By Pete Vack and Jim Sitz
In their new book Nash-Healey, A Grand Alliance, authors John Nikas and Hervé Chevalier bring to light Donald Healey’s 5,000-mile ten-day cross-country journey through America in 1948, driving a new Healey Westland in every conceivable weather situation all the way to Los Angeles.
Healey and son Geoffrey were amazed at the enthusiasm and knew that he could succeed in selling his cars in the U.S. According to Nikas, “In his retirement in during the 1980s, he would ponder what might have happened had he built sports car in the United States rather than England.” He returned to the UK with many contacts and ideas, but left the appropriately named Westland in California. Jim Sitz picked up the trail from there.
Henry Manney and the first Healey in the U.S.
Our review of Nash-Healey, A Grand Alliance brought a rush of memories for Jim Sitz, who was a friend of Roger Barlow, who in turn was the first Healey dealer in the United States. Jim’s memory is still superb, and when he read our review and began to recall his experiences, living in California in the early 1950s and knowing people like Henry Manney and Barlow.* His is firsthand knowledge…not only was he actually there albeit very young, but years later memories were reinforced by these conversations. “Roger would call me for help during the years he was writing the “Escape Road” feature in Autoweek. We’d chat for hours and he recalled his post war years in California.”
According to Sitz, Donald Healey left the Westland in Hollywood, assigned Roger Barlow as an agent for the car, and sold the Westland tourer to Barlow. He then sold it to one Henry Manney, who was willing to pay huge price, reportedly about $7,500. “He was keen to get it since it was the ‘only one in town’ which proved to be a typical Henry Manney-ism. Later, he did it again for a second-hand Lancia Aurelia GT he got from Bill Spear,” recalled Sitz.
Total Recall
Now, please note that Sitz no longer has his collection of magazines, but he remembers almost everything in them right to the page number. He told us, “A photo of Manney driving the car appeared in the November 1950 issue of Road and Track.” (VeloceToday still has a pretty complete set.) Sure enough, there it was.
We never knew Manney owned a Westland Healey, nor could we have guessed as much, given the caption. “Manney’s name was misspelled ‘Nanney’; a bit ironic since he would eventually work for them and I suspect invested in the flagging magazine in those tough days.” (See Jim’s history of the early days of Road and Track.) At the time Manney lived in the hills of Hollywood up high on Beachwood Drive and also had a nice beach bungalow in Malibu. Henry ran the car at the 1950 hillclimb at Sandberg…the old ridge route road from Los Angeles to Bakersfield.”
Not only does Sitz get the famous name right in the photo, but noted the photographer’s name and knew him as well! “Turich was a real pro, made big money doing food adverts. His father Felipe had been an actor in the James Dean movie Giant. Note the spelling of Manney’s name.
Sitz also noted the Nash-Healey’s original design, done largely by a Brit named Gerald Coker, was, if anything, cleaner than the final Pinin Farina version, and inspired by the 202 Cisitalia. “I always like the Coker version better than the Pinin Farina. While I never met Gerald Coker, I exchanged letters with him when Coker was working in Detroit. We both were lucky enough to own an Aston Martin DB2, another particularly nice design.”
Barlow, the Drone, the Firefly and the Red Bug
Not so nice, but much rarer, was the Healey ‘Firefly.’ What’s that, we asked? “Go look at the June 1948 R&T. There is a photo of Barlow driving one.” Of course there was. But it just said ‘Healey Roadster’ not Firefly. Back to the Nikas book. He describes the Duncan Drone, which used a Healey chassis with a very spartan and rather ugly body to save weight. Nikas found a photo of the Drone, and it is almost identical to the R&T Barlow photo. So when did that come to the States? How did it get the name Firefly?
“I think photo was taken during the Geneva Auto Show, which Barlow attended, but on the roads for test drive,” said Sitz. So it was Barlow who went to Europe to drive the Drone, or Firefly. The Drone was not imported to the U.S. as far as we know.” We don’t know how it got tagged as the ‘Firefly’ but drones fly too. The Duncan Drone was built on a Healey chassis but constructed by Duncan Industries in the U.K. It also inspired Donald Healey to build the first experimental vehicle, the X1, another lightweight spartan vehicle, and aka the Red Bug.
