Austin Healey
Donald Healey had moved from Riley, where he had assisted with their MPH model, and on to Triumph which was also in Coventry. Post war Healey set up his own Healey Car Company in 1946. In the early 1950's it was known that Lord Nuffield was looking for a cost effective mass produced sportier car to offer the public, something different to the post war "A to B bread and butter" stodge that the post war market catered for after the hostilities. Frazer-Nash had built a car using Austin components to entice Austin and hoped their recipe would bag the project, but Leonard Lord was blown away with the Healey he saw at the preview of Motor Show at Earls Court. Donald Healey had hated the folding windscreen so much that he had already dismissed the young designer responsible for it, Gerry Coker, but it was Roger Menadue (Donalds long time engineer from prewar Cornwall days) who took the car to the show without the knowledge of Donald Healey and had to squeeze it against a wall due to lack of space. Afterwards Roger insisted that the young designer be reinstated! And this is what became the Austin-Healey 100/4 BN1, leading to it's future variation on the same theme, the 6 cylinder version 100/6 and eventually Healey 3000 with the largest engine, of which some 43,000 were made.
These Austin-Healeys were incredibly popular in the US and did their bit for the UK drive for exports, and the UK's need for foreign currency.
A smaller Austin-Healey Sprite was later produced, known by many as as the Frogeye Sprite, or in the USA as the Bugeye, due to the headlight position which was dictated by the minimum headlamp height requirement in the USA. After Donald Healeys arrangement with Austin came to an end, the Sprite evolved into the MG Midget.
