Austin-Healey streamliner

In 1953 the Austin-Healey 100 was new to the motoring world and especially the burgeoning US market. What better way to gain publicity for the car than to set speed records, and what better place than the famed salt flats at Bonneville in Utah?

In that year, the Donald Healey Motor Company built a special version of the Austin-Healey 100 sports car with the aim of setting both high speed and endurance records. This Endurance car, looking similar to a standard Austin-Healey 100, was driven by Donald Healey himself, George Eyston, Carroll Shelby, Mort Goodall and Roy Jackson Moore.

The following year they went back to Bonneville, more ambitious than before. Not only did they return with the more developed Endurance, but also a special Streamliner that was based on a standard chassis, but with major body modifications, including an extended nose and tail, plus a shapely stabilising fin.

The Endurance car went on to bag a whole raft of long-distance records from 200km to 5,000km and 1 to 24 hours, while the supercharged Streamliner with Donald Healey at the wheel achieved a top speed of 192.74mph (310.18 km/h).

It was the perfect kick-start to America's love affair with the Austin-Healey, with 84 percent of total production later sold to North America.

While the two cars were brought back to England, the Streamliner returned to Bonneville in 1956 in much modified form and with six-cylinder power and was even more successful. Subsequently, both eventually succumbed to the ravages of the salt, however bits and pieces were known to survive.

Decades later, Dutch Austin-Healey enthusiast Wiet Huidekoper located many of these actual parts after a worldwide search. Huidekoper approached Australian Austin-Healey expert Steve Pike of Marsh Classic Restorations in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria with the idea of reconstructing the cars of 1954 so they could return to the Bonneville salt.

With access to the original personal records and design drawings of Geoff Healey, as well as the historic parts, the cars are now nearing completion.

The target is to debut the Endurance car in the hands of its Swiss enthusiast owner Bruno Verstraete in Regularity events at next month's Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport, while it is hoped the Streamliner will also be on display at the meeting.