The Austin-Healey 100S evolved from the 100-4 Special Test Car program into bespoke factory and customer competition motorcars – equally at home on the grueling 1000 Miglia or at Le Mans. They were distinguished from standard production 100-4s by aluminum body panels, four-wheel Dunlop disc brakes, Perspex windscreen, and an advanced Weslake aluminum cylinder head which, along with other modifications, added 40 hp to the output of the 2,660 cc inline four. Hand built in a separate workshop, just 50 100S chassis were constructed, and they have remained among the most competitive and desirable British roadsters of the era.

This 100S, chassis AHS 3506, was shipped to the US as a new customer race car on February 7, 1955, according to documents on file. The Healey’s first owner was William Brewster of Connecticut. Together with SCCA veteran racer Bill Rutan, Brewster entered the 100S in competitions throughout the eastern states during the 1955 and 1956 seasons, including the 12 Hours of Sebring on two occasions and the Watkins Glen Grand Prix. At Sebring in March 1955, the car was entered alongside two works 100S entries, and Brewster and Rutan finished an impressive 6th in Class and 15th Overall. Brewster entered the 100S in the Watkins Glen Grand Prix in October 1955, where he finished 7th in Class and 13th Overall. The Brewster-Rutan pair returned to Sebring in 1956, but suffered clutch troubles, leading them to retire after 39 laps. For the 1957 season, Brewster entrusted driving duties to David Symes of Orange, Connecticut. With Symes at the wheel, the 100S finished 2nd in Class at Thompson, 3rd in Class at Lime Rock, and 4th in Class at Bridgehampton, a triumphant end to the Healey’s racing career.

Little is known of the Healey’s subsequent provenance until 1977, when Dr. Alan Smith discovered the car sitting on a banana farm in Tortola. Ownership later transferred to Bill Mood of Massachusetts in 1981 and then to Scott Aurandt of Decatur, Texas, in 1983. East Coast collector Jonathan Savage of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, acquired the 100S in 2002. He immediately shipped the car to Healey specialist and famed 100S restorer Steve Pike of Marsh Classic Restorations in Victoria, Australia, who restored the 100S from 2002 to 2004. Pike refinished the car in its 1955 Sebring livery, which it wears today, and has confirmed with Gooding Christie’s that, at this point, its original numbered engine block was restored and that, owing to its poor condition, a replacement cylinder head was sourced and fitted.

Curtis Leaverton acquired the 100S in 2016, and regularly entered the car in the Elkhart Lake Vintage Race Weekend events. Accompanied by a FIVA Identity Card from 2012 and equipped with its matching-numbers engine block per a firewall-mounted data tag, this 100S is surely one of the most storied and well-restored examples of its kind.