Down At The Heel

The Austin-Healey 100/6 was a raw, fast, and tough sports car – it dominated rallying in the early sixties and it did well in pavement racing too. At once both glamorous and guttural, its delicate styling looked as at home on the Cote D’Azur as it did racing at Sebring. It was a natural favorite of those who wanted to go fast and look good, and became one of the most loved British Sports Cars of all time – eventually evolving into the even more popular Austin-Healey 3000.

Developed from the earlier Austin-Healey 100/6, the car’s roots went back to the original Austin-Healey 100, a four-cylinder sports car designed by Donald Healey’s firm based around the mechanical pieces of the Austin A90 Atlantic. Healey at that time built sports cars around off-the shelf mechanicals, most famously from the American Nash company. Healey’s a one-off “Healey Hundred” for the 1952 Earl’s Court Motor show so impressed the management at Austin that a partnership was quickly formed and the cars went into production in 1953.

Though the Austin-Healey name continued, the 100/6 gained a torquey, powerful Morris C-series six-cylinder engine (by that time, however, Austin and Morris were part of the same company). The six-cylinder car was a very fast machine when it debuted in 1956, and the new car built on the racing successes of the four-cylinder Healeys in the mind of the buying public. It became a big seller, and was evolved, in 1959, into the definitive Healey sports car – the Austin-Healey 3000; which was produced until late 1967.

As with any car with such a history and such relative rarity – less than 15,000 were made – these are highly prized cars today. So it’s very unusual to come across one in a junkyard – let alone one in such a picturesque setting.

This image was taken as part of an extensive series at British Auto near Rochester, New York. Special thanks to Ben J. for the opportunity.