The Austin Healey 100S driven by British racer Lance Macklin in the 1955 24 Hours of LeMans, and more importantly, the very car that Pierre Levegh hit before cartwheeling into the grandstand and killing more than 80 people will be auctioned off in England and the bidding is set to start at roughly $1-million US dollars. There is not an existing car in this universe with the type of macabre history that this Austin Healey has. The crash at LeMans was the single most influential event in modern racing history.
It is very important to note that Lance Macklin was not the man faulted for the crash. As all racing crashes are, this was a series of events that led up to a grisley conclusion. The man who initiated the destruction at LeMans in 1955 was named Michael Hawthorne and he was racing a D-Type Jaguar. Hawthorne lost his bearings when flying past the pit area and landed on the brakes on the front stretch in a desperate attempt to slow enough to enter pit road and refuel. Lance Macklin was behind him and in order to avoid a massive rear end crash he swerved to the left, right into the path of Levegh in his much more powerful and far faster Mercedes. Levegh ran up the back of the little Healey and literally flew into the stands, the car tearing apart with major components like the engine and axles mowing people down like weeds.
Amazingly the race was finished after being stopped due to the crash. The little Healey was impounded by French officials and held for a year while the whole scenario was investigated. After that it was given back to Austin-Healey. They sold it to a private person and it changed hands a few times before the current owner bought it for 155 British Pounds at some point in the past. That turned out to be an amazingly beneficial investment.
Thanks to Malc for the tip!
(Austin Healey driven by Lance Macklin to be auctioned)
Yikes! 1.3 million, a new record for Healeys,,,
So who is handling he auction? I wonder how much it will go for. That Healey would go for a small fortune even if it didn’t have this “macabre” history.,