How many Healeys are still on the road?

[Frank C.]

I know there is probably no way to answer this but I was in a conversation the other day and some questions came up.
We all know how many of each model were originally built but the two questions are:
1. How many of each model were originally shipped to the US?
2. How many of each model are still running (US and other).

Looking forward to your responses.

Drive safely,
Frank Custis

 

[AH3000MkIII]

Answers to question 1...

Healey 100 - Accurate figures not available, but for 1954/55 a total of 10450 were built, of which 6032 were exported from the UK, 3606 of these going to the US (34.5%)

100-6
BN4, built 4241, US export 3460 (81.6%)
BN6, built 4150, US export 3522 (84.9%)

3000 MkI
BT7, built 10825, US export 8732 (80.7%)
BN7, built 2825, US export 2284 (80.8%)

3000 MkII
BT7, built 5096, US export 4190 (82.2%)
BN7, built 355, US export 259 (73.0%)
BJ7, built 6113, US export 5019 (82.1%)

3000 MkIII
BJ8 Phase 1, built 1390, US export 1193 (85.8%)
BJ8 Phase 2, built 16322, US export 14214 (87.1%)

So excluding the 100, 42873 of 51317 cars went to the US (83.5%)

I have no idea how many are still on the road, as even registry figures are reliant upon people registering their cars.

 

[Jeepster]

There is a UK website that can give you the number of any make or model of car that is still on the road in the UK.

https://howmanyleft.co.uk/

 

[Randy Forbes]

I am aware of one (1) Healey still on the road...

 

[glemon]

That is a very good question often discussed, there are various registries, I know lots of cars that aren't registred in the registries. But lokking at how many cars are in the registries then figuring an educated guess percentage (50% in the registries??) and going from there.

It doesn't help that in the USA DMV records are protected by the federal Privacy Act and not readily available.

I think the place to start would be the various registries.

 

[stinky60]

Randy, that is just awesome your hat matches the color of your Healey, beautiful rear shot

 

[Frank C.]

Interesting data ... I've seen the total build numbers before but not the US percentage. I didn't realize how many got shipped here. I would tend to go with the 50% survivor number but hopeful that it is higher. We all have those images of the one of these classic cars rotting in a field somewhere (one of them is on a few miles from here - a 100-6). Sad.

 

[JamesWilson]

There is a UK website that can give you the number of any make or model of car that is still on the road in the UK.

https://howmanyleft.co.uk/

This is a pretty interesting site:

Austin Healey on the road and off (SORN) in the UK

and more interestingly, their age distribution:

When first registrated

Now lots of cars are missing if they were off the road before these statistics started being collected. But it is interesting....

 

[Richard Dickinson]

There are about 4200 members of the Austin Healey Club of America and about 1500 hundred members in the Austin Healey Club USA. Assuming that 500 of the USA club members belong to both clubs, that gives a total of 5200 club members who own at least one Healey. Assuming that ten percent of these own Sprites that leaves 4680 members owning big Healeys. If you further assume that only half of the Big Healey owners are club members you could come up with nine to ten thousand Big Healeys surviving. There was an interesting article in the August 2005 Healey Marque by Baird Foster, Contributing Editor, in which he made an estimate of remaining Healeys. He used what production and export numbers he could find and estimated how many were exported to the US. He used the SWAG method to estimate how many were destroyed during the early years and how many were lost to neglect and abandonment during the later years. He came up with a total of 13,000 Big Healeys that might have survived. Of course we know what happens when you assume too many things.

 

[RestoreThemAll]

How would you count cars like mine, all new parts few installed. Hope to drive it in a couple of years.
Dale

 

[Richard Dickinson]

I would count mine and it has been the process of restoration for several years. After all its just a SWAG and there is some doubt about sophisticated part.