100 Le Mans

[HEALEYJAG]

Just read another "spin" on dealers misrepresenting 100's again on EBAY.... This one used an interesting spin!!!

It is indeed believed that this 100 BN1 was equipped with its 100M Le Mans kit from an authorized Donald Healey agency soon after its arrival to the US, and therefore is now considered to be one of only approximately 500 Austin-Healey 100 "Dealer M" cars.

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Now considered vs NEVER considered..sheesh.....sent him an email.....


Pete

 

[Editor_Reid]

This car was auctioned in Arizona last month. I was there when it went on the block. It was in the Bonhams auction. My impressions from personal inspection:

• Tatty. Not "patina-ed" and not a "survivor" as much as a restoration candidate.
• "M" attached to grille badge, something it would not have had originally. Some might conclude that this was intentional misrepresentation designed to mislead the uninformed into mistaking it for a 100M. It is simply not the correct insignia for the car.
• There is no such thing as a "100M Le Mans Kit." There's the "Le Mans Engine Modification Kit" also called simply "Le Mans Kit" for short, but the model name 100M is not accurately associated with the kit. Installing the Kit doesn't make the car a 100M, as much as many people would like you to believe it does.
• "...indeed believed that this..." is not documentation. I remember laughing at such amateur, blatant puffery when I saw it on display at the auction.
• There is no substantiation for the theory that 500 cars had the Le Mans Kit added. It's only a theory, and a very tenuous one in my opinion.
• "Dealer M" is not an historical or accurate term.
• There was no such thing as "an authorized Donald Healey agency" in the USA. Austin-Healeys were sold through BMC by BMC-authorized agencies.

I believe it hammered at $55,000, meaning that with the normal commission and transport back to Minnesota, the buyer is into it for something like $63,000; maybe a little less.

The winning bidder was actually sitting just a few feet from me. I almost gave him my card (as Editor, Healey Marque magazine), but then I thought better of it. If he called me to discuss the car, I'd have nothing good to say about it and so why have that discussion?

If memory serves, the auction estimate on the car was $90,000-110,000. Lunacy. It hammered at half that, and in my opinion, it was still too much.

By the way, the laughable verbiage, "...indeed believed that this..." (or something very similar) was in the car description at the auction. I found it disappointing that Bonhams would allow such a statement to represent the car. Alas.

 

[Healey Nut]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-Austi...322afd7f:g:v~YAAOSwLEtYk2KC&item=262834683263

Heres the link for those interested . It even says it comes with the appropriate BMHIT certification . Yours for 90Gs US

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Wonder if the cert says 'fitted with a louvred bonnet?'

 

[Editor_Reid]

Wonder if the cert says 'fitted with a louvred bonnet?'

It's a BN1. No BN1 had a louvered bonnet installed when made at Longbridge, so it would not have that notation on the Job Production Card. (If there were such a critter, John Wheatley would have brought it to light, and he's personally inspected and transcribed the microfilm of the Job Production Cards of all the BN1 and BN2 cars.)

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Ah, OK. Thanks, Reid.

 

[HEALEYJAG]

Sent the dealer a "nice" note..giving him the opportunity to correct his misinformation......nothing! Same ad a week later. As an after thought..same dealer was selling my old e-type that I had sold 4 years earlier..odometer clearly turned back and marketed as a low ,mileage car....sent him proof from XKEDATA.com that this was fraud..same result never changed the add even used my ad form ebay from years ago to market the car..wow

Pete

 

[Healey 100]

I am shocked, shocked to hear that the info about cars sold at auctions or eBay may not be correct!

 

[Healey Nut]

I am shocked, shocked to hear that the info about cars sold at auctions or eBay may not be correct!

You do realize the moon landing was fake , and jimmy hoffa is still alive and Elvis faked his death and lives in Tweed Ontario:welcoming::welcoming:

 

[HealeyRick]

You do realize the moon landing was fake , and jimmy hoffa is still alive and Elvis faked his death and lives in Tweed Ontario:welcoming::welcoming:

Funny you mentioned Hoffa. I sometimes watch the show "Mystery of Oak Island" where treasure hunters dig for a so called missing treasure on an island in Nova Scotia. So far they've posited the treasure could be pirate treasure, Templar gold, the lost manuscripts of Shakespeare, the Arc of the Covenant, the Holy Grail and last night, the missing jewels of Marie Antoinette. I told my wife this morning that if this show goes on any longer Hoffa, the shooter from the grassy knoll and probably Tom Brady's missing Super Bowl jersey will be down in that hole.

 

[CLEAH]

Rick, that's funny. Sometimes I watch the same show, and a few weeks ago I told my wife that when they finally open up the hole they will probably find Jimmy Hoffa playing cards with Amelia Earhart!