By Classic Car Connections member John K
Austin Healey 3000 MK 1 1959 658 FCV
1959 was the first year of Austin Healey 3000 production and they made a total of 6453 cars, but only 280 were sold in UK and 6173 exported.
John's Healey has had the same owner since 1975. Modified in the 1960s with Ruddspeed conversion triple carbs, tubular exhaust manifold, brake servo, mild cam and head mods, adjustable rear shock absorbers, roll cage.
His car was resprayed Colorado red in the ’60s and was used in hill climbs and sprints.
The Restoration (over 15 years!) was completed in 2015. All the aluminum bodywork (except for the bonnet) was returned to the original colour scheme and the 1960’s features were retained except the roll cage.
658 FCV is a Cornish registration and it was first registered to Anthony Stevenson, Newlyn, Penzance. Believed to be a member of the family owning W. Stevenson and Sons. The Stevenson family has been fishing out of Cornwall for over 100 years and built up a large business, Newlyn Fisheries. The actual first registered address was Roseland. the family's home and also the name of their trawler.
John met up with the daughter and son of the first owner in Newlyn last summer, which gave them a photo opportunity to stand with their father's car.
They thought they had pictures of their mum and dad in the car. Unfortunately, when John studied the photos he realised that apart from being the wrong colour, the car in the picture was in fact an earlier 100/6. Still, lovely period photos.
Further local research revealed that Anthony Stevenson owned a new 100/6 before buying my 3000 new in 1959. John is still trying to track the 100/6 down through the Healey club.
Anthony did National Service in the Navy and used to drive the Healeys to and from Newlyn to Plymouth. After John's Healey he had a Daimler Dart!
In addition, John has also tracked down one of the owners from 1971 to 1973 who then lived in Bath. John met him last year with the car and he gave him some pictures to add to the cars history file. The car had been resprayed red in the '60s. He remembered all the modifications which were on the car when he bought it. He also owned a rally modified Mini, seen also in the pictures.
In summary, it's been an interesting journey with a great deal of detective work to gather the history of the car, and John made new friends along the way.