1960 Austin Healey 3000 MK 1 (BT7)

“ This is a terrific car, one of the best Healeys I've seen in fact. ”
This example is really hard to fault. It walks that perilously narrow line between expertly restored and admirable originality. It has clearly been a restoration that remains faithful to the car’s ethos and baked in character.

Background
Long before his name graced the panels of some of Britain’s hairiest chested sports cars, Donald Healey had already led a storied life. One of Cornwall’s favourite sons, Healey the airman was shot down over enemy lines during World War I. He evaded capture and thereafter mainly occupied himself with land-based vehicles. By 1931 he had won the Monte Carlo rally and was consulting with Triumph on some of their key models of the era. By 1945 he had formed the Donald Healey Motor Company and was operating out of an old RAF hanger near Warwick.

He had designed and built his own sportscar – the Healey 100 - so named in recognition of its 100mph claimed top speed. On the eve of the car’s launch at the 1952 Earls Court Motor Show, one Leonard Lord of the Austin Motor Company bowled in and offered to build the cars in the firm’s sprawling Longbridge factory alongside the A90, some of whose mechanicals it shared. So started Healeys inexorable link with Austin and, later, BMC that helped make his name a synonym for tough and durable sports cars with a particular rugged charm.

The Austin-Healey 100 was a sensation and quickly secured its place as a watershed British sports car and as ground zero in the “Big Healey” lineage. In 1959 the 3000 was launched to carry the Healey torch with minor changes made to the aesthetics and essence of the 100-6. The big news, however, was the adaptation of the venerable Austin C-Series engine in 2,912cc form and breathing through twin SU carburettors in factory trim. This was a torquey beast of an engine that lent the latest Big Healey that “fast in any gear” lazy punch that the US market adored. As such it would come as no surprise that over 90% of the MKI’s 13,650 units left Abingdon destined for North American buyers.

Overview
The Austin-Healey 3000 was available in two flavours – the two seater BN7 and the 2+2 BT7. The accompanying Heritage Certificate confirms this superb specimen as an example of the latter variant. What’s more it is confirmed as one of only around 1,200 MKI cars built in right hand drive for the home market. Also confirmed to be finished in its original colour scheme.

Other gems of historic information offered by the factory record include the fact that the car originally supplied by dealers F. G. Smith of Ilford, Essex. This Essex boy was sold compete with valuable factory extras including wire wheels, laminated windscreen, overdrive and adjustable steering column. The going rate for one of these beauties in 1960? In the neighbourhood of £1,350 including taxes.

The late owner acquired the Big Healey in 2012 to become the car’s seventh registered keeper (giving an average tenure per keeper of over 10 years). During this ownership the Healey has benefitted from a full, ground up restoration with no facet of the car being left wanting. As well as bodily and interior attention, this 3000 has benefitted from a recent full overhaul of the engine, gearbox and overdrive with it reportedly “running beautifully.”

[One of our customers has been in touch, as they used to own this car. We thought we'd share their memories of it with you: "...being precise after sixty+ years is somewhat difficult these days, but I will summon as much memory as possible to add to the car's history. So the story is as follows:

In November 1963 I parked my Sebring Sprite on the street in Roath Park, Cardiff where I had an apartment. This I know because I can recall parking and a passer-by stating, "Kennedy has been shot - - - ". The Sebring had been owned by Dan Margulies, then one of the leading dealers in London, with which he had participated in the Targa Florio. The Sebring was fun, with a Formula Junior engine that would rev to 8,500 rpm, and a side exhaust which became somewhat tiresome after a few miles with 120 decibels in one's left ear

Thus I decided to part-exchange the car with '5841 VX' , which was offered for sale by the Gold Seal Car Co. situated on the Old Kent Road in London. A deal was struck, with the big Healey priced at circa £550 and the Sebring at £440, on condition that the rear wings were resprayed given the poor paint adjacent to the chrome beading.
The Healey Blue paintwork was addressed by a man in a shed nearby to Gold Seal and the following Saturday I drove the Sebring Sprite to London to effect the exchange sold without a hard top. In the sixties' Exchange & Mart magazine was the most ubiquitous source of all things motoring, so an early morning visit to the corner paper shop each Thursday was 'de rigeur' for a motoring enthusiast seeking to solve a problem. In my case a hardtop was being advertised by a home-based Morgan dealer north of London, and £25 later I drove home with a hard top.

I used the Healey every day for three-years during which time it never failed me and gave great joy to my motoring. A University colleague had a Healey 100/4, and didn't like the Michelin 'X' tyres with which it was equipped, so we swapped and thereafter I was occasionally able to enjoy lurid slides around fast corners. The wonderful thing about those tyres was that they never wore out!
One day, in a small lane, the Austin Vanden Plas 'R' driving ahead of me stopped and reversed back - failing to use the rear view mirror - his Austin made a small dent to the front wing and, Gentleman as he was, the driver undertook to pay for the repair. With the Healey Ice Blue paint now somewhat flat I decided to exploit the opportunity to have the car completely repainted in Dark Blue, which required me to supplement the repair cost with the princely sum of, ...£18 (the equivalent of a the average national weekly wage).

In August 1966 I sold the car to another ex-University friend and caught the train to Kingston-on-Thames to buy a 1963 Autin Healey BJ7 registered.

I remember '5841 VX' with warmth and great affection".

Estimate: £38,000 - £43,000

View The Current Bid Price HERE