The Nash-Healey was a two-seat sports car produced for the American market between 1951 and 1954. Sometimes erroneously described as the first American sports car built since the Great Depression, it was in fact the product of an Anglo-American partnership between the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and British engineer and automaker Donald Healey.
Nash Motors supplied the Ambassador's long, heavy & bulky inline six-cylinder OHV engine. Healey fitted a lighter, higher-compression aluminum cylinder head in place of the cast-iron stock item and also, on the smaller engine, installed the twin 1.75-inch SU carburetors that were popular on British sports cars.
Many judge the 1953-54 Farina-styled Nash-Healey's more critically than the 1951 models. Nevertheless, the 1953 'LeMans' model was awarded first prize in March of that year in Italy. In light of meager sales for the preceding years, Nash delayed introduction of the 1954 models until June 3 and discontinued the convertible, leaving just a slightly reworked 'Le Mans' coupe, distinguished by a three-piece rear window instead of the previous one-piece glass.
Nash cut the price by more than $1,200 to $5,128, but production finally ceased in August, 1954. A total of 507 production Nash-Healey's were built in the four-year model run. | |
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