The Iconic Sale at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024

152 The Iconic Sale at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024 Cars The car presented here is a 1953 Austin-Healey 100/4 BN1 (Body #1076) and it remains a matching numbers car having lived almost all its life in California, for most of the time in storage, unused! As a very early example, built in December 1953, #1076 still retains all the features of the very early cars, including the 4-stud rear axle, no reflectors above the rear shrouds, early door hinges, and much more. #1076 was repatriated to the UK in 2017 and has since undergone a bare-shell, nut and bolt restoration (including all mechanicals) and must surely now be one of the best examples in the UK. The hugely thorough project was headed up by classic car expert, Richard Craig of RMC Classics, who sourced and owned #1076, and it is he who has conveyed much of the information offered here (plus more on our website). His expert engineering work ensured every component was either restored or replaced, with the focus being to preserve much originality as possible. The car won Best in Show at its first outing to an MGCC Concours event and was chosen as ‘the car that people wanted to take home’. Fascinatingly, #1076 still retains a rally plate (affixed to the dashboard) from a 1954 event in which it competed – the California Square Wheel Touring Society’s Moonlight Rally – an event which Donald Healey actually competed on in the same year. Frustratingly, we don’t have an entry list for the event so can’t confirm if Donald himself drove this very car, but there can’t have been many other Healeys competing in this far-flung event so early on in production! At some point since then, another (earlier) rebuild was undertaken and all of the external panel-work has been replaced with aluminium items – all four wings, doors, a 100M louvered bonnet and boot lid. Of course, the front and rear shrouds are the original items. The more recent UK-restoration is documented in hundreds of photographs, and help illustrate that, upon stripping the car down for the rebuild, how evident it was that the car has covered very little mileage – the engine had never been apart, still retaining all of its original bearings, water pump and even clutch! It is so incredibly rare to find a 1950s sports car which has clearly led such a charmed life and hasn’t been subject to endless repairs over the years. Even three of the four cockpit trims are stamped with the body number, with pencil markings next to them noting the numbers to be stamped - this is very rare to see! #1076 is in a simply immaculate state of preservation, now with an expert restoration and choice-modifications (to make the car more usable in the modern world). Please see the Iconic Auctioneers website for more information about this very special car, provided by Richard Craig of RMC Classics. The Healey-connoisseur’s choice, this early body, ex-US (now right-hand drive) BN1 has been the subject of a recent full restoration with some choice upgrades, a superb example. Registration: 803 XVM Chassis No.: BN1L149925 Estimate: £45,000 - £55,000 Specialist: Joseph Watts Telephone No: 07779 082707 Lot 228 1953 Austin-Healey 100/4 BN1 More Details Lot 228 Bid On Lot 228