HEAVY WEAPONRY
The original Healey 3000 is loved for the elegance of its lines but curiously, it was destined to remain the only complete car styled by Gerry Coker, a body engineer rather than designer.
The car was born as the Healey 100 with the intention of moving Healey away from its heavy coachbuilt cars into a new, modern world as epitomised by the Jaguar XK120. Using a BMC engine borrowed from the Austin A90, the car was displayed at the 1952 Earls Court motor show purely as a concept but when BMC boss Leonard Lord caught sight of it, he shook hands with Donald Healey there and then on a deal for BMC to produce the car with Austin-Healey badging.
Production started in 1953 as the ‘BN1’ and the car was updated into the 110bhp ‘BN2’ in 1955 and then with the MGA snapping at its heels, the lightweight, 132bhp 100S arrived in 1956.
The car we know as the ‘Big’
