A Brief History
The Nash-Healey was a two-seat sports car, built in partnership between Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and British auto enthusiast Donald Healey from 1951-1954. It was the first sports car to be introduced by a U.S. manufacturer since the Great Depression.
Donald Healey, managing director of the Donald Healey Motor Company of Warwick, England had built a car using a Nash Ambassador engine and drive line which he entered in the 24-hour LeMans endurance race in July, 1950. So well did the sports car perform in the race (finishing fourth) that Nash elected to contract for a limited number of the sports model. The prototype was shown publicly for the first time at the Paris Automobilc Show in early fall of 1950.
As originally conceived, Nash Motors would supply the inline six-cylinder engines (3847 cc, 125 hp), three-speed manual transmissions with overdrive, as well as the differentials to Great Britain for installation into handcrafted aluminum bodied 2-seat sports cars designed and built by Healey (Healey's design for this car was later incorporated into its Austin-Healey 100). The car had a ladder-type steel frame, with Healey's suspension components, aluminum heads, and multi-carburetor systems were fitted in passionate sports car tradition. The cars returned to the United States for sale through the Nash dealership network.
Production began in December, 1950. In that month, 36 models were built. An additional 68 were produced in January, February and March of 1951 -- making a total of 104 Healey-bodied Nash-Healey two-door roadsters.
No Nash-Healeys were made from April, 1951 until January, 1952, when an entirely new roadster body was created by Pinin Farina. The body, which were now fabricated of steel, was brought from Italy to Britain where Healey assembled all the parts into complete cars. Finished cars were then shipped for sale in the U.S. The Farina designed Nash-Healey was shown for the first time at the Chicago Automobile Show in February, 1952. A total of 150 of these 1952 roadster models were produced in Italy.
A few of the early models with Farina bodies were fitted with same "small six" engine found in Healey bodied cars. All others were powered by the larger bore 4238 cc 140 hp engine which used a pair of side-draft Carter carburetors in place of the earlier S.U. carburetor versions.
In January 1953, a Farina-designed hardtop model (designated as the LeMans hardtop) was added to the Nash-Healey series. A total of 162 roadsters and hardtops were built that year.
From January 1954 through August of 1954, a total of 90 hardtop Nash-Healey models were built, no roadsters were made in 1954. That year also brought an end to the production of the famed Nash-Healey sports car, with a total of 506 having been built from December 1950 through August 1954.
Sources: wikipedia.org, Nash-Healey 1951-54 (article by Mr. John Conde of AMC public relations and released for publication on September 8, 1975.)
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Originally Posted by Revo
