It seems that among barn find sports cars, we can almost grow immune to the allure of British models in particular. British sports cars have long been popular fixtures among the motoring public, so we don’t tend to get too worked up over an MG or a Jensen Healey poking its nose out from a barn. Austin Healeys are certainly far more desirable with their sale prices reflecting such, but even those can result in a yawn rather than a gasp. However, in the case of this 1956 Austin Healey 100/4, there is no doubting its significance as a low-mileage survivor wearing excellent colors and demonstrating extremely high levels of preservation. Find it here on eBay with bids to $63,000 and the reserve unmet.
The Austin Healey 100/4 has just over 9,000 documented miles. It features perhaps the best color combination possible for any sports car of any make, that being black over red leather with a matching red convertible top. The seller is a specialist shop that acquired the Healey from the longtime original owner who apparently had a respectable collection of desirable, low-mileage vehicles. The shop, Classic Investments out of Colorado, intended to keep the Healey as part of their private stash but has decided to sell it on after $20,000 in restorative maintenance work. Thankfully, that didn’t include touching the paint, which remains in remarkable original condition.
Even better is the interior, which is downright remarkable. Even for a low mileage car, this Austin Healey’s cockpit is better than you would expect given the many years it sat in storage. Of course, assuming the longtime original owner took a modicum of care to keep his vehicles safe and dry, it’s not too hard to keep a low-mileage cabin looking like this with periodic detailing. The details really are impressive throughout the cabin, with the dash showing no signs of paint fade or other cosmetic flaws, and the door panels appearing to be as nicely preserved as the seats and carpeting. The long throw of the gear shift is surprising to see in a sports car, but it was likely still quite sporting by the standards of the day.
The engine bay is well preserved, just like the rest of the car. Sure, there are cosmetic flaws here and there, but that’s what makes preservation-spec vehicles like this so charming: they don’t hide their faults; instead, displaying them proudly as mile markets on their history. The seller is correct that very little should be altered on this Healey, which is even suspected of having never had its soft-top put in the down position. The listing doesn’t break out what the $20,000 in recent maintenance includes, but it would be good to have on hand when considering what sort of bid to lodge. Regardless of the final number, it’s hard to go wrong owning what is likely one of the lowest-mileage unrestored 100s in the world.
After owning two I can say these are fun cars to drive. Wish we’d kept the one we sold in the early ’70s for $1,500…. With new paint this one would be a beauty.
If you don’t count the 100S or “Le Mans” cars, this is the best of the four-cylinder Healeys. The four-speed transmission made a big difference! Wish I hadn’t sold mine (even after a long-gone “restorer” snitched most of the nice original bits to use on other cars)….
The shift lever is what the BN2, BN6, BN7 and BT7 Healeys had prior to 1962. I’ve seen them shortened and bent by various owners, but I have to say I never found them unwieldy on either the Hundreds or 3000s I’ve driven.
I have to admit it has been many, many years since I’ve seen a Healey with its original interior. Experience tells me this would need to be checked VERY carefully, as there are details that don’t look quite right to me, like the red piping on the seats and the pad on the center tunnel.. I could be wrong, though.
Despite this not being my favorite color combo — my Dream Healey would be either Healey Blue with blue interior or Old English White with red inside — I’d take a close look at this if I could part with the necessary price of admission.
All Healey’s had four speed gearboxes, it was just that first gear was blanked off in order to preserve the rest of the drive chain I believe. My friend raced a 1955 100/4 but couldn’t out drag the TR’s and MG A’s to the first corner so spent the rest of the laps trying to pass them on the straights. When he eventually pulled the gearbox he discovered the blanked off first gear, removed the offending blank, and never got beaten to the first corner again, but he never told his opponents what he had done until after he had sold the car.
My 100-4 had a pad over the transmission tunnel just like this one. Bought it in 1963, so it was a tired used car.
Please don’t touch a thing on this A H. The long shift lever is just fine. They can be shifted as quick as you’d want with this 100-4. This will do well for the seller and keep the owner engaged if they decide to to do what it was designed for DRIVE !!!
Both our ’55s had the long shift levers. Any shorter then we couldn’t reach it to shift. The gear boxes were the 3 speed plus reverse with the original 4 speed 1st gear locked out. Lot of stories on why they did that but never found out exactly why. Ditto on the “drive it”.
