Home » Austin Healey

Austin Healey

Warwick, Longbridge, Abingdon · 1953–1971 · bodies by Jensen

A deal done over drinks at Earls Court in October 1952 — and for fifteen years the fastest thing BMC put a badge on.

Choose your Healey

All Austin Healey PartsEverything we list for the marque, in one place
Austin Healey 1001953–1956 Austin Healey 100/61956–1959 Austin Healey 30001959–1967 Austin Healey Sprite1958–1971

Or shop every Austin Healey part by category

Window SealsWindscreen · Rear screen · Quarterlight Door SealsDoor rubbers · Pinchweld · Bailey channel Boot & BonnetBoot seals · Bonnet rubbers · Buffers Body & TrimPanel rubber · Mouldings · Bumper fittings Clips & FixingsTrim clips · Moulding · Screws · Washers Brakes & ClutchCylinders · Kits · Hoses · Pedal pads Suspension & SteeringBushes · Ball joints · King pins · Idlers Engine & GasketsGasket sets · Mounts · Seals · Bearings CoolingHoses · Thermostats · Caps · Senders Ignition & ElectricalPoints · Caps · Rotors · Coils · Leads Fuel & FiltersPumps · Hose · Filters · Exhaust mounts Lighting & MirrorsLamps · Lenses · Bulbs · Mirrors Axle & GearboxSeals · Mounts · Bearings · Universals

RelatedMG MidgetMGAustinJensen

Not listed? Plenty of parts suit several marques and never get the model name in the title — ask us and we will check the books for you.

About Austin Healey

Donald Healey set up in an old RAF hangar at Warwick in 1945 and spent seven years building small numbers of fast, expensive cars with Riley and Nash engines. The Healey Hundred he showed at Earls Court in October 1952 was meant to be another of them. Leonard Lord of the newly formed BMC saw it, and on the evening of 21 October the two men agreed over drinks that Austin would build it. Healey had a local jeweller make an “Austin-Healey” badge before the show closed. The first twenty cars were hand-built at Warwick, regular assembly moved to Longbridge in the spring of 1953, and the big cars moved again to the MG plant at Abingdon in late 1957. The bodies came from Jensen Motors at West Bromwich throughout — Austin-Healey never pressed its own.

Two things ended it, and they are often run together. The car stopped first: the last 3000 was built in December 1967, because it could not be made to meet the coming American safety and emissions rules and more than nine cars in ten were going to North America. The Sprite carried the badge to 1970, and the last 1,022 cars in 1971 were sold as the Austin Sprite with no Healey name at all. The agreement ran longer: the twenty-year deal with Healey lasted until 1972, but Donald Stokes began cancelling BMC’s consultancies after the 1968 British Leyland merger. Donald and Geoff Healey joined the Jensen board in 1970 and the Lotus-engined Jensen-Healey followed in 1972.

For a parts buyer the range splits cleanly in two. The big Healeys — 100, 100-Six and 3000 — are separate-chassis cars on Austin saloon mechanicals, four-cylinder then C-series six, and they run drums, drums, then front discs. The Sprite is a small A-series car that shares nearly everything mechanical with the MG Midget. Both halves have a brake change and a suspension change partway through, and on the big cars the body code matters more than the mark number. The specification panel below sets both out.

Austin Healey — the range, and what changes between the cars

The four cars
100 1953–56, 2,660cc four, 14,634 built · 100-Six 1956–59, 2,639cc six · 3000 1959–67, 2,912cc six · Sprite 1958–71, A-series, four marks.
Brakes, the whole range
100 (BN1, BN2): Girling 11in drums all round. 100-Six: drums all round — there is no disc-braked 100-Six. 3000: front discs from launch, July 1959, rear drums always; servo standard on the BJ8. Sprite: 7in drums all round until October 1962, then 8.25in Lockheed front discs with 7in rear drums.
Body codes, big cars
BN = two-seater · BT = 2+2 · BJ = convertible. BN7 and BT7 each exist in both Mk I and Mk II form, so the code alone does not give you the mark. BJ7 is the Mk II convertible; BJ8 is the only Mk III code and there is no two-seat Mk III.
Engines
2,660cc Austin A90 four (87.3 × 111.1mm) · 2,639cc BMC C-series six, four main bearings · 2,912cc C-series six · A-series 948, 1,098 then 1,275cc in the Sprite.
Built where
First 20 cars at Warwick · Longbridge from spring 1953 · big cars to Abingdon late 1957 · all big-Healey bodies by Jensen Motors, West Bromwich · 100S hand-built at Warwick.
Sprite and MG Midget
From June 1961 the Midget is a badge-engineered Sprite. Grille, badging, trim, instruments and brightwork differ; everything mechanical is the same, mark for mark. The 1500 Midget of 1975 on shares nothing with any Sprite — no Sprite ever had a 1493cc Triumph engine or a rubber bumper.
Electrics
12 volt throughout. Earth polarity varies and plenty of cars have been converted — check yours before ordering a tachometer, coil, radio, dynamo or voltage stabiliser. One specialist source puts the positive-to-negative change inside 1275cc Spridget production, around late 1967.
Why it ended
The 3000 could not meet coming US safety and emissions rules, and 91.5 per cent of 3000s were exported, mostly to North America. Last 3000 December 1967; badge gone from the Sprite in 1970; the Healey agreement itself ran to 1972.
Here
No New Zealand Austin-Healey or Sprite assembly is documented — the BMC plants here built volume saloons. Sprites were assembled from CKD kits in Australia at Pressed Metal Corporation, Enfield NSW, from 1959, using local Mk 2A and Mk 3A designations that do not match British usage. Many New Zealand cars are ex-North-American left-hand-drive imports, so check which yours is before ordering anything handed.
Sorry, this collection is empty.
Continue shopping