c.1950 Healey Tickford Sports Saloon
Registration no. not UK registered
Chassis no. C1951

Having achieved considerable success in motor sport, Donald Healey took up a job with Riley in 1933 before being recruited by Triumph to serve as its Experimental Manager. He was soon made Technical Director, becoming responsible for the design of all Triumph cars, but remained directly involved with motor sports, the highlight of his competition career with Triumph being a class win and 3rd overall, in the 1934 Monte Carlo Rally. When Triumph folded, Healey moved to Humber, meeting fellow engineers Achille (Sammy) Sampietro and Ben Bowden, and the trio's thoughts were soon centred on the prospect of building a new sports car, though actually getting it into production would have to wait for the war's end.

The Donald Healey Motor Company duly completed its first prototype in 1945, going into production in Warwick the following year. The nascent firm's first offerings were the Elliott sports saloon and Westland roadster, both powered by Riley's lusty 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine and built on a welded-up X-braced chassis featuring Healey's own trailing arm independent front suspension. For a time the Healey Elliott was the world's fastest closed four-seater production car, clocking 110mph at Jabbeke, Belgium in 1947. In 1950 the Elliott and Westland were superseded by the Tickford sports saloon and Abbott drophead coupé (named after their respective coachbuilders), both of which enjoyed an improved chassis incorporating Girling brakes. They were more refined and better equipped than their predecessors too and, although heavier, still good for the 'ton'. The Tickford sports saloon has been described as 'certainly the prettiest closed Healey, complete with proper boot' and though it was, relatively, the most numerous of the Riley-engined Healeys, only 222 had been built by the time production ceased in 1954.

The Healey Tickford offered here was purchased from the sale of the Danish Aalholm Automobile Museum Collection in 2012. It represents a rare opportunity to own one of these handsome sporting saloons that aroused such intense interest in their day for their unique combination of high performance and precise roadholding.

Should the vehicle remain in the UK, local import taxes of 5% will be added to the hammer price.