2015-11-21 18:20:36 | pauls writes:

Car to be at auction 11/15
classiccars.brightwells.com/viewdetails.php

Auction description:
Lot number 76
Estimate £30,000 - £35,000
Description Austin-Healey 3000 MkI BT7
Registration TBA
Year 1961
Colour White/Black
Engine size 2,912 cc
Chassis No. HBN7L/13150
Documents Due to have a V5C; MOT October 2016

This 1961 four-seater Healey is one of those US market cars. Amazingly it has had just one owner from new, a California gentleman who kept it for 54 years until he passed away earlier this year. In remarkably original condition structurally, it appears never to have been welded underneath thanks to a lifetime spent in the Sunshine State.

Equipped with the desirable overdrive option, it is showing some 92,035 miles on the clock which is thought to be genuine, and has clearly been a much-cherished machine although sadly, the bulging history file which did accompany the car somehow went missing during its recent journey back across the Atlantic, having been placed for 'safe-keeping' in a plastic folder under the passenger seat...

In the process of being UK registered, all import duties have been paid and it should be on UK plates with a V5C in time for the sale. Said to drive beautifully with an MOT until October 2106, it certainly started instantly and ran very smoothly as we moved it around for these photos, burbling nicely through its twin exhausts and even drawing an admiring crowd of nuns!

Far better preserved than any UK car could ever hope to be, it could easily be converted to RHD if desired, using a kit of parts readily available from one of the many specialists who cater for this model.