Austin-Healey 100 & 100/6 Gold Portfolio 1952-59

Donald Healey began building Healey cars at Warwick in 1946, and had built an enviable name for his company on the strength of a single basic chassis design by the time he decided it was time for something new in the early 1950s. In 1952, he exhibited the fruits of his thinking at the Earls Court Motor Show in the shape of the prototype Healey 100. The car did not stay a pure Healeys for long. Leonard Lord, BMC’s Managing Director, examined the prototype, noted with approval that it used the engine from Austin’s slow-selling A90 Atlantic, and decided that it would provide his company with anew sports model for overseas markets and use up stocks of the A90 engine all in one go. He struck a deal with Donald Healey and, by the spring of 1953, that single prototype car had become a production reality as the Austin-Healey 100.

Over the next six years, more than 29,000 were built at Austin’s Long bridge plant, at the Healey factory in Warwick, and at the MG works in Abingdon. Developments included a four-speed gearbox in 1955 to replace the original three-speed type (actually an A90 four-speed with bottom gear made unavailable) and a BMC six-cylinder engine to replace the original four-cylinder unit of similar capacity in 1956. The six-cylinder engine made the car a 100-Six, a little bigger than before to allow for 2+2 seating, and a little slow at first because the extra weight was offset by only a little extra power . A power increase restored the balance in 1957 , however, and 1958 also saw a two-seater available once again. Rarest of all these models, though, were the limited-production 100s of 1955 and the 100M of 1955-56, both being tuned versions which today’s enthusiasts consider to be the most desirable of the Big Healeys. In their time, these cars were viewed as the epitome of the big-engined, hairy-chested British sports car, and to drive one today is to be transported back in time to a Britain without speed limits and without the traffic congestion which now inhibit the enjoyment of any fast road car. Some of that lost enjoyment, however, is captured in the articles in this book, and I am sure Big Healey enthusiasts everywhere will join me in welcoming it as a valuable addition to their bookshelves.