Donald Healey
Encyclopedia
Donald Mitchell Healey CBE
(3 July 1898 - 13 January 1988) was a noted English rally driver, automobile engineer, and speed record holder.
, Cornwall
, Healey became interested in all things mechanical at an early age, most particularly aircraft. After leaving school he joined the Sopwith Aviation Company
in Kingston upon Thames
, Surrey, as one of its first apprentices and no doubt also worked in the Sopwith sheds at the nearby Brooklands
aerodrome and racing circuit. After WW1 started, he volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps
(RFC) and earned his "wings" as a pilot in 1916. During the First World War, he served on anti-Zeppelin
patrols and also as a flying instructor. Shot down by British anti-aircraft fire on one of the first night bomber missions of the war, he was invalided out of the RFC at the age of 18. He returned to Cornwall and took a correspondence course in automobile engineering and after the war ended, opened the first garage in Perranporth
in 1919.
driving a 4½-litre Invicta
. The rally had multiple starting points with Healey starting from Stavanger, Norway. He competed in the Monte Carlo Rally
in 1929 (Times:1929) and was in the top eight places in 1932, 1934 and 1936.
In 1932 Healey won the class for unlimited sports cars at the Brighton Speed Trials
, driving an Invicta, in a time of 28.8 sec for the half mile course.
He gained a reputation as a consultant engineer and designer and was appointed General Manager of the Triumph Motor Company
in 1931. He went on to create the renowned Southern Cross and Dolomite 8 models.
During the Second World War, Healey was in charge of developing an aircraft carburettor for the Ministry of Supply and also worked with Humber
on armoured cars.
In 1945, he formed the Donald Healey Motor Company
Ltd, based in an old RAF
hangar at Warwick
. In 1949, Healey established an agreement with George W. Mason
, the president of Nash Motors
to build Nash-engined Healey sports cars. The first series of the 2-seaters were built in 1951 and they were designed by Healey. The Nash-Healey
's engine was a Nash Ambassador
6-cylinder, the body was aluminum, and the chassis was a Healey Silverstone
. However, Pininfarina
restyled the bodywork for 1952 and took over the production of its new steel body. The company developed the Austin-Healey
and Austin-Healey Sprite
motor cars in licensing arrangement with British Motor Corporation
in 1952 and 1959.
purchased Jaguar and was renamed BMH
in 1966. In 1968 it merged with Leyland Motors and formed British Leyland. In the wake of these organisational changes, in 1970 Healey became chairman of Jensen Motors
with the enthusiastic backing of key US based Austin-Healey
distributors. This was a long and fruitful relationship for Healey, in part because Jensen had been making body shells for Austin-Healey
since the 1952 demise of the similar Austin A40 Sports
. Healey's first project with a Jensen was re-engineering the Jensen 541S
with a V8 engine in 1961, the resulting car being a personal favourite of Healey's.Ten years later, Healey helped design the Lotus
engined Jensen-Healey
together with Lagonda
designer William Towns
, to replace the Austin-Healey, which BMC
were discontinuing.
Donald Healey died in Perranporth
at the age of 89.
.
For his "services to export", Healey was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II
in 1973.
In 1996, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
.
He bought the 27 acres (10.9 ha) Trebah
Estate, near Falmouth, Cornwall in 1961 and carried out many ambitious projects there, including the building of commercial greenhouses to grow orchids and a project to build air/sea rescue inflatables. He demolished the concrete covering of the beach of Polgwidden Cove (a D-Day invasion launch-pad) and used the salvaged material to surface a steep track from the house to the beach. (Hibbert, 2005). He sold Trebah in 1971.
His son, Geoffrey
, born in 1922 and a former pupil of Warwick School
, wrote several books about the cars and one about their partnership (see below).
The Austin Healey Club has placed a small monument, in the form of a sports car, and an inscribed plaque, as a memorial to Donald Healey in the garden of Trebah, which is now open to the public, next to the Visitor Centre.
Austin Healey Club USA
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(3 July 1898 - 13 January 1988) was a noted English rally driver, automobile engineer, and speed record holder.
Early life
Born in PerranporthPerranporth
Perranporth is a small seaside resort on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is southwest of Newquay and northwest of Truro. Perranporth and its long beach face the Atlantic Ocean....
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, Healey became interested in all things mechanical at an early age, most particularly aircraft. After leaving school he joined the Sopwith Aviation Company
Sopwith Aviation Company
The Sopwith Aviation Company was a British aircraft company that designed and manufactured aeroplanes mainly for the British Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Flying Corps and later Royal Air Force in the First World War, most famously the Sopwith Camel...
in Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...
, Surrey, as one of its first apprentices and no doubt also worked in the Sopwith sheds at the nearby Brooklands
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...
aerodrome and racing circuit. After WW1 started, he volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
(RFC) and earned his "wings" as a pilot in 1916. During the First World War, he served on anti-Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
patrols and also as a flying instructor. Shot down by British anti-aircraft fire on one of the first night bomber missions of the war, he was invalided out of the RFC at the age of 18. He returned to Cornwall and took a correspondence course in automobile engineering and after the war ended, opened the first garage in Perranporth
Perranporth
Perranporth is a small seaside resort on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is southwest of Newquay and northwest of Truro. Perranporth and its long beach face the Atlantic Ocean....
in 1919.
