1954 Austin-Healey BN1

One of our long term customers is wishing to part with this truly beautiful 1954 Austin Healey BN1 100/4 in British Racing Green, with black interior. This is an original RHD Australian delivered car sold new in Melbourne and first purchased by Mr John Duncan from Victoria.

The BN1 has been long recognised for its purer driving experience, being light, shorter in wheel base and more agile as a result. Its handling is sublime and the incredibly torquey 2.7 litre 4 cylinder engine is capable of pushing the car to 100mph. No wonder these cars were raced extensively in period and indeed this car was raced in 1955 and 1956 at Albert Park amongst other venues and race results have been documented.

Its race history and subsequent ownership has been noted by a local authority on the subject of Healey’s “I know of the car which was raced at Albert Park and Rob Roy Hill climb by Noel Lewin…from 1961 it sat in Berrigan for many years. When the owner died the widow sold it to his long-time friend.”

According to the Heritage Certificate the car was originally produced with exterior colour Ice Blue and has subsequently changed colour to British Racing Green early in its life at 1961. It has been repainted again in British Racing Green around 2012 and shows only minor blemishes but that is being picky. Generally the paint and body are in excellent order and the colour suits the car well with a deep shine. The car is pleasingly original and the seats and interior look correct and unrestored but obviously incredibly well looked after.

The brightwork is in good to excellent order and whilst there is some dulling to some areas of the rear bumper it presents very well and looks original.

Its Heritage Certificate confirms its production on 13^th September 1954 with factory fitted equipment including Laminated Windscreen, miles-per-hour speedometer, left hand dip headlamps and less heater. The engine is a correct and matching numbers to the chassis and the body number matches too.

Classic Car Market has performed recent maintenance including fitting a new aluminium fuel tank, fuel lines and work to the carburettors. Other recent maintenance also includes a new radiator and work performed to the dash instruments.

As ever with these Healeys the interior is just a lovely place to be. The dash, seating and carpet is perfect showing little signs of wear except one point on the rear of the passenger seat which is not visible unless the seat is tilted forward. Overall the seats, instruments and carpet are just lovely and compliment the outstanding presence this car has.

Thanks to the large 4-cylinder engine with just oodles of torque and double SU carburettors, this Healey is just magnificent to drive. We have been totally taken with it over the last weeks. Out on the road the engine note is intoxicating and it has so much ‘go’.  The 3-speed gearbox performs faultlessly and the overdrive on 2^nd and 3^rd in effect gives the driver 5 speeds to work with.

It just begs to be driven and it’s easy to understand why these cars were so successful as race cars – in period they were often only slightly modified before they took to the race track and the BN1 was the ‘perfect tool for the job’. Light, fast, agile and reliable. It also looked stunning too.

A recent new black hood comes with the car and looks like it has never been on. Fresh tyres to the front are recent additions.
This is a very beautiful Austin Healey and being a rare Australian delivered BN1 we believe this is one of those cars that represents a value buy.