Previous Record

Donald Healey’s desire to take the 24-hour endurance record stemmed from his belief in his car and the need for publicity to promote it. He had built one of the most iconic sports cars of the Fifties and teamed up with Austin to produce it in volume. The car had wowed the public at Earls Court motor show but it was felt that record breaking would prove both the design and the integrity of the Austin Healey and its components.

Consequently in 1953 standard production cars were used to take the production car records covering 3100 miles in 30 hours at an average speed of 104.3 mph. This produced a raft of publicity material that made the Austin Healey look like a giant killer against more expensive and exotic sports cars.

This success spurred the team on to look at an outright production sports car record for 24-hour endurance running, so the following year in 1954 a standard chassis was prepared with a modified Weslake designed cylinder head, 16 inch Dunlop peg drive wheels and Dunlop disc brakes (a first in production sports cars). There were a small number of aerodynamic modifications with a small aero screen and head fairing plus an air-cooled battery compartment in the right hand passenger compartment.
In due course the car was transported to Bonneville in Utah for the record attempt. There on Aug 23rd 1954, supervised by the American Automobile club the car set 83 National and International Class D records driven by Donald Healey, George Eyston, Carroll Shelby, Mort Goodall and Roy Jackson-Moore.

A 24-hour average speed of 132.29 mph was set .

This car is set to challenge that record.