Automotive achievements
In 1931, Donald Healey won the Monte Carlo RallyMonte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...
driving a 4½-litre Invicta
Invicta (car)
Invicta is a British automobile manufacturer. The brand has been available intermittently through successive decades. Initially, the manufacturer was based in Cobham, Surrey, England from 1925 to 1933, then in Chelsea, London, England from 1933 to 1938 and finally in Virginia Water, Surrey, England...
. The rally had multiple starting points with Healey starting from Stavanger, Norway. He competed in the Monte Carlo Rally
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...
in 1929 (Times:1929) and was in the top eight places in 1932, 1934 and 1936.
In 1932 Healey won the class for unlimited sports cars at the Brighton Speed Trials
Brighton Speed Trials
The Brighton Speed Trials, in full The Brighton National Speed Trials, is commonly held to be the oldest running motor race. The first race was held July 19–22, 1905 after Sir Harry Preston persuaded Brighton town council to tarmac the surface of the road adjacent to the beach between the Palace...
, driving an Invicta, in a time of 28.8 sec for the half mile course.
He gained a reputation as a consultant engineer and designer and was appointed General Manager of the Triumph Motor Company
Triumph Motor Company
The Triumph Motor Company was a British car and motor manufacturing company. The Triumph marque is owned currently by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann of Nuremberg initiated S. Bettmann & Co and started importing bicycles from Europe and selling them with his own...
in 1931. He went on to create the renowned Southern Cross and Dolomite 8 models.
During the Second World War, Healey was in charge of developing an aircraft carburettor for the Ministry of Supply and also worked with Humber
Humber (car)
Humber is a dormant British automobile marque which could date its beginnings to Thomas Humber's bicycle company founded in 1868. Following their involvement in Humber through Hillman in 1928 the Rootes brothers acquired a controlling interest and joined the Humber board in 1932 making Humber part...
on armoured cars.
In 1945, he formed the Donald Healey Motor Company
Donald Healey Motor Company
-History:It was formed in 1945 by Donald Healey, a renowned auto engineer and successful racing driver. It was formed after Healey discussed sports car design with Achille Sampietro, a chassis specialist for high performance cars and Ben Bowden, a body engineer, when all three worked at Humber...
Ltd, based in an old RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
hangar at Warwick
Warwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
. In 1949, Healey established an agreement with George W. Mason
George W. Mason
George Walter Mason was an American industrialist. During his career Mason served as the Chairman and CEO of the Kelvinator Corporation , Chairman and CEO of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation , and Chairman and CEO of American Motors Corporation .- Early life :George W. Mason was born in Valley...
, the president of Nash Motors
Nash Motors
Also see: Kelvinator and American Motors CorporationNash Motors was an automobile manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the United States from 1916 to 1938. From 1938 to 1954, Nash was the automotive division of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation...
to build Nash-engined Healey sports cars. The first series of the 2-seaters were built in 1951 and they were designed by Healey. The Nash-Healey
Nash-Healey
The Nash-Healey is a two-seat sports car that was produced for the American market between 1951 and 1954. Marketed by Nash-Kelvinator Corporation with a Nash Ambassador drivetrain and a European chassis and body, it served as a halo vehicle for the automaker to promote the sales of the other Nash...
's engine was a Nash Ambassador
Nash Ambassador
Ambassador was the model name applied to the senior line of Nash automobiles from 1932 until 1957. From 1958 until the end of the 1974 model year, the Ambassador was the product of American Motors Corporation , which continued to use the Ambassador model name on its top-of-the-line models...
6-cylinder, the body was aluminum, and the chassis was a Healey Silverstone
Donald Healey Motor Company
-History:It was formed in 1945 by Donald Healey, a renowned auto engineer and successful racing driver. It was formed after Healey discussed sports car design with Achille Sampietro, a chassis specialist for high performance cars and Ben Bowden, a body engineer, when all three worked at Humber...
. However, Pininfarina
Pininfarina
Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers,...
restyled the bodywork for 1952 and took over the production of its new steel body. The company developed the Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey was a British sports car maker. The marque was established through a joint-venture arrangement, set up in 1952 between Leonard Lord of the Austin division of the British Motor Corporation and the Donald Healey Motor Company, a renowned automotive engineering and design...
and Austin-Healey Sprite
Austin-Healey Sprite
The Austin-Healey Sprite is a small open sports car which was announced to the press in Monte Carlo by the British Motor Corporation on 20 May 1958, just before that year's Monaco Grand Prix. It was intended to be a low-cost model that "a chap could keep in his bike shed", yet be the successor to...
motor cars in licensing arrangement with British Motor Corporation
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
in 1952 and 1959.