Here is your answer bobness: the BN1 did have the Austin taxi four speed gearbox, but first gear was blocked off on the Healey because it was too low to be useful on the lightweight sports car. Thus “first gear” was really the gearbox’s second gear. With the advent of the 1955 BN2 variant, different custom-tailored gear ratios were now in place to suit the sports car’s weight and torque characteristics. The Healey 100’s big international success had now allowed Donald Healey and his son Geoff to prevail over the Austin bean counters, to allow the pretty and rugged sports car to have a decent transmission.
Wow. I recently owned an all-original BN1 Healey 100 with 23,000 miles. The best feature is the lay-down windshield. I can’t believe there isn’t one photo in the ebay ad with it down… so cool. These drive much better than a contemporary MG or Triumph, surprisingly light and agile. My exterior was better than this one, but interior was not quite as good. Sold it a couple of years ago for $88K. Hope no one restores this, as they are only original once.
The Healey story I wrote about in the above article broke it’s windscreen twice, both times driving it home from a race meeting and going over a big hump in the road at an angle causing the chassis to twist and the screen to crack.
I think the same thing any time I see a Healey add without a winshield-down photo (or an ad for any convertible without a top-down). That lay-down windshield was good for 7MPH. It amazes me to this day that after Helaey did it that it wasn’t embraced by mor manufacturers. (Guessing that most manufacturers just assumed that anyone who cared that much about 7MPH would buy a racing windshield or Brooklands screens and that the rest would hate the extra leakage points. I LOVE them.)
3-speed lockout? I was told by a dealer that the locked-out first gear was a real stump-puller, and that the transmission internals had a ‘commercial’ provenance. Locking out first on a wide-ratio 4-speed yielded a close-ratio 3-speed.
Neat car. Someone did an excellent detail on it. Must have been hard not to repaint the valve cover.
To go racing, just lower that windshield! Electric overdrive, too.
I build a 100-4 Lemans around 1972. I acquired all parts in boxes and baby food bottles nearly completely disassembled. No choice but to do a frame-up restoration. It turned out perfect! It sold for the incredible amount at auction in 1973 for $8,500 to Bill Fishfader in Vallejo, CA. Seemed like a lot back then. It won Hillsbourgh Concourse twice in non consecutive years. Red lacquer, and black with red piping leather.
last I heard it was in Switzerland. What a locomotive it was! It was all about torque! What a jewel. I know where every factory number is located. Came in handy in later years! HA!
When my family moved from Germany to Des Moines IA in 1957, we brought moms 52′ new Yorker and dad’s 56′ Healey, this cars twin, only in white with red interior. I was 6, army brat.
I swear, farmers were driving their JDs’ to town for coffee while we bombed around in dad’s Healey. You’d thought we were from mars. And remember, who ya gonna take your British sports car to for service, in iowa, in 1957? Nobody, your doing it all yourself, my dad did.
Lovely interior, I remember that tunnel cover well. And the cool overdrive, to a 6 year old, changing gears with a switch was magic. The turn signal was neat too.
With new paint, a new top and loose the rust in the engine compartment, the money spent on doing these three items would be returned almost immediately…
They are only original once ! Restored cars are now bringing less than “survivor” cars. One could easily spend more than what they would be able to sell the car for. This car should be properly maintained mechanically, but the cosmetics should be left alone. If it were mine, I might have a new top made, while keeping the original top safely stored and stretched over the original bows. That way, the car could be driven top up or down, without risking damage to the original fabric.
Here is your answer bobness: the BN1 did have the Austin taxi four speed gearbox, but first gear was blocked off on the Healey because it was too low to be useful on the lightweight sports car. Thus “first gear” was really the gearbox’s second gear. With the advent of the 1955 BN2 variant, different custom-tailored gear ratios were now in place to suit the sports car’s weight and torque characteristics. The Healey 100’s big international success had now allowed Donald Healey and his son Geoff to prevail over the Austin bean counters, to allow the pretty and rugged sports car to have a decent transmission.
Thank you Laurence. We did get some feedback years after selling the Healeys that the race shop did change rear end ratios for tracks like Le Mans so they could get as much top speed as possible. That in itself is enough to make that first gear usable. Our Sprite race cars have transmissions that give you 45 to 50 mph in first gear which we use for starts and tight corners.
It was love at first sight…I bought a 1954 Red AH 100-4 and never regretted a moment of the 2 years I owned it. But I had joined the Navy and it had to be sold. I had the blocked low gear restored and the overdrive wired to enable it to work in every gear, giving me 8 forward gears and 2 in reverse. I could shift and flip the switch without taking my hand off of the shift lever. At Lions drag strip, the only E class I couldn’t beat was a Porsche…loved that car!