The East Coast Healey Silverstones
The Westland (172 built), Elliot (101 built), Tickford (225) and Abbott (90) Healeys were soon forgotten as the Healey Silverstone (105 built) came to the U.S. in large numbers and was a very competitive SCCA racer. “I am surprised at the number of Healeys built before the Austin Healey 100,” said Sitz, who reminded us that on the East Coast, Briggs Cunningham had two Healey Silverstones, one with a Cadillac engine and the other with the Riley unit. Jim Kimberly reportedly had at least one and passed it on to Jim Simpson. Below, Frank Shaffer photographed the Cameron Argetsinger Silverstone at Watkins Glen, 1950.
The Le Mans Nash Healeys
Sitz also recalled that a couple of the Nash-Healey Le Mans cars were raced in the U.S. A very complete section in the Nash-Healey book verified this and helped us identify a mystery car in our Glen Glendenning photo archives. Several of these special competition cars, which competed at major events in Europe, were imported to the Nash headquarters in Kenosha. The ungainly long tail X14 had finished 11th at Le Mans in 1953, and was purchased by Andy Rosenberger. Preston Gray managed to buy the more famous X6 which finished 3rd at Le Mans in 1952, and campaigned that for several years in SCCA races. Below, a few rare photos from our files, courtesy Dave Rex and the Pauley family.
* Sitz was young but at the right places at the right time. “In the unforgettable summer of 1949, when I was 11 years old, I chased a man driving an MGTC down the street on my bicycle. He told me where he got it from and so I biked over to Sunset Boulevard all the way to Barlow’s dealership. There I met Roger and he kindly gave me some sales brochures, a few Autocars and said I could come back anytime. I kept returning to try to get a glimpse of the new Jag XK120. It finally arrived and was already in the paint shop being re-sprayed a special grey color for the new owner, Mr. Clark Gable.
“I was dazzled by the cars I saw, and on that same bike trip to Sunset Boulevard spotted a Bugatti Atlantic. (We did a story about that in VT.) Then I went down Vine Street to a TV station owned by Tommy Lee. In the window was something called a ‘Ferrari’…the first one in the USA. I couldn’t see it’s badge so it was a mystery until I saw in a magazine that the car was a Ferrari and had won at Le Mans. Some summer, huh?”
Mike+Martin says
I love the stories, the memories and the photos. Thanks for another great article.
R.Bennett says
Wonderful story. As a kid in the early fifties while not common there were enough sports cars that I could identify XK 120’s, Healey 100’s, TR2’s, MG’s, and an envelope bodied Allard by sound alone. In 1956 or 57 I managed to convince my father to drive myself and two friends to the Palm Springs road races. The dye was set, there has been a sports car and at times two or three of some type in my garage since then. I will admit though the early days of discovery were the most exciting. Thanks for the memories.
Reed says
The third photo, next to the Neptune statue, was taken at Málaga Cove Plaza in Palos Verdes Estates, CA.
Owned a red ‘59 100-6 BN4 in high school in Pittsburgh. Used to drive it top-down, year-around through rain and snow. Thank goodness for the tonneau! (Dad sold the car while I was away a college for $2,000 – needed the garage space.)
Love Sitz’ story of window shopping on Sunset Blvd. Did the same at the Porsche/Audi/Alfa dealer in Sewickley, PA as a kid (mid 70’s). Fascinated by anything that wasn’t the Chevys and Fords of our dads.
Thanks for the memories.
george4908 says
The 1950 R&T article says that the Sandberg Hill Climb was won by D. Thatcher Darwin in his “Beetle.” Obviously not a VW — anyone know what this “Beetle” was?
John Shea says
Thank Pete and Jim ! Jim’s recollections remind me of my first sight of a 120. My neighbor had a very early example. He actually built a room off his living room so the car was never exposed to the damaging Florida weather.
Paul House says
Peter and Jim does it again. An excellent article and wonderful memories. So much there i never knew and good pictures too.
Earl Gandel says
Jim Sitz, with his amazing memories of his amazing experiences deserves a seat on your board, or something.