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Donald Healey died in January 1988, just six months before his ninetieth birthday.
Responsible for the creation of many highly sought after sports cars, including the Sprite he enabled many thousands of people to enjoy the fun of sports car motoring, the Sprite being only about half the price of the Big Healey which preceded it..
In 1918, at the age of twenty years, Donald Healey entered the motor trade. Earlier in his working life he had received training in aviation and was apprenticed to the Sopwith Aviation Company. During the 1914 - 1918 World War he served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot but, by the time he returned to civilian life, after the war, however his interest in aircraft had somewhat waned.
He then worked at the Red House Garage which stood on a piece of waste land his father had bought next to his shop, the Red House at Perranporth. Donald Healey, however, found that he had plenty of free time so took up competition motoring..
As he competed in local events, with various cars, which included the overhead valve Buick, with the Truro Motor Club, he developed an interest and enthusiasm for motor sports. In those days this meant reliability trials, of which the main event was the Motor Cycling Club's London to Land's End Trial at Easter. Setting off outside London, the cars, motorcycles and three-wheelers, would set out at intervals for the Porlock Hills in Somerset, Blue Hills Mine outside Perranporth and the Beggars Roost in Devon. The hills of this run were considered a real test for the cars of Donald Healey's day.
Donald Healey won gold medals in rallies with Fiat, Triumph, ABC, Ariel and Rover. They could not really be described as sports cars except, maybe, for the supercharged Triumph Seven in which he won the Brighton Rally in 1929. He then entered the Monte Carlo Rally in 1930 and finished seventh, with a Triumph Seven. At this time he was presented with his first real works drive by Captain Maclin. Donald Mitchell Healey, G. H. Rayner, Vic Horsmann and an Austrian journalist, Professor Wolfbauer, then went on to win an Alpine Cup in the 1930 Austrian Alpine Trial. Shortly afterwards, they added to this success by winning the Austro-Hungarian Alpine Trial.
In the Monte Carlo Rally in 1931, Donald Healey , Vick Horsmann and Lewis Pearce, won outright with a new low chassis Invicta prepared at Perranporth.
In 1933, Donald Healey moved to lodgings with the Thompson family in Barford, near Warwick, when he joined the Riley experimental department. His lodgings were next door to what is now the Joseph Arch Public House. He competed in numerous rallies with various Riley models with much success.
The following year he became an experimental manager with Triumph, and progressed to become their Technical Director. In the 1934 Monte Carlo Rally, which started from Athens, he obtained third place with Tommy Wisdom in a Triumph.. A feature on this car was its Dunlop 9.00 x 16 tyres. However, the use of wide tyres on sporting cars was not seen again for thirty years. Their were seven Triumphs entered in this event and they had all been fitted with engines of 1232cc with overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valves, which were produced by Coventry Climax company. All seven cars finished the course.
The Gloria and Dolomite series of Triumph cars are also credited to Donald Mitchell Healey and perhaps the most interesting design from these series was the straight eight Triumph Dolomite with 2 litres capacity, which was based on the Alfa Romeo 2.3 litre. Triumph had an arrangement with Alfa Romeo and under this arrangement, Triumph supplied details of the Triumph motor cycle, which Alfa Romeo considered manufacturing in Italy while the Dolomite was produced in England by Triumph. In order to reduce the amount of road tax required under the old system of the RAC rating, the bore of the engine was reduced. The RAC horsepower rating was more favourable to the use of long stroke engines and paralyzed many designs in Great Britain. As the power output for a supercharge 2 litre engine was insufficient, the bore size was enlarged later, to allow 2.3 litres capacity. This greatly improved the performance.
Walter Bellgrove was responsible for the body styling of the Triumph cars. Later, Walter Bellgrove designed the TR2 design which proved to be the main competition to the Austin Healey.
This period should have been a good time for the company. Harry Weslake, one of the UK's top tuners, had been brought in to improve the performance of the engine and successfully accomplished this. However, under the direction of the new works manger, they changed the supplier of their gears for the gearboxes from Austin to Triumph at Coventry. The Triumph gears produced were not a success. However, at this time, Triumph had a marvellous range of cars and the finance was within their permitted overdraft limits. Also, with the advancing war the factory's production would be at a premium. However, for their own reasons, the bank brought the company to an end.
During the war, Donald Healey was in charge of the Triumph factory for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and the factory produced Hobson aircraft controls and carburettors. He later moved to the Humber factory and worked on armoured vehicles. It was here that he formed an alliance with A. C. Sampietro (Sammy) and B. G. Bowden (Ben), which went on to the formation of the Donald Healey Motor Company and the birth of the Healey cars.
The first two Healey cars were the Big Healeys, the Roadster and 2.4 litre Saloon, known as the Westland and Elliot. These two models had the greatest competition success but the Healey Silverstone has become the most prized of those early Healey cars. The original design for the Silverstone was based on the 2.4 litres chassis and just one prototype was built which was known as the "Red Bug." The forward position of the engine made the nose heavy and rather ugly.
