BLUEPRINTS AND DRAWINGS

Gently unravelling tubes of yellow tracing paper reveals a treasure trove of roughs and plans. These include an early sketch in profile of a swooping two-seater that is clearly a few pencil strokes away from morphing into the Austin-Healey 100, and a mid-’60s idea for a fixed-head Big Healey with more straight lines to its shape than the original car. There’s also a large technical drawing of the Utah endurance record car, its streamlined shape superimposed over a standard Austin-Healey’s outline.

Kate points to the car’s Perspex canopy. It’s the only part of the vehicle to survive, as the rest was smashed up to prevent other people from doing something stupid with it when it was old and rusty, as it had been covered in Bonneville salt. ‘For many years Dad used the canopy to grow tomato seedlings. In the 1970s an American came to the house to buy some stuff, and I don’t think he could quite believe what was going on in the garden. He bought the bubble and took it with him, and I don’t know where it is now.’

Geoff Healey’s Warwickshire garden was fertile in other ways, as he converted an outbuilding into a workshop, known as ‘the cogitarium’. ‘That was his secret garden study. He bricked up the windows so nobody could see what he was doing, and he’d go there and be surrounded by his stuff.’ There was also an ex-greenhouse, again with bricked-up windows, containing a lathe and other engineering tools.

‘THE UTAH RECORD CAR’S STREAMLINED SHAPE IS SUPERIMPOSED OVER A STANDARD AUSTIN-HEALEY’S OUTLINE’