Background
Prior to 1952, drivers with the inclination and means to get behind the wheel of a bona fide UK sports car tended to fall into one of two camps.
They were either retired Spitfire pilots called Lofty and Stinker who carried on driving the venerable MGs they’d driven during the war. Even then these were essentially superannuated designs that looked back to an era of coach-built bespokery rather than forward to a brave new world of pressed steel, automation and wind tunnels.
Against all odds,however, these charming automotive anachronisms somehow chimed in perfect pitch with the consumer mood in America and effectively kick-started a new golden age of British sports car production.
These were relatively affordable cars for people who wanted to drive around at 80mph.
In the other camp you would have found cocktail lounge charmers, Brylcreemed bounders and continental types who liked to cut a dash in their Jaguar XK120s.
Classy, fast and with curves that would put Jessica Rabbit to shame, the XK120 and its legendary engine imparted impetus to Jaguar’s stellar Le Mans career and forever associated the brand with the values of speed, style, competition and success.
These were expensive cars for people who wanted to drive around at 120mph.
Step forward Donald Mitchell Healey who, with somewhat unlikely support from Leonard Lord at Austin (later BMC), saw a gap in the market that no-one else had spotted.
A gap that should and would be filled by a car that looked gorgeous, was capable of 100mph and could be mass-produced and rendered affordable through the judicious and pragmatic use of all manner of bits and pieces from the ill-fated Austin Atlantic and BMC’s extensive parts inventory.
The Austin-Healey 100 caused a sensation when it debuted at the 1952 London Motor Show.
Barricades had to be put up to keep the crowds at bay.
Intended as a low-cost, high-performance sports car targeted primarily at the US market, the car had a particularly sporty profile courtesy of beautiful flowing bodywork and an adjustable lay-down windscreen.
Fitted with a strong, reliable and torquey 2,660cc four-cylinder engine, the light and streamlined Healey 100 was a genuine 100 mph-plus car. The BN1 came with a three-speed gearbox but the BN2 had a four-speed plus overdrive, which operated on third and fourth gear, providing six forward gear ratios.
Soon after arriving on US shores, the sleek Austin-Healey 100 became the sports car to own among young Americans empowered by the recent invention of the ‘teenager’ and keen to ride on the crest of the wave of affluence and optimism breaking over 1950’s America.
So much so that 80% of production went to the US in the first year of production. Within two years, some 10,000 Austin-Healey 100s had rolled off the Longbridge production line.
Jaguar produced half that number of XKs during the same time.
After entering two mildly modified cars into the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans, Austin-Healey used the name 'Le Mans' for a tuning upgrade kit allowing private owners to bring their cars up toward the works race car specification.
The kit involved fitting a pair of SU carburettors with a special inlet manifold and cold air box, a high-lift camshaft, stronger valve springs and a modified distributor. Once fitted, the power increased from the standard 90 to 100bhp.
A later factory variant, based on the BN2 model, was the 100M, which improved further on the Le Mans kit with a stiffer front anti-roll bar, special Armstrong front dampers and high-compression pistons, which increased power to 110bhp and enabled a top speed approaching 120mph with the windscreen folded flat.
The Austin-Healey 100 remains one of the most successful, alluring and charismatic British sports cars ever produced.