The Prototype Silverstone, JAC 100, was driven by Donald Healey and Ian Appleyard in the 1949 Alpine Rally, where they finished second overall. However, in the same year, three more cars with Tony Rolt, Tommy Wisdom and Louis Chiron at the wheel, captured the team prize in the production car race at the Silverstone track. Many racing driver apprenticeships were served on the Silverstone.
The power of the Silverstone needed to be increased. Donald Healey went to America to procure some Cadillac engines from General Motors. While onboard the Queen Elizabeth, he met George W. Mason who was the President of Nash Motors, which is now The American Motors Corporation. An invitation was extended by George Mason to view their products at Kenosha. At that time, the most powerful Nash engine was the 3.8 litre Ambassador 6 cylinder. Nash shipped over a single engine, gearbox and rear axle to be built into a Silverstone. These units resulted in a better quality of ride and greater road holding than the Riley units. Damping was also improved by the fitting of large diameter Girling rear dampers, and Lockheed brakes were included
In a effort to gain more power still, the engine was later rebuilt at the Fiat Garage at Como, Italy. However, the 1950 Mille Miglia Race was not a great success as the car was still too slow.
The next race with the Silverstone was Le Mans, and the separate winds of the Silverstone were smoothed down into the body by Bill Buckingham. The maximum speed increased to 124 mph. The car took fourth place overall and became the first British car to win the Motor Trophy awarded by the Motor Magazine.
The idea of the Silverstone powered by Nash units was put aside and Nash agreed to the development of a new car. Len Hodges designed the body and the car became the Nash Healey. Although the Silverstone did not make much money for the company, it did help to promote the Healey name in America.
At a meeting between Donald Healey and Leonard Lord in the winter of 1956, the idea for the Sprite was conceived. It was decided that a small, low cost sports car was needed to fill the gap left by the Austin Seven Nippy and Ulster models popular before the war.
What was not known at the time was that Austin had already drawn a similar car - the 7 hp two-seat Sports Tourer which was designed in 1953.
Most of the initial development work on the Sprite prototype was done on the main roads of England. There is a straight level, road near Coventry known as the Blue Boar Straight where it was possible to obtain reliable test data. After many tests, Donald Healey appeared satisfied and contacted George Harriman at Longbridge to inform him that he had something to show him. At this time Leonard Lord was gradually withdrawing his control over BMC and handing it over to George Harriman.
On 31 January, 1957, Donald Healey took the car over to George Harriman. He appeared very impressed and said he the would like Sir Leonard Lord to view it when he returned to the company on 20 February. Leonard Lord approved the car and conditions for its manufacture were drawn up. The planned selling price of £450 was expected to produce good profits per unit.
It was planned that this new car would be built at Longbridge, after a little redesigning and the provision of the working drawings. It was discovered, however, that too many alterations would have to be done so the body was eventually produced at the Pressed Steel Company at Swindon, with the assembly assigned to Abingdon. The complete bodies would then be painted at Morris Motors' paint shop at Cowley. From Cowley, the bodies were sent to the MG factory at Abingdon where they were fitted with the engines, built by Morris Motors of Coventry.
The anticipated price was raised to £455, plus £224 imposed on all cars sold in the UK. One small item was forgotten in the design of the Sprite, an ashtray, although few people complained. and the unveiling of the new car was arranged for 20 May 1958 at Monte Carlo. The fact that the Monaco Grand Prix was at this same time ensured a large number of motoring correspondents would be gathered together. The new Austin Healey Sprite was greeted enthusiastically.
By the beginning of 1961 sales of the Sprite had started to go down and BMC decide some upgrading was necessary. Austin's launched a campaign to sell the old style models with the Frog-eye lamps and within days all dealers were out of stock. The Mk II Sprite was introduced at the same time as the MG Midget in May 1961. The MkII Sprite and MkI Midget were designed and in production until March 1964 They were replaced by the MkIII Sprite and the Mk II Midget.
In 1968 Leyland and BMH merged to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation. The following year British Leyland stated that they were ending production of the Sprite and Austin Healey played no further part in the MG Midget.
The Midget ceased production twenty one years after the introduction of the Sprite. Some time was spent between the MkIII and Mk IV in trying to perfect the Sprites convertible top. The Mk IV Sprite/Mk III Midget have what is considered one of the best ever tops produced for small sports cars. Even the Italians were never able to achieve the low cost unit of the Spridget. These were the last models of this range which Austin Healey were associated with.
Classic Car Fine Art Prints & Etchings
Jaguars, Triumphs and Austin Healeys
(250 Limited Editions)
From original paintings and line drawings by Coventry Artist I. F. Clark BA (Honours) Fine Art
Each Limited Edition print is sent unframed and individually signed by the Artist
with the Number of the Print on the reverse and the Etchings are sent framed.
Order any of the above prints at the astonishingly low price of £29.99p each
+ Postage and Packing £1.50p UK and £4.00 Overseas for the unframed prints
or a Framed Etching for £49.99 each
+ Postage and Packing charge of £8.00p UK and £14 overseas.
All prints are approximately 17.5 inches by 12.5 inches and the Etchings are 16 inches by 12 inches
All prints will be dispatched to you within 14 days of your order and etchings will be dispatched to you within 21 days .
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