Donald Mitchell Healey

3/7/1898 - 15/1/1988

Record updated 03-Jul-07

Donald Mitchell Healey was a British rally driver, automobile engineer, and speed record holder. Best known for his Austin-Healey sports cars of which nearly nearly 200,000 were produced, most being exported to America.

Donald Mitchell Healey was a  British rally driver, automobile engineer, and speed record holder. Born in Perranporth, North Cornwall, England, he volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps and earned his "wings" in 1916. After the First World War he reterned home to study automobile engineering and opened a garage.

He became interested in rallying and from the mid-'20s through the early '50s, he enjoyed considerable success, his best finish being first in 1931, in the Monte Carlo Rally. Immediately after WWII, Healey began to build his own cars. In 1946, his Elliot was the finest production saloon to cover 100 miles an hour. Other cars were the Silverstone and the Nash-Healey, which finished third overall at Le Mans in 1952. Best-known were the Austin-Healey sports cars introduced in October 1952. Various models, including Sprites, were produced until a total ran of nearly 200,000 of which most were exported to America.

In 1953 and 1954, Healey set American and international records with his cars at the Bonneville Salt Flats; and he recorded 203.11 in an Austin-Healey 100-6 Streamliner to join the exclusive 200 MPH Club in 1956. In 1972, with Healey as chairman of Jensen Motors, the Jensen-Healey was introduced. For his "services to export," Healey was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. Donald M. Healey died in Perranporth on January 15, 1988, but his automobiles are still being raced, driven, collected, and enjoyed today.