Austin-Healey was definitive middle-class sports car

From: Chicago Sun-Times | Date: September 22, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

The rakish British Austin-Healey looked as if it might have come from Ferrari, but it essentially was the definitive middle-class foreign sports car for Americans.

The 1953-67 Austin-Healey was an immediate hit because it filled a gap in the sports car market between the low-priced MG and costly Jaguar in the early 1950s. That was when sports cars were new, sexy and scarce in America.

Behind the car was Donald Healey, a veteran British auto racer and creator and builder of cars. But limited resources and post-World War II material shortages held back Healey.

Healey worked with Nash, a major ...

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