Donald Healey
English car designer, rally driver and speed record holder.
Donald Mitchell Healey CBE (3 July 1898 – 13 January 1988) was a noted English car designer, rally driver and speed record holder. He founded the Donald Healey Motor Company Ltd in 1945 and created the Austin-Healey 100, a comparatively inexpensive sports car with 100 mph performance that went into production in 1952. Healey won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1931 driving a 4½-litre Invicta, and later designed the Triumph Southern Cross and Triumph Dolomite 8 straight-eight sports car. For his services to export, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1973.
Quick Facts
- Honorific suffix
- CBE
- Born
- 3 July 1898
- Birthplace
- Perranporth, Cornwall, England
- Died
- 13 January 1988
- Place of death
- Duchy Hospital, Truro, Cornwall
- Education
- Newquay College, Cornwall
- Occupation
- Car designer, rally driver
- Organization
- Triumph Motor Co
- Donald Healey Motor Co
- Healey Automotive Consultants
Facts from the source article.
Early life
Donald Healey was born in Perranporth, Cornwall, the elder son of Frederick and Emma Healey, who ran a general store there. At an early age he became interested in all things mechanical, particularly aircraft. He studied engineering at Newquay College, then in 1914 his father bought him an expensive apprenticeship with Sopwith Aviation Company in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He joined Sopwith in 1914 and continued his engineering studies at Kingston Technical College. Barely 16 when World War I started, he volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, earned his wings as a pilot, and went on night bombing raids, anti-Zeppelin patrols, and served as a flying instructor. He was shot down by British anti-aircraft fire on one of the first night bombing missions, and after a further series of crashes was invalided out in November 1917. He spent the rest of the war checking aircraft components for the Air Ministry. After the Armistice, he returned to Cornwall, took a correspondence course in automobile engineering, and opened the first garage in Perranporth in 1920. He married Ivy Maud James on 21 October 1921; they had three sons.
Triumph
Healey found rally driving and motor racing more interesting than his garage and its car hire business. He first entered the Monte Carlo Rally in 1929 driving a Triumph 7, but in 1931 he won the Monte Carlo Rally driving a 4½-litre Invicta and was 2nd overall the next year. He sold the garage business, moved to the Midlands to work for Riley, but soon moved to the Triumph Motor Company as experimental manager. The next year he was made technical director and responsible for the design of all Triumph cars. He created the Triumph Southern Cross and then the Triumph Dolomite 8 straight-eight sports car in 1935 following his class win, and 3rd overall, in the 1934 Monte Carlo Rally in a Triumph Gloria of his own design. Triumph went into liquidation in 1939 but Healey remained on the premises as works manager for H M Hobson making aircraft engine carburettors for the Ministry of Supply. Later in the war he worked with Humber on armoured cars.
Jensen-Healey
In 1970 Healey became chairman of Jensen Motors with the enthusiastic backing of key US based Austin-Healey distributors. Jensen had been making body shells for Austin-Healey since the 1952 demise of the similar Austin A40 Sports. Healey's first project with Jensen was re-engineering the Jensen 541S with a V8 engine in 1961, the resulting car being a personal favourite of Healey's. Ten years later, Healey helped design the Lotus engined Jensen-Healey together with Lagonda designer William Towns, to replace the Austin-Healey. He designed this new Jensen-Healey using Vauxhall running gear and prototyped it using Vauxhall and Ford engines, which either had insufficient power, did not fit the sloping bonnet, or were unable to comply with the emission standards set in place in USA. Ultimately, he settled on the all-aluminum 4-valve, twin overhead cam Lotus 907. He resisted offers from Saab and Ford to produce a new sports car.
Later life
He bought the 27 acre Trebah Estate, near Falmouth, Cornwall in 1961 and carried out many ambitious projects there, including the building of commercial greenhouses to grow orchids and a project to build air/sea rescue inflatables. He demolished the concrete covering of the beach of Polgwidden Cove (a D-Day invasion launch-pad) and used the salvaged material to surface a steep track from the house to the beach. He sold Trebah in 1971. His son, Geoffrey, born in 1922 and a former pupil of Warwick School, wrote several books about the cars and one about their partnership. Donald Healey died in Truro at the age of 89. A memorial window in St Michael's Church Perranporth was provided by the Austin-Healey Club of America. The Austin Healey Club has also placed a small monument, in the form of a sports car, and an inscribed plaque, as a memorial to Donald Healey, next to the Visitor Centre in the garden of Trebah which is now open to the public. His obituary in The Times reported that Healey was a small rotund man with a flashing smile and that he kept himself immensely fit, and had been, in his day, an expert water skier.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Donald Healey born?
Donald Healey was born on 3 July 1898 in Perranporth, Cornwall, England.
When did Donald Healey die?
Donald Healey died on 13 January 1988 in Duchy Hospital, Truro, Cornwall.
What are Donald Healey's notable works?
Notable works by Donald Healey include Winner Monte Carlo Rally 1931.
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