In short that's how Austin and Donald Healey started their two decade romance as Austin-Healey. To see what Donald Mitchell Healey was really on about it is worthwhile delving into his past. He was a man of many, many talents. Not the least of these he was a more than competent race and rally driver who won the 1931 Monte Carlo Rally. If you cross check this talent with his automotive engineering background it was inevitable he would design automobiles – more than likely the type that he knew best: high-powered sports cars.

He was a man of many hats besides these: businessman, entrepreneur, pilot ... and like any true, hard-edged go-get-it character he was a salesman. Healey was born in 1898 in Cornwall to a reasonably well-to-do family. His father paid for him to start an apprenticeship with Sopwith Aviation in 1914 and he later volunteered for the Royal Air Force, then known as the Royal Flying Corps. He was unfortunately shot down by friendly-fire which ended this career.

After the war he studied engineering – and with a father keenly interested in automobiles – he started to enter car rallies, having some success winning the Bournemouth Rally in 1928 at the wheel of a Triumph Super Seven, and then seventh at Monte Carlo in 1930 and winning the famous rally a year later. This put him in a unique position of being a successful engineer-race driver who understood vehicle dynamics. Two years later, in 1933, his break came when he started work helping to organise a team of Riley cars to compete in the Alpine Rally. They won the team event, giving his CV a needed boost to the next level. He was then appointed to the position of experimental manager at Triumph where he helped develop the Dolomite, a big-engined racer.

His career went on hold during WW2, but after the war he was determined to develop a car bearing his own name and started the Donald Healey Motor Company. His first car was the Westland roadster powered by a 2.4 litre engine supplied by his friend Victor Riley and capable of more than 100 mph. There was a lot more to Donald Healey than his interest in cars. He also had a business brain. After the war Britain was financially drained. People did not have a lot of money for cars, let alone fancy sports cars. Across the Atlantic though, it was a different story.

Many Americans were rolling in the stuff. Healey had a brief fling with the Nash Kelvinator organisation and used a Nash engine and drivetrain to power a sports-tourer called the Nash Healey. It was a significant overhead valve engine of 3.8 litres. Soon after this he developed the car he took to the London Motor Show, the Healey Hundred, a car he aimed at the low-cost end of the market. This was once again part of Healey's business nous. Other marques such as Jaguar already had the top-end sewn up with the XK series.

To start with the Austin-Healey was a simple rear wheel drive, two-seater sports car. The windscreen could be laid flat as long as passengers used aviator goggles. Healey stuck with the 100/4 for three and a half years, but in that time there were four variations: BN1, BN2, which had an improved four speed gearbox with overdrive, a racing variant of the BN1 called the 100S (for Sebring) of which only 50 were built by Healey, and the 100M, a BN2 high-performance variant. But these were not the only 100 Healeys. A slightly stretched body and some re-alignment of the boot saw a 2+2 model powered by a straight six engine developed for Austin-Healey and called the 100/6. This was the forerunner to the Austin-Healey 3000. (See this story under Austin-Healey in classic cars section of mister-cars.com)

Some 640 official 100M cars were factory built and typically have two-tone paintwork. However the factory also produced a Le Mans conversion kit based on the modifications of which about 500 were sold. People looking to purchase an original 100M are wise to do some due diligence by matching the car's registered chassis ID numbers against factory records. The factory mechanical 100M modifications included a high compression engine head, twin SU carburettors, four speed gearbox with overdrive, and improvement to the front brakes.

The Le Mans Modification Kit sold through dealers included a pair of 1 3/4” HD6 SU carburettors on a new manifold, high lift camshaft, uprated valve springs, steel-faced cylinder head gasket, uprated distributor and a cold air box. There was also a stiffer anti-roll bar and 8.1:1 pistons. This upped the engine to 110 bhp.

The 100/6 cars differed from the 100/4 cars not only with the option of 2+2 but also a built-in air scoop at the front of the bonnet and the windscreen no longer folded flat on to the bonnet. These cars are more closely related to the 3000 cars that were to follow. The straight six cylinder engine was sourced from the BMC C-Series which had been found under the bonnet of the Austin Westminster. The 100/6 at first boasted 76 kW or power – and was not as quick at the 100/4 - but this increased to 87 kW by 1957 with the improvement in the manifold and cylinder head.

Austin-Healey 100 variants

1953 - 55: BN1 100/4

1955: 100S

1955 - 56: BN2 100M

1956 – 57: BN2 100/4

1956 – 57: BN4 100/6 (2+2)

1957 – 59: BN4 100/6 (1/34” SU Carburettors) (2+2)

1958 – 59 BN6 100/6 (two seat)