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Nash-Healey - Ménage a trois as a fast Gran Turismo

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Created on January 11, 2015

Reading time 8min

Written by:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

James Mann - Courtesy RM Auctions

Courtesy RM Auctions

Don Wright - Courtesy RM Auctions

Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM Auctions

Newell Coach Corporation

Bonhams

Archiv

James Mann - Courtesy RM Auctions

Courtesy RM Auctions

Don Wright - Courtesy RM Auctions

Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM Auctions

Newell Coach Corporation

Bonhams

Archiv

103

Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - elegante Pininfarina-Karosserie

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - weit innen liegende Scheinwerfer charakterisieren die Pininfarina-Variante

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - in voller Fahrt

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - war damals ein schnelles Auto

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Silhouette

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Pininfarina-Version mit einteiliger Frontscheibe im Gegensatz zur Panelcraft-Variante

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - das Dach raubt einiges von der Rundumsicht

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Heck mit kleinen Schlussleuchten

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - zwei grosse Instrumente orientieren den Fahrer

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Interieur mit grosser Sitzbank

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Jetfire-Maschine mit zwei SU-Vergasern

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Chassis-Nummer

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Nash und Healey auf dem Markenzeichen

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Belüftung des Innenraums

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Motorhaube und "Kühlerfigur"

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Belüftungsöffnung

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - hübsche Heckleuchten

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Schritzug auf dem Heck

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Pininfarina-Schriftzug auf der Flanke

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Nash-Healey (1951) - 104 Exemplare der Variante mit Panelcraft-Karosserie sollen gebaut worden sein

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Nash-Healey (1950) - das Interieur des Prototypen des Pariser Salons

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Nash-Healey (1951) - die Panelcraft-Variante überzeugte George Mason nicht

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Nash-Healey (1951) - schön präsentierte Variante mit Panelcraft-Karosserie

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Nash-Healey (1951) - auf ihn setzte Healey in den Fünfzigerjahren

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Nash-Healey (1951) - Prototyp mit Aufbau von Pancelcraft

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Nash-Healey (1951) - mti Nash Ambassador Dual Jetfire Motor mit hoher Kompression

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Nash-Healey (1951) - frühe Variante mit der Panelcraft-Karosserie

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Nash-Healey (1951) - der Sechszylindermotor aus dem Nash-Baupgrogramm

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Nash-Healey (1951) - bewährte 'Trailing Link' Vorderaufhängung

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Nash-Healey (1951) - Blick auf die Hinterachse

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Nash-Healey (1952) - auf dem 22. Autosalon von Genf

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Prototyp von Pininfarina

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Silhouette des Pininfarina-Cabriolets

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Nash Healey (1952) - hübsches Cabriolet, gezeichnet in den Pininfarina-Studios

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Nash-Healey (1952) - elegantes Cabriolet von Pininfarina

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Pininfarinas Variante wirkt rundlicher als die Panelcraft-Version

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Nash Healey (1952) - von Pininfarina eingekleidetes, ausserordentlich elegantes Cabriolet, nach vielen Jahren der erste offene Sportwagen amerikanischer Herkunft

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Frontpartie, aufgenommen am Genfer Autosalon 1952

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Nash-Healey (1953) - die offene Variante wurde parallel zum Coupé weitergebaut

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Interieur, aufgenommen an der London Motorshow

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Lenkrad und Armaturenbrett der Produktionsversion, aufgenommen auf der London Motorshow

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Nash-Healey (1952) - Lenkrad, Lenksäule und Armaturen, aufgenommen auf dem Genfer Automobilsalon

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - Blick unter die Motorhaube am Genfer Automobilsalon 1952

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - der Jetfire-Motor im Testwagen

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Nash-Healey (1952) - offene Pininfarina-Variante

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Nash Healey (1952) - hübsches amerikanisches Cabriolet

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - Blick in das Interieur eines Testwagens

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - die elegante Schöpfung von Pininfarina feiert in Genf Premiere - am Automobilsalon in Genf 1953

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - fast zeitlose Silhouette

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - die Eleganz des Pininfarina-Designs

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sports Car (1952) - elegante Karosserie von Pininfarina

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sports Car (1954) - eine weitere Variante des schönen Sportwagns

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sports Car (1954) - mit grosser Heckscheibe zwechs besserer Rundumsicht

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sports Car (1953) - mit dem 140 PS starken Nash Ambassador Dual Jetfire LeMans Motor

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sports Car (1953) - wirkt fast eleganter als die offene Version

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sports Car (1955) - alltagstauglicher und eleganter

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - attraktives Fahrzeugdesign

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - schnittiges Coupé

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - mit grosszügiger Verglasung

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - die elegante Coupé-Variante

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - elegante Formgebung

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - mit Aufbau von Pininfarina

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Nash-Healey Coupé (1953) - damit war man elegant angezogen

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Frontansicht

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Blick in den Kofferraum

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Blick in den Motorraum

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Blick ins Cockpit

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Cockpit des Coupés

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Cockpit

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - der Sechszylinder Dual Jetfire Motor

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - der seitlich angebrachte Vergaser

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - grosser Kofferraum

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - Interieur

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Nash-Healey LeMans Hardtop Sportscar (1953) - Testwagen - rund 140 PS lieferte der Sechszylinder

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Nash-Healey Roadster (1952) - durch Pinin Farina gestalteter Sportwagen - als Lot 106 versteigert durch RM Auctions an der Amelia Island Versteigerung am 9. März 2013

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Nash-Healey Convertible (1952) - angeboten als Lot 119 an der RM Auction Motor City vom 26. Juli 2014

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Nash-Healey Sports Roadster (1953) - als Lot 120 an der RM Auction Hershey vom 9./10. Oktober 2014

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Nash-Healey Le Mans Coupé (1954) - an der Bonhams Quail Lodge Auktion vom 14./15. August 2014 als Lot 275

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Nash-Healey Roadster (1953) - verkauft an der RM Auction Arizona (19. und 20. Januar 2012) für USD 71'500

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Nash-Healey Sport (1953) in Le Mans 1953 - Nash-Healey Sport am Start der 24 Stunden von Le Mans 1953

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Summary

At the end of the 1940s, Donald Healey and George Mason, the head of the American car manufacturer Nash, decided to build a sports car together. The Americans supplied the technical components and Healey took care of the rest, creating the Nash-Healey with a six-cylinder engine and an aluminum body built in England. This was soon replaced by a Pininfarina body, which was available as a convertible and coupé. By 1954, 507 cars had been built. This report tells the story of the only American sports car at the time, illustrated with current and historical images.

This article contains the following chapters

Created on a boat trip
Prototype presented in Paris
The first American post-war sports car in series production
New variant with Italian flair
And then the coupé
And then the end
A déja vu?
Further information

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

At the beginning of the 1950s, America did not have a great sports car tradition, although there was certainly interest. It took an Englishman in the person of Donald Healey to convince one of the major car manufacturers in the USA to make a name for itself with a sports car. Donald Healey was no stranger. He had already won the Monte Carlo Rally in an Invicta in the 1930s and shortly after the war, after years of touring the British car industry, he had started to build his own sports cars. On the Queen Elizabeth on his way back from an unsuccessful business meeting with Cadillac, from whom he wanted to procure engines for his sports cars, he met George Mason, the top man at Nash, in 1949. Over a meal together, a collaboration was agreed in which Healey would receive Nash engines and drivetrains and use them to produce a sports car under the Nash-Healey name.

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