Introduction of The Nash-Healey
1951 saw the introduction of the Anglo-American Nash-Healey sports car, a collaborative effort between George Mason and British sports car manufacturer Donald Healey. Healey designed and built the chassis and suspension and also, until 1952, the aluminum body which another British manufacturer, Panelcraft Sheet Metal Co. Ltd., fabricated in Birmingham. Nash shipped the powertrain components. Healey assembled the cars, which were then shipped to the U.S. for sale. In 1952 the Italian designer Battista Farina restyled the body, and its construction changed to steel and aluminum. High costs, low sales and Nash's focus on the Rambler line led to the termination of Nash-Healey production in 1954. 506 automobiles were produced.
Mason commissioned Farina to design a Rambler-based two-seater coupe called the Palm Beach, which may have been intended as a successor to the Nash-Healey. However the project did not progress beyond a concept car
For European endurance racing Healey and his staff designed and built three special Nash-Healeys with spartan, lightweight aluminum racing bodies. These competition versions entered four consecutive Le Mans races and one Mille Miglia. They bore no outward resemblance to the production Nash-Healeys, none of which ever contested these races.
At Le Mans they achieved fourth overall in 1950, sixth overall and fourth in class in 1951, third overall and first in class in 1952, and eleventh overall in 1953. In the Mille Miglia they finished ninth overall in 1950 and seventh overall, fourth in class, in 1952.
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