The “Big Healeys,” the Austin Healey 100, 100-6, and 3000, have become a collective gold standard for small British sports cars. Designed by Donald Healey and produced with help from the Austin Motor Company, they all share a long bonnet, short boot, droptop design with streamlined bodywork, inline engines, and rear-wheel drive; par for the course as far as sports car design goes, and the Big Healeys are part of what defined what a sports car should be. This 1957 model has a 2.7-liter six-cylinder engine that made 117 horsepower when new. You can bid on this one here on eBay, where the current bid at time of writing is $18,125.
Generally, the condition of the vehicle looks exceptional. The seller at one point says “fresh paint,” but then also says “original paint” at another. I suppose one way to interpret that is that the original paint is in such good shape that it looks new…? It sure does look new, regardless if it’s new or old. The interior looks as new as the paint, with clean seats, carpet, and dashboard. There’s full instrumentation framed by a delicate and beautiful banjo steering wheel and backed by a fixed windscreen.
As far as the engine goes, again it’s a 2.7 liter six driving the rear wheels through a four-speed manual gearbox with electric overdrive. In 1957, Austin-Healey moved production from Longbridge to the MG plant at Abingdon, and the seller states that this is an early 1957 build with the Longbridge head. They don’t include any pictures of the engine, but there was only the one offered in 1957 to my knowledge. It does have the quintessential knock-off wire wheels, though, and that’s just fantastic. My uncle used to race these back when they were new, and he seemed to really like to drive them. Understandably so, I mean look at it. It’s just perfect.
Underneath, the seller says there’s no rust. The included pictures don’t show much, admittedly, but with how good the rest of the car looks, I’m inclined to believe them. I saw one of these out driving in traffic the other day and it was stunning. It was a light blue rather than this unique, very 1970s-feeling olive green; no matter the color, if you want to turn heads, this’ll definitely accomplish that. You don’t even have to fix it up, this is turnkey ready.
The Sheridan Wyoming guy…
Thanks Euromoto!
Where do we get these weasels from?
Thanks for looking out for the rest of us.
Explain for the uninitiated please?
I’m not sure the guy is a weasel, but he is notoriously difficult to deal with…He’s well-known in the Porsche world. Google “Sheridan Wyoming Porsche” and read for yourself, it’s entertaining.
I had a ’59 100-6.I got to where I could slide that
flexible exhaust back on in about two minutes.
I and a friend loved to drive this Healy. Greatest sounding engine, good handling, loved the ride.
Driving an open car, this small, on the freeways with 5 lanes and big trucks, is not a calming experience, but unlike the MG’s of the time, this has enough power, with the overdrive, to be nimble enough to accelerate yourself out of trouble where other drivers, particularly truckers, can’t see you, and this color won’t hurt either. These are great cars, a lot easier and cheaper to keep on the road than Jag’s let alone Ferrari’s. In their day they would do over 100 mph endlessly (if the tires held out) and the cops in their Fords could get up there, but not for long.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. Always thought the Big Healeys were just the 3000s ? Not the 100
Big healeys were the term to differentiate from the diminutive Sprite.
100’s (BN1 & BN2)were all 4 cyl engines with 2 seats (often incorrectly referred to as 100-4. They were replaced by the 100-6 (BN4 (4 seats) and BN6 (2 seats). Then in 59 they were replaced by the 3000 (BT4,BN7 (last 2 seater), BJ7 and finally the BJ8.
They were referred to as 6/110 outside of the U.S also, depending which country you lived in.
The 100’s were 4’s. The 100-6 and 3000’s were 6’s.
Gotcha. Thanks
Maybe seller meant fresh paint in original color. And I, too, am curious about the disparaging remark about the seller.
See reply to Shawn above. I’m not disparaging the seller at all, just pointing out he’s got a colorful story.
The Austin-Healey was a collaboration between Donald Healey and BMC (the British Motor Corporation). Austin had merged with Morris before the Austin-Healey came about so there was no Austin Motor Company at the time, it was just one of the brands under the BMC umbrella, along with Morris, MG, Riley, Wolseley and others. The Austin-Healy did use the engine from the old Austin side of the company, hence the name.
I’m quite sure that’s not an original paint color, though I haven’t had time to research it yet. From personal (bad) experience I can say that the ’57’s were not anywhere near as good as 3000’s. “Back in the day” the poor quality of the ’57 was blamed on the change in engine, body style, and – most importantly – the switch to a different factory.
Item location:
Sheridan, Wyoming
Anyone know what color that is?
Ended:
May 07, 2021 , 8:52PM
Winning bid:
US $37,600.00
[ 81 bids ]