The Austin-Healey 100 was a sports car built between 1953 and 1956 by the British Motor Corporation. It was developed by Donald Healey to be produced in-house by Healey's company on Austin A90 mechanicals. Healey built a single "Healey 100" for the 1952 London Motor Show, and the design impressed BMC, owner of Austin, so much that the firm decided to bring production in-house.
Production Austin-Healey 100s were finished at BMC's Longbridge plant alongside the A90 based on bodies produced by Jensen in West Bromwich. The first 100s ("BN1"), were equipped with the same 90 hp (67 kW) engines and 3-speed (plus overdrive) manual transmission as the stock A90. The 2660 cc engine featured an undersquare 87.3 mm bore and 111.1 mm stroke.
These were built from summer, 1955, and replaced by the BN2 model the next year. The BN2 came with a real 4-speed manual transmission but was otherwise similar. A "100m" package was developed as well, with 110 hp (82 kW) on tap. Another variety was the 50 aluminium-bodied "100S" models with 132 hp (98 kW).
The final 100 models, 1956's "BN4" (2+2 seats) and 1958's "BN6" (2 seats) were six-cylinder 100-6 cars. These shared the BMC C-Series engine of the later Austin-Healey 3000 which replaced them.
The "100" name comes from Donald Healey, who named it after the fact that this was one of the few cars of the era who could maintain 100 mph, as opposed to the Austin-Healey 3000, which is named for its 3000 cc engine.
|
