The Donald Healey Motor Company completed its first car in 1945, going into full-time production in a disused RAF hangar in Warwick the following year. Given Donald Healey’s background, it was inevitable that his firm’s first products would be cast in the sporting mold. An ex-RFC fighter pilot and many-times Monte Carlo Rally competitor during the 1930s, Healey had won the ’31 event for Invicta and later that year joined the Triumph Motor Company, where he went on to develop the Dolomite Eight and Southern Cross sports cars.
Healey’s first offerings as an independent producer were the Elliott sports saloon and Westland roadster, each taking its name from the coachbuilder responsible for the body. Both models were 2.4-liter Riley-powered and constructed on a welded-up X-braced chassis featuring Healey’s own trailing-arm independent front suspension. For a time, the Elliott was the world’s fastest closed 4-seater production car, clocking 110 mph at Jabbeke, Belgium, in 1947.
A coachbuilt car that could show many of its contemporaries a clean pair of heels, this Elliott-bodied Healey sports saloon was Count Giovanni “Johnny” Lurani’s car for the 1948 Mille Miglia, in which he was partnered by Guglielmo Sandri. An accomplished racing driver, Lurani was also a well-known motoring journalist, reporting that they “got off to a good start, and we pulled out a good lead until Pescara. But shortly after, the Panhard strut, which held the rear axle in place, broke.” Despite this crippling setback, Lurani continued and managed to finish the race, averaging 64.6 mph for the whole event to win the Touring class and come home 13th overall. Partnered with Dorino Serafini, Lurani had also won the Touring class in the Targa Florio earlier in the year, again in “GUE 722.”
(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams Cars.
