THE HISTORY

Dashing - From Earl’s Court to Le Mans

The attractive Healy 100 made its debut at the 1952 London Motor Show at Earl’s Court. It had a wishbone front suspension instead of the trailing links that Healeys with Riley engines had used up to that time. With a box-section chassis, it was powered by Austin’s big four, used in the A90 Atlantic. Leonard Lord, Chief Executive of the Austin Motor Company, immediately saw its potential and entered into an agreement to manufacture and market the car as the Austin-Healey 100/4. The 100M, a special version to compete at Le Mans, was built in 1955 and ’56. It had a high-compression cylinder head, developing some 20% more power than the 100/4. According to British Motor Holdings’ records, only 1159 units were actually sold to customers.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS