The one-of-a-kind 1958 Austin Healey 100-Six was
created as a publicity stunt, painted ivory with everything that would be dipped in chrome plated in 24-karat gold instead: the wheels,
brake discs, badges, bumpers, mirrors, instruments all the way down to the
washers and screws. The cockpit was all decked out in champagne Connolly suede,
with matching mink fur trim on the seats.
Valued at nearly four times the price of a standard
100-Six, the car was sold before the show even opened to the Daily Express,
which gave it away as part of a contest.
It subsequently passed through a number of hands
before experts Bruce and Inan Phillips of Healey Surgeons were commissioned to
restore it in 1983. Jeff's Resurrections out of Taylor, Texas, restored it
again in 2012, and now it's heading to the auction block as “the most fantastic
Austin-Healey ever produced” (and the only road-going model the company ever
made with four-wheel disc brakes).
It's consigned without reserve price for sale in New
York next month, where it's expected to sell for between US$ 350,000 and US$ 550,000.