Later life
BMCBritish Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
purchased Jaguar and was renamed BMH
British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited was a British motor company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited .-History:...
in 1966. In 1968 it merged with Leyland Motors and formed British Leyland. In the wake of these organisational changes, in 1970 Healey became chairman of Jensen Motors
Jensen Motors
Jensen Motors Ltd was a British manufacturer of sports cars and commercial vehicles, based in the Lyng – West Bromwich...
with the enthusiastic backing of key US based Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey was a British sports car maker. The marque was established through a joint-venture arrangement, set up in 1952 between Leonard Lord of the Austin division of the British Motor Corporation and the Donald Healey Motor Company, a renowned automotive engineering and design...
distributors. This was a long and fruitful relationship for Healey, in part because Jensen had been making body shells for Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey 100
The Austin-Healey 100 is a sports car built from 1953 until 1959. There were two models, the original four-cylinder Austin-Healey 100, built 1953-1956, and the six-cylinder Austin-Healey 100-6, built 1956-1959....
since the 1952 demise of the similar Austin A40 Sports
Austin A40 Sports
See Austin A40 for other A40 models.The Austin A40 Sports debuted at the 1949 London Motor Show as a four-passenger, aluminium-bodied convertible version of the Austin A40 — carrying an Austin of England nameplate, bearing the marque's Flying A hood ornament, and designed and manufactured in...
. Healey's first project with a Jensen was re-engineering the Jensen 541S
Jensen 541S
The Jensen 541S was Jensen Motors luxury GT model of the Jensen 541 series, being 4" wider than the 541R, which had the advantages of making the interior roomier and improving the roadholding...
with a V8 engine in 1961, the resulting car being a personal favourite of Healey's.Ten years later, Healey helped design the Lotus
Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...
engined Jensen-Healey
Jensen-Healey
The Jensen-Healey is a two-seater convertible sports car that was originally produced between 1972 and 1976 by Jensen Motors, Ltd. Roughly 10,000 were produced at West Bromwich, England. A related fastback, the Jensen GT was introduced in 1975.-Design:...
together with Lagonda
Lagonda
Lagonda is a British luxury car marque, founded as a company in 1906 in Staines, Middlesex by a former opera singer from Ohio, but of Scottish ancestry, named Wilbur Gunn . He named the company after a river near the town of his birth, Springfield, Ohio, United States...
designer William Towns
William Towns
William Towns was a British car designer.Towns began his training as a designer at Rootes in 1954, where he was mainly involved in the styling of seats and door handles. Later he was also involved with the styling of their Hillman Hunter. He moved to Rover in 1963 and worked there for David...
, to replace the Austin-Healey, which BMC
BMC
-In business and organizations:* Beard Miller Company, a US public accounting firm* BioMed Central, a UK-based scientific publisher* BMC , a Turkish vehicle manufacturer...
were discontinuing.
Donald Healey died in Perranporth
Perranporth
Perranporth is a small seaside resort on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is southwest of Newquay and northwest of Truro. Perranporth and its long beach face the Atlantic Ocean....
at the age of 89.
Recognitions
In 1962 he received the Médaille de l'Éducation Physique et des Sports (1ère Cl.) in MonacoMonaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
.
For his "services to export", Healey was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
in 1973.
In 1996, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
International Motorsports Hall of Fame
The International Motorsports Hall of Fame is a Hall of Fame dedicated to enshrining those who have contributed the most to auto racing either as a driver, owner, developer or engineer...
.
Family life
In 1921, Donald Healey married Ivy Maud James and they had three sons.He bought the 27 acres (10.9 ha) Trebah
Trebah
Trebah is a sub-tropical garden situated in Cornwall near Glendurgan Garden and above the Helford River .-History of Trebah:In 1831 Trebah was acquired by the Fox family who built Glendurgan Garden. Trebah was first laid out as a pleasure garden by Charles Fox, a Quaker polymath of enormous...
Estate, near Falmouth, Cornwall in 1961 and carried out many ambitious projects there, including the building of commercial greenhouses to grow orchids and a project to build air/sea rescue inflatables. He demolished the concrete covering of the beach of Polgwidden Cove (a D-Day invasion launch-pad) and used the salvaged material to surface a steep track from the house to the beach. (Hibbert, 2005). He sold Trebah in 1971.
His son, Geoffrey
Geoffrey Healey
Geoffrey Carroll Healey , British car designer, was born in Perranporth, Cornwall, the son of Donald Healey and his wife Ivy Maud, on 14 December 1922.-Early life:...
, born in 1922 and a former pupil of Warwick School
Warwick School
Warwick School is an independent school with boarding facilities for boys in Warwick, England, and is reputed to be the third-oldest surviving school in the country after King's School, Canterbury and St Peter's School, York; and the oldest boy's school in England...
, wrote several books about the cars and one about their partnership (see below).
Memorial at Trebah
See also
Jensen-HealeyJensen-Healey
The Jensen-Healey is a two-seater convertible sports car that was originally produced between 1972 and 1976 by Jensen Motors, Ltd. Roughly 10,000 were produced at West Bromwich, England. A related fastback, the Jensen GT was introduced in 1975.-Design:...
Austin Healey Club USA