Austin Healey
Donald Healey had moved from Riley, where he had assisted with their MPH model, and on to Triumph which was also in Coventry. Post war, in 1946, Donald Healey set up his own Healey Car Company in 1946. In the early 1950's it was known that Lord Nuffield was looking for a cost effective mass produced sportier car to offer the public, something different to the 1950's "A to B bread and butter" stodge that the post war market catered for after the hostilities. Frazer-Nash had built a car using Austin components to entice Austin and hoped their recipe would bag the project, but Leonard Lord was blown away with the Healey he saw at the preview of the Earls Court Motor Show. Donald Healey had hated the folding windscreen, so much so that he had already dismissed the young designer responsible for it, Gerry Coker. It was Roger Menadue (Donalds long time engineer from prewar Cornwall days) who took the car to the show without the knowledge of Donald Healey and had to squeeze it against a wall due to lack of space. After the show it was Roger that insisted the young designer had been unfairly dismissed and should be reinstated. And this is what became the Austin-Healey 100/4 BN1, leading to it's future variation on the same theme, the 6 cylinder version 100/6 and eventually Healey 3000 with the largest engine, of which some 43,000 were made.
These Austin-Healey models were incredibly popular in the US and did their bit for the UK drive for exports, and the UK's need for foreign currency.
A smaller Austin-Healey Sprite was later produced, known by many as as the Frogeye Sprite, or in the USA as the Bugeye, due to the headlight position which was dictated by the minimum headlamp height requirement in the USA. After Donald Healeys contracted arrangement with Austin came to an end, the Austin-Healey Sprite evolved into the MG Midget.
