Austin-Healey 1952-1970 - Legendary sports cars with great racing successes
You have only
2 out of 3
images seen in high resolution
Summary
There were around 10,000 car brands and designers - most of them have disappeared. One of these vanished brands is Austin-Healey. Between 1952 and 1970, successful and popular sports cars with 4- and 6-cylinder engines were built, which still cut a fine figure today at classic car meetings and in historic racing. Behind the brand was Donald Healey, who created real milestones with the Healey 100 and 3000, as well as the Sprite.
Estimated reading time: 3min
Preview (beginning of the article)
Austin-Healey has one of the most beautiful origin stories. Spurred on by the success of the Jaguar XK 120, sports car manufacturer Donald Healey set about creating a new design in 1951. He chose the drivetrain with the 2660 cm3 four-cylinder engine from the Austin A 90. Gerry Cocker designed the bodywork and the prototype was built at Tickford. The Healey Hundred was brought to the London Motor Show in the fall of 1952. Austin boss Leonard Lord was so enthusiastic about this open-top sports two-seater that he persuaded Donald Healey to rename his new design Austin Healey before the show even opened. The Austin Healey (still without the hyphen) was then produced on a much larger scale than would have been possible for Healey. Production took place at Jensen (bodywork) and Austin (final assembly). Incidentally, one of the first examples was given to the AR editor-in-chief for evaluation.
Continue reading this article for free?
Photos of this article
