Healey car to be reborn with Smart overhaul

The Times May 03, 2006
By Christine Buckley, Industrial Editor
HEALEY, one of the classic names in British sports cars, is to be revived by a consortium including David James, the Conservative Party adviser and company doctor, The Times has learnt.
The Project Kimber consortium, which tried to acquire the assets of MG Rover and then the MG brand last year, has bought the Healey name from the family of Donald Healey, the rally driver and the business’s founder, who died in 1988.
The consortium plans to start production — possibly in Coventry — of a new retro-style sports car towards the end of next year, with an annual output of up to 15,000 cars and initially employing about 200 people.
Access Capital, a venture capital group working with the consortium, is believed to have secured funding of £65 million for the first two years of the operation. Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency, has offered £1.95 million in grant aid for the scheme, the maximum that it is able to offer, for production to be based in an old Dunlop factory in Coventry.
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