SCM Analysis
Detailing
Vehicle: | 1955 Austin-Healey 100S Sports Racing Two Seater |
Years Produced: | 1955 |
Number Produced: | 55 (some say 50) |
SCM Valuation: | $600,000–$900,000 |
Tune Up Cost: | $300 |
Distributor Caps: | $35 (£21.50 from DWR) |
Chassis Number Location: | Plate riveted to scuttle |
Engine Number Location: | On step at right front of block, above generator |
Club Info: | Austin-Healey Club USA |
Website: | http://www.healey.org |
Alternatives: | 1949–50 Jaguar XK 120 aluminum, 1956–63 AC Ace, 1953–56 Aston Martin DB3S |
Investment Grade: | A |
This car, Lot 11, sold for $1,057,123 at Bonhams’ New Bond Street London auction on November 30, 2014.
Another one of those cars known universally by its number plate, this is one of the higher-profile 100Ss, having been raced and highly visible almost all its life. But let’s get this straight: In period, although a very versatile weapon, the 100S wasn’t a very different animal from a regular 100. The main difference is that classic combination of a bit less weight and a bit more power. They score on their lightness, which confers nimble handling and excellent braking, enabling the humble 2.7-liter pushrod “four” to punch above its weight.
Briggs Cunningham had the first one. Now they have become venerated beasts — to the point that more than one Big Healey specialist is building replicas, based on the experience gained from restoring the real ones.
What marks this car out is its history — although it’s not as famous as the most notorious 100S of all (see below). Very few 100S cars competed in World Sports Car Championship international races, and when they did, they were almost exclusively Works — factory team — entries. RWD 132 has the distinction of being one of a handful of customer cars to compete at the highest level, in this case the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, with owner John Dalton and Works driver Lance Macklin, who’s inextricably linked with the most famous 100S: NOJ 393.
Decades of racing
This car has raced almost all of its life and was last rebuilt in 2007. The color change — it started life with blue on top and cream sides — took place much earlier. It currently runs a Denis Welch engine and transmission, installed during that big rebuild in 2007.
Welch, who sadly died in a Formula Junior accident this past summer, was the biggest name in Healey racing. Although he had sold his company Denis Welch Racing to his son Jeremy several years ago, it remains the go-to outfit if you want your Healey to go fast. Jeremy Welch told me that one of his company’s engines produces “almost 200 bhp and a bit over 200 pounds of torque” on twin Weber 45s, which is rather an improvement on the four-banger’s original 132 horsepower, itself improved over the standard 2,660 cc, 90 bhp — thanks to more ambitious cam and fueling.
As a result, this 100S is able to mix it with the slower C-type Jags, and in fact a video loop playing downstairs at the auction site showed this car doing just that at the Goodwood Revival. (Looped on the screen upstairs, where this car sat, was Winston Goodfellow extolling the virtues of the ex-Scuderia Filipinetti 275 GTB that Bonhams has lined up for Scottsdale).
A spare engine and transmission, quite possibly the originals, came with the car. Also included in the lot — but not fitted — were single and double rollover bars for circuit racing and fast tours such as the Mille Miglia, and race seats. The official word is that the vendor was selling because he’s shifting his focus to endurance rallies such as the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge, which, ironically, the Healey would cope with very well, but there are cheaper, more comfortable ways to circumnavigate half the globe, such as a Fangio-style Chevy coupe, which is much more secure on those overnight stops.
A privateer on the international stage
Of the 55 (some say 50) 100S cars built, 38 are thought to still be with us. What makes this one special, as Bonhams kept reminding us, is that it’s the only privateer car to have taken part in international sports-racing competition. One of RWD’s sisters, EVV 106, universally known as “The Green Car” — also once in Arthur Carter’s collection — sold for a little more at Bonhams’ Goodwood sale in the summer.
Location, location, location
So why didn’t this one sell for more than The Green Car, which is of similar condition and offered with the same seat/roll bar options — but without the period international kudos? I’d say it was down to the location. Goodwood is a bigger sale, with far more publicity and footfall, whereas New Bond Street is a discreet little number just off Oxford Street, which is Britain’s busiest retail avenue and frankly a right pain to get to at the height of the pre-Christmas shopping frenzy.
Okay, footfall isn’t all, as casual observers, even if they have to buy a catalog to get in to the viewing, are not the sort of people who will buy these cars. Many of these cars sell on the phone in any case. Perhaps it was just that The Green Car was rather more visible. And on this day on New Bond Street, RWD 132 was perhaps a little overshadowed by the imposing Porsche 908 “Flunder” sitting right alongside.
Another, tragic 100S
The most famous 100S of all, though, is NOJ 393, which has a long and storied life, beginning as a Special Test Car and first running at Le Mans in 1953 as a 100 before being made into the 100S prototype. NOJ 393 gained its notoriety when it was instrumental (however you slice it: for the record, I blame Mike Hawthorn) in the 1955 Le Mans crash that killed 83 people. That sold in basket-case condition for $1,323,915 on December 1, 2011, at Bonhams’ Brooklands sale — far more than our subject car here or the Green’un.
Rising in value but still a bargain
100S values have climbed sharply — basically doubling in the past four years — but these simple four-bangers still represent a much cheaper way into 1950s sports car racing than either a Jaguar C-type ($4m–$5m) or a Maserati A6G or S ($2m).
At the Freddie March Memorial Trophy race at Goodwood in September, our subject car was beaten only by a Chrysler V8-engined Cunningham and the post-war Lagonda V12, both with significantly larger engines.
Either way, this car is on the button and as fit as they come, demonstrably able to hold a C-type at bay. The vendor expressed his hope that it would continue to race, so let’s hope the new owner is similarly committed to keeping this old warhorse in the lifestyle to which it has always been accustomed. ♦
(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams.)