The ‘Big Healey’ started life in 1952 in its 100/4 guise with a 4 cylinder 2,660cc engine.  In 1956 it evolved into the Austin Healey 100/6 when the 4 cylinder engine was replaced with a 6 cylinder 2,639cc engine.  Then in 1959 it became the Austin Healey 3000 with the 6 cylinder engine enlarged to 2,912cc.  All of these cars had fairly Spartan interiors with side screen windows and a hood that took several minutes to erect.

At last in 1963 the Austin Healey 3000 became civilised with the announcement of our model, the Austin Healey 3000 Sports Convertible (now normally referred to as a MkIIA or by its chassi prefix - BJ7).  This has full wind up windows and a hood that can be erected in seconds rather than minutes.  The gear lever was moved from the side of the gearbox to the top and the brakes were up-rated with the addition of a servo.  Ours is a rare car, one of only 455 Right Hand Drive Austin Healey BJ7 models built for the UK market.  The majority of the BJ7s made, were exported, with 44 Right Hand Drive ones going to British Commonwealth countries, 5,019 going to the USA and another 595 to the rest of the World.

This car was extensively restored in 1991/2 including much new metalwork and a complete re-spray in its current colours of Sapphire Blue over Silver Grey.  The interior is in light blue leather with contrast dark blue piping and dark blue carpets.  It also sports a new mohair hood with a zip down window making it a comfortable car in all weathers.

When we first saw this Austin Healey, it was shod with new tyres on chrome wire wheels, but we are not a fan of wire wheels.  Most tyre companies can't balance them properly and if the car is driven hard then the spokes can crack.  So we had them replaced with silver Minilite replica wheels, which give a much better ride, avoid the risk of breaking spokes and are much easier to clean.  The silver wheels are also a perfect match for the silver sides of the car making it very photogenic and it has been chosen for a number of fashion photoshoots, for that very reason.

The car had very little use since the rebuild but has been fully serviced in preparation for earning its living by joining our classic car hire fleet.  After having driven the car for a couple of weeks, an unexpected problem came to light.  As the Healeys aren't fitted with power steering they are fitted with large diameter steering wheels (16.5 inches).  This gives extra leverage to cope with the steering but for anyone with even slightly chunky legs, it makes getting in and out of the car a little difficult.  Worse than that, the steering wheel rubs against the driver's thighs.  So after much deliberation we decided to change the original wheel for a 14 inch diameter Mota Lita steering wheel.  Now there is more than enough room for those chunky thighs. There isn't any problem with leverage as the steering wheel rim is both thicker and leather bound giving the driver a much firmer grip.

Mark Robinson of Classics Monthly Magazine took our car out for a day for a photo shoot and wrote up an excellent article on both our Austin Healey and the delights of touring around South Warwickshire. 

Graham Bell wrote about our Healey for the 19 June 2006 edition of the web based motoring magazine Piston Heads.  Read his article in full here. 

In mid 2006 the Crew Clothing Company used our Austin Healey 3000 as a backdrop to the photo shoot for their Autumn 2006 clothing catalogue.  

In September 2009 as part of our process of continual improvement we made some changes to the rear lights on the Healey.  All early Healeys up to and including our BJ7 have a single rear light on each side of the car.  The one red light works as side light, brake light and acts as the indicator which means that when braking, the brake light flashes.  For the final model of the Healey - the BJ8, the manufacturers changed this layout and installed separate orange indicator lamps. 

While none of our customers have ever been rear ended this combination is not very visible and I wanted to improve the lights.  It is not possible to use the BJ8 lights on our car as the lamp housings aren't the same size.  But AH Spares in Southam offered a conversion kit which replaced the small reflector with a small, orange, indicator fitting.  Legally all cars must have rear reflectors so brackets and new large reflectors were fitted to the rear bumpers.  So now the car has separate brake lights and indicators improving the visibility.

On 14th December 2009 I took our Austin Healey out on a road test after fitting a set of new rear springs and improving the bump stops.  The mileage was about 99,950 so I took my camera along and extended the road test a bit so that I could take pictures of the speedo as it went round the clock, past 99,999 and back to 00,000.

We don't know the car's entire history but it had about 75,000 miles on the clock when we bought it at the end of 2005, so while the speedo makes it look like a low mileage car, we and our customers have done 25,000 out of its 100,000 miles.

In January 2010 while in for its winter service we made one more small improvement to the Healey.  The car has an oil pressure gauge, which since installing the smaller diameter steering wheel, is obscured by the steering wheel rim and the driver's left hand. 

This means that the driver may not see if the oil pressure were to drop. We have now added an orange oil pressure warning light to supplement the gauge.

For full details of the changes to the suspension and the oil pressure warning lamp have a look at The Open Road's Blog.

Height and weight restrictions:  

The cockpit of the Healey is very narrow and the doors are very short. Therefore anyone over 6ft 2in tall (1.88m) or weighing more than 18st (252 lbs, 114 kilos) will probably not fit in the car.  

For daily, weekend and weekly hire rates for all of our cars, see the section on Hire Charges.