New T Shirt honoring the Speed Records of Donald Healey at the Bonneville Salt Flats

David Austin|28 de febrero de 2018

Promotional advertisement of the Austin Healey 100 following the record run on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1953 (under 3000cc class): Average speed achieved by Donald Healey was 142.63 over the measured mile.

In August 1953 Donald Healey took his 100 sports car to the Bonneville Salt Flats. The aim: to smash as many speed records as possible. This was a well-planned, well-orchestrated Works undertaking that included Carroll Shelby in the driver line up. Over the course of a week record after record fell, and the British team returned home with 83 National and International speed records, including a 24 hour average speed of 132.29 mph and a variety of distance records from 200km to 5000km. The car was essentially the prototype 100S, the subsequent ‘production’ model incorporating many of the modifications developed for the salt flats.