspondent's natural modesty notwithstanding, he commented (positively!) on ABP 102's condition and throaty sound . In fact, John was very impressed by the quality of each of the cars and the effort that had gone into them.

So thanks to Chris Dimmock, the Austin Healey Owners Club and the Australian Spridget Yahoo Email Group, I was able to demonstrate that despite the MG badge, there is without doubt 'Healey in the Midget'.

Text and images on this page are copyright Paul Orton except the article and photo from page 2 of 'The Manly Daily', 3 January 2003 reprinted courtesy of 'The Manly Daily'.