Austin Healey 100

This car took part in the Park Place Thoroughbred Sports Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986.

It's Andrew Usher's 1954 Austin Healey 100 pictured going into Old Hall Corner at the end of the start/finish straight. Two versions of the Austin Healey 100 were produced from 1953 to 1956, the BN1 from 1953 to 1955 and the BN2 from 1955 to 1956, the main difference being that the BN2 had a four-speed gearbox instead of the three-speed of the BN1. Both the BN1 and BN2 were powered by the 2,660cc 4-cylinder inline engine of the unsuccessful Austin A90 Atlantic. Logically Andrew Usher's car should be a BN1 model, but the two-tone paintwork was only introduced with the BN2, and the car also has the louvered bonnet of the 100M that was a high-performance version of the BN2. The programme of the event gives the registration number of this car as VFM 580, but it's much more likely to be UFM 580, a car that I featured on 25 June 2015.