CarBrandLogos archive · Nash · 1951

NashNash-Healey

America's first postwar sports car, arranged in a chance shipboard meeting.

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Nash history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Nash-Healey, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Donald Healey sailed for New York in 1949 hoping to persuade Cadillac to sell him engines. He came home with a different deal altogether. Also aboard the Queen Elizabeth was George Mason, head of Nash-Kelvinator, and by the end of the crossing the two men had agreed to build a sports car together: Nash would supply the running gear, Healey would supply the chassis and the racing credibility, and Nash dealers would sell the result.

Nash-Healey roadster black · CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz, a photo credit would be appreciated if this image is used anywhere other than Wikipedia. Please leave a note at Wikipedia here. Thank you! · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The logistics were extraordinary. Kenosha shipped the Dual Jetfire overhead-valve straight-six and its three-speed gearbox with overdrive to Healey's works in Warwick, which built the chassis and, for 1951, clothed it in aluminium bodywork drawn by Len Hodges. From 1952 the cars went on to Turin, where Pinin Farina restyled them with headlamps sunk into the grille and built the bodies in steel. The engine grew too, from 234.8 to 252 cubic inches and from 125 to 140 horsepower.

Nash Healey · nakhon100 · CC BY 2.0

In production

Healey raced it, which was the point. The car took a third overall at Le Mans in 1952 against factory Mercedes opposition, respectable for a machine using a saloon-car six. It also beat the Corvette to the American market by two years.

1953 Nash-Healey Roadster · Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0

Legacy

What it could not beat was its own cost structure. Every car crossed the Atlantic twice before it was finished, which pushed the price into Cadillac territory for a small two-seater with an ordinary engine, and only a few hundred were built before production stopped in August 1954. It is remembered less as a commercial venture than as the first serious American attempt at the type.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Engine

Nash Dual Jetfire Overhead valve engine

Designer

Len Hodges (1951)

Body

3-seat coupe

Technical specification

The Nash-Healey, in detail.

Production: December 1950 – August 1954
Class: Sports car
Body style: 3-seat coupe ; 3-seat Roadster (automobile); roadster
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Engine: Nash Dual Jetfire Overhead valve engine; OHV Straight-six engine; I6 ; 1951-52: 234.8 CID 125 hp ; Nash Le Mans Dual Jetfire OHV I6 ; 1952–54: 252 CID 140 hp
Transmission: 3-speed manual with overdrive
Designer: Len Hodges (1951) ; Adriano Rabbone at Pininfarina (1952–1954)
Assembly: Warwick, England ; Turin, Italy ; Kenosha, Wisconsin, US
Manufacturer: Nash Motors