Steve Feld, 77, owned a British sports car in college that others could only dream about. His Austin-Healey 100-6 was sleek and classy, evoking images of driving gloves and goggles.
He was 20 and on summer break in western Pennsylvania when road work and a sharp curve on his drive to work spelled disaster. The sports car spun into a field and flipped, leaving Feld fortunate to walk away with only a broken rib as the overturned car’s wheels were still spinning.
“I rolled it,” said Feld, a former corporate attorney who lives in Morristown, N.J.
Four decades later, upon retirement in 2009, he bought the successor to his former prize: a 1959 Austin-Healey 3000. On Wednesday, June 3, Feld proudly displayed the car during a show on the front lawn of the Woodstock Playhouse.
“I’ve always liked British sports cars—their character,” he said. “And you can still do all the work on them yourself.”
Feld was one of 44 Austin-Healey owners at the playhouse for the Austin-Healey Club of New England’s annual “Summit.” The chair of this year’s edition of the roving event was Ted Cryer of New Paltz, 77, a retired IBM employee who worked in Poughkeepsie.
At last year’s summit in Falmouth, Mass., Cryer was asked about holding the 2026 gathering in the Hudson Valley for the first time. The next thing he knew, Cryer was in charge of the Woodstock event. Most of the cars on display were built in England between 1953 and 1967.
Showcasing British automobiles at the Woodstock Playhouse has become something of a tradition. The venue has also hosted the Woodstock British Car Show.
Cryer had his 1954 Austin-Healey 100 on display. The 100 in the model’s name came from the car’s top speed, he said. Cruising in a vintage sports car with the top down “just feels good,” he said.
Sasha Zinshtein of Woodstock, who called himself a “longtime car guy,” was also on hand. Zinshtein, 35, has been a car enthusiast since he played with Hot Wheels. He got his first car, a white Volkswagen GTI with a manual transmission, at 16.
“I like driving fast and going around turns really fast,” he said. “I grew up racing with my friends on tracks and drag racing. I never had a British car, but I always wanted to get an MG or an Austin-Healey or a Lotus.”
Asked what drew him to driving fast, Zinshtein smiled.
John W. Barry is a reporter for The Overlook. Reach him at john@theoverlooknews.com.
