Healey Duncan Drone
(DVLA) first registered 30 October 1948 2443cc
Reg. No. JPW227

"The Donald Healey Motor Company completed its first car in 1945, going into production the following year with the Elliott sports saloon and Westland roadster, both 2.4-litre Riley powered and featuring Healey's own trailing arm independent front suspension. For a time the Elliott was the world's fastest closed four-seater production car, clocking 110mph at Jabbeke, Belgium in 1947. In 1950 the duo were superseded by the Tickford-bodied saloon and Abbott drophead coupé. Chassis were also supplied to Duncan Industries Ltd until that company's closure in 1948, by which time some 28 of the Healey variety (Duncan also bodied the contemporary Alvis chassis) had been completed as sports saloons. At the same time Duncan built approximately ten of its Drones on the Healey chassis, the prototype of which was known as the 'Spiv'. The Drone's raison d'etre was the 66% Purchase Tax levied on completed cars costing over £31, 000 if they remained in the UK, a penalty calculated to encourage such cars to be exported. In the case of the Tickford saloon, the base price of £31, 218 was increased to £31, 896 3s 4d for UK-based customers. Equipping the Drone with only the bare minimum of rudimentary bodywork while specifying the passenger seat, windscreen and spare wheel as 'extras' kept the price down so that a buyer could afford to remove the body and send the car to a coachbuilder for re-bodying with something more civilised. It is known that this happened to three Drones, all of which were re-bodied by Westland. By so doing the Healey enthusiast could avoid paying tax and still enjoy what was then one of the world's fastest sports cars.