Austin-Healey 3000 MkII

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The Austin Healey 3000 has been the mainstay of Historic British Motorsport for many years and has competed in so many disciplines it could almost be called the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of sporting classic cars. International rallying, circuit racing, sprints, hill climbs, even beach racing, you name it and the Big Healey has been there, done that and often won the T-shirt.

As standard the Healey 3000 came with a simple but strong chassis, compliant suspension and an ever-willing six-cylinder engine that can be tuned from mild to wild. Big Healeys suited such a wide variety of competition for other reasons too: they were rugged, tough cars that could take a pounding and for long distance events such as the Rome-Liege-Rome rally they had a largish ‘almost comfortable’ cockpit for driver and /or navigator to work in.

The part-finished Austin Healey 3000 MkII in today’s sale is the ultimate development of the road-going hill climb car of Bromyard amateur racer, Mike Cockayne. Unfortunately Mike passed away before completing the car and this was how he left it. This was truly a top quality build for Mike, who cared little for cost when quality performance parts and services were available.

Mike started the build with a US-sourced dry state chassis numbered HBT7L8591. It was then sandblasted and had new floor pans installed. Adjustable shock absorber mounts and gusseted front suspension points were fitted. The complete bare chassis was shot blasted, prepared and then painted in British Racing Green two pack top coat, the aim being for the underside of the car to be as well prepared and finished as the topside. Hung off each corner are powder coated wishbones containing uprated springs and shock absorbers which attach to the uprights and the rear axle.

The body is mainly aluminium, with the original Healey shrouds having been restored using traditional panel beating methods. An aluminium bonnet is fitted, as is an aluminium boot-lid. The doors are aluminium skinned over the original steel frames. The four wings are steel originals. All the bodywork has had ‘final fit set’ and it is ready for paint. A works-type hard top is also included, along with a pair of sidescreens, otherwise what you see in the pictures is more or less what you get with no lights, grille etc.

The powerhouse of this car is an engine that looks like a shopping list from marque guru and tuning expert, Denis Welch Motorsport of Yoxhall. Please take your time to appreciate (and price up) the spec of this unit: Denis Welch aluminium cylinder head with roller rocker conversion; Denis Welch intake manifold holding triple 45 DCOE Weber carburettors; DWR2 300 degree camshaft; tubular exhaust manifold with competition silencer; high torque starter motor; canister oil filter conversion; Mallory distributor with Lumenition ignition; alternator conversion; large capacity water pump coupled to a bespoke aluminium radiator that is in turn cooled by an electric fan.

A straight-cut close ratio gearbox handles the power from a competition clutch with lightened flywheel, while the torque biasing limited slip differential receives its power along a high deflection driveshaft.

Mike took the part-finished car to be set up on the rolling road of Aldon Automotive where it produced 220bhp. Further testing of the suspension set up took place at the Austin-Healey club track day at Curborough early in 2014.

If you added up the sum total of this Healey’s high performance engine and gearbox parts, you would be matching the lower estimate in the auction today. With so many quality modifications and fine bits of clever engineering, we guess that to replicate this car today would require around £50,000 .

This car is the ideal candidate for someone to create their own vision of the perfect Big Healey. A respray in British Racing Green, some roundels, and you could be heading for Shelsley Walsh this summer and quite possibly bringing home some silverware. Or how about sourcing a couple of original leather Austin-Healey seats, a trim set and you would have a truly awesome fast touring road car for bargain basement money.

Although the car is not yet UK registered, all duties have been paid and an HMRC NOVA (Notice Of Vehicle Arrival) form is provided which means that the new owner will become the first UK owner in the logbook upon registration. A power output graph from Aldon Automotive is also included in the sale.