2013-11-20 16:40:06 | pauls writes:

Car to be at auction 12/13
www.coys.co.uk/auction.php

Auction description:
Lot 412 - 1953 Austin Healey 100 - 16th Pre Production Car
Estimate: £100,000 - £130,000
Registration Number: NUE 854
Chassis Number: BN1/134375

NUE 854 is one of the first 20 pre-productions Austin Healeys, which were hand built at the Cape Works, before production started at the Longbridge factory. Half of these cars have disappeared. One explanation for this is that some of these cars were unregistered to avoid purchase tax, on the understanding that they would be scrapped once they were finished with.

The car on offer today has matching numbers and some unique pre- production features, including a highly lightweight aluminium body, aluminium seats, the bonnet safety catch and fan cowling to name a few. There are believed to be 50 differences between these early cars and the production derivative.

Most significantly NUE 854 is the earliest RHD Austin Healey in existence and the first RHD road car ever made. The report from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust confirms that "Austin Healey 100, Chassis number BN1/134375 was built from Austin parts, manufactured in the UK, at the Donald Healey Motor Company factory in Warwick in 1953 and is the first right hand drive Austin Healey 100 produced." This car's body, number 'JM 4135-16', is the sixteenth of twenty in this style built by Healey's subcontractors, Jensen Motors.

The ninth of twenty was also a RHD car and was not registered (to avoid purchase tax) and was scrapped in 1955 after being used for in MIRA tests.

The first owner of NUE 854 was the legendary Betty Haig. Haig was born in 1906, the great-niece of Field Marshal Haig. She learnt to drive at an early age, and by sixteen, owned her own car. When she was old enough to drive legally, she moved through a series of increasingly sporty cars, including a Salmson and a Singer Le Mans.

Despite this interest, it was not until she was 29 that she entered her first motorsport event: the Paris-St. Raphaël Rally in 1935. She drove a Singer, backed by the factory, in exchange for reporting back on its performance. The Paris-St. Raphaël was chosen after Betty had seen it advertised whilst travelling in France.

She was the winner of the 1936 Olympic Rally, and won the Paris-St Raphael rally in 1937, on her third attempt, in an MG Midget. Her other 1936 events as a Singer works driver included speed trials at Brooklands, and long-distance trials elsewhere. In 1938, she drove in the Paris-St Raphael again, for the last time before the war, in the MG. She was second, reportedly after being held up on a stage by another competitor.

Post-war, Betty took up motorsport once more, with even more vigour than before! She now was taking on major, mixed entry rallies, as well as trials and hillclimbs. She is noted for winning the Rallye des Alpes Françaises, the Coupe des Dames, in a nine-year-old AC. And competed in the Monte Carlo Rally on several occasions, co-driving with Elsie Wisdom and Barbara Marshall. She was competing regularly in European hillclimbs in her own BMW. Betty also raced on circuits, and partnered Yvonne Simon to fifteenth place in the 1951 Le Mans race, in Yvonne's Ferrari 166 MM. They were third in the 2000cc class, having challenged for the lead throughout.

Just three weeks after purchasing NUE 854 Betty Haig drove the car at the Great Auclum speed trials on 8th August 1953. Her times for the quarter mile were 28.40, 27.83 and 27.49 seconds - a consistent improvement.The car raced again on the 25th Paris to St Raphael rally in early March 1954 with Enid Riddell. She came first in the over 2 litre class, won a Coupe de Vitesse and finished seventh overall. Reports at the time praised Betty for beating two 2.5 litre Lancia Aurelias. She commented on the first speed trail at Rheims "My time in the Austin Healey seemed abysmally slow, but was, in fact, the second best time of the day."- typical of Haig!!

NUE 854 was subject to an extensive nut and bolt restoration, which was completed in 1989 by JME. There are bills to the value of over £26,000 for this work. This is equivalent to a small fortune in today's money. The JME bill is a work of art in itself, with 8 pages of A4 detailing the work completed and 6 pages of parts.

The car comes with MOTs, tax discs and SORN documents starting in 1985. Once the restoration was complete the owner reset the speedometer to 00001.

It covered around 5000 dry miles until 2002, during which time it had a new aluminium cylinder head (for unleaded petrol) at a cost of £2,000. The car was then stored in a heated garage until 2011. It has covered around 4000 dry miles since then. Supplied with Original letter from BMIHT confirming NUE 854 as the first RHD 100 made Copy of The Autocar, August 14th 1953 with a photograph of NUE 854 with Betty Haig driving atand copies of Autosport February 26 1954 and March 19th 1953, which include two articles by Betty Haig on the Paris to St Raphael Rally in which she competed in this car.

NUE 854 in is one of only 10 pre-production Austin Healey 100 known to survive today. The earliest RHD Austin Healey and the first RHD road car ever made it has covered around 9,000 miles since a nut and bolt professional restoration, and is legible for the Mille Miglia. This is a unique opportunity to inherit the Betty Haig Austin Healey 100 competition car, successfully rallied by her in 53 and 54. Arguably the most significant Austin Healey to be offered on the open market this decade.