Bring your Big Healey back to life! If youre looking to restore your Austin-Healey - youve come to the right place. This authentic restoration guide discusses the differences between model years, identifies parts numbers, year-to-year changes, correct finishes, and more. Charts and tables cover production figures, paint schemes, wiring codes, and provide thoroughly detailed information on mid-year production changes. Contains a detailed appendix on British fasteners and deciphering the fastener codes in the Austin-Healey service manuals.

In nine eventful years – 1957 to 1965 – the six-cylinder-engined Austin Healey evolved into a formidable and increasingly specialised rally car. By any standards, it was the first of the ‘homologation specials’ – a type made progressively stronger, faster, more versatile, and more suitable for the world’s toughest international rallies. This is the story...

For 15 years, from the first four-cylinder 100 of 1953 to the final 3000 MkIII of 1968, these wonderful Austin-Healeys were the British sports cars which thousands of red-blooded enthusiasts aspired to. Today, many have been restored and the restoration of others is being undertaken. But how many of these cars boast the completely original and authentic specification which the most discerning enthusiasts now demand? Here are the answers, with the evidence provided by color photography showing every inch of our ten carefully selected cars.

The Austin Healey - or 'Big' Healey - is one of the iconic British sports cars. The first Austin-Healey 100 model was unveiled at the 1952 Earls Court Motor Show, and when the last car rolled off the production line in 1967, over 73,000 examples had been built.

One of the sensations of the 1952 Motor Show was a two-seat sports car built by Donald Healey at a small factory in Warwick in the English Midlands. Before the show was over Leonard Lord, head of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) had struck a deal with Healey to mass produce the car, and the Austin-Healey was born. This car, the 100, took both the British and US markets by storm. A beautiful, brutish car, it was what many sporting motorists had been waiting for, and its use of many standard BMC components made it relatively affordable. In 1956 the four-cylinder engine of the 100 was replaced with the Austin C-series six-cylinder unit, creating the 100-6, and in 1959 this car was developed into the most famous Healey of them all - the 3000, that was as successful on the rally stage as it was loved on the open road. Collectively the 100 and 3000 have become known as the Big Healeys, but as this name suggests, there was a corresponding 'small' Healey, and this car, the Sprite, was launched in Monte Carlo in 1958. Designed around the major mechanical components of the Austin A35, the Sprite set out to recreate the market for the cheap 'everyman's' sports car that hadn't existed since the 1930s. Distinguished by the headlights that protruded from the bonnet, the Sprite was soon nicknamed the Frogeye in Britain, or the Bugeye in the US. It was a big success, and remained in production until 1971, albeit in more conventionally styled form from the Mark 2 onwards. Written by one of the foremost historians of the British motor industry, this book presents a concise history of Austin Healey, and the marque's success on road and track. Illustrated throughout, it will appeal to all lovers of this, the quintessential British sports car manufacturer.

The four-cylinder Austin-Healey 100 sports car had already made a big name for itself by the time the 2.6-litre six-cylinder 100/6 arrived in 1956. This came as a 2+2 seater, joined in 1958 by a two-seat version, and both were replaced by the more powerful 3000 model in 1959, again offered as a two-seater or 2+2, and available with disc brakes. The Mk II 3000, launched in 1961, could be had either as the limited-production 132bhp two-seater with triple carburettors and side screens, or as the less spartan 2+2 convertible with wind-up windows, and the final version was the 2+2-only1964 Mk III, now with 150bhp, a wooden dash and better appointments. All these "Big Healeys" are as much admired today as when they were new, and here marque expert Bill Piggott gives full details of correct specification and equipment for all these cars, backed up by in-depth colour photography of outstanding examples of all models and variants. Body panels, external trim and badging, paint colours, interior trim, dashboard, instruments and controls, under-bonnet components, engine and transmission, lamps, and other features right down to the tool kit, are all covered.