Donald Mitchell Healey CBE was a noted English car designer, rally driver and speed record holder.
17 Facts About Donald Healey
1.
2.
Donald Healey went on night bombing raids and served on anti-Zeppelin patrols and as a flying instructor.
3.
Donald Healey married Ivy Maud James on 21 October 1921 and they had three sons.
4.
Triumph went into liquidation in 1939 but Donald Healey remained on the premises as works manager for H M Hobson making aircraft engine carburettors for the Ministry of Supply.
5.
Donald Healey was keen to begin making his own cars, planning post-war sports cars with colleague and chassis specialist Achille Sampietro.
6.
In 1949, Healey established an agreement with George W Mason, the president of Nash Motors to build Nash-engined Healey sports cars.
7.
The Nash-Donald Healey's engine was a Nash Ambassador 6-cylinder, the body was aluminium, and the chassis was a Donald Healey Silverstone.
8.
Donald Healey drove a Nash-Healey in the Mille Miglia 1950 to 1952.
9.
Donald Healey finished 1st in class in over 2000cc open category and was presented with the Franco Mazzotti Trophy Coppia Del Mille Miglia.
10.
Donald Healey developed the Austin-Healey 100 using an Austin instead of the Tait developed Riley 2.5-litre engine and gearbox displaying it first at the October 1952 Earls Court motor show in London.
11.
Donald Healey formed a design consultancy in 1955, one of the results was the Austin-Healey Sprite which went into production in 1958.
12.
In 1970 Donald Healey became chairman of Jensen Motors with the enthusiastic backing of key US based Austin-Donald Healey distributors.
13.
Donald Healey 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.
14.
Donald Healey resisted offers from Saab and Ford to produce a new sports car.
15.
Donald Healey demolished the concrete covering of the beach of Polgwidden Cove and used the salvaged material to surface a steep track from the house to the beach.
16.
Donald Healey's son, Geoffrey, born in 1922 and a former pupil of Warwick School, wrote several books about the cars and one about their partnership.
17.
Donald Healey's 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.