Stationed with the United States Army in Germany in 1956, Ralph T. Boothe ordered this red Austin-Healey 100 through the Donald Healey Motorworks armed-forces sales program. Every weekend and on 30 days of leaves each year, he and his buddies drove the car to Naples and the Isle of Capri, Rome, Paris, and London before shipping it to New York. Ralph drove it through four years of college at the University of Tennessee, then put it on a U-Haul for the trip to Los Angeles, where he and his new wife would live. With the car needing a full restoration by that time, and with fast-back coupes all the rage in California—one company advertised a fiberglass coupe top for Austin-Healeys for only $329 in the back of car magazines—he decided to modify the body to coupe style.

The windshield from a Healey 3000 Mk III convertible and the rear window from a Renault Caravelle hardtop, turned upside down, dictated lines and proportions. Ralph built a full-scale wood buck over which California Metal Shaping, who were making bodies for Carroll Shelby’s AC Cobra Daytona Coupes at the same time, formed the custom top and bootlid out of 18-gauge steel. Gil’s Auto Body Shop, a custom shop in East Los Angeles, did the final welding and assembly, including frenched-in taillights. Ralph repainted the entire car in “Standard Oil Red,” the closest shade he could find to the original Reno Red.

The car not only ran and handled well, benefitting from the hardtop, but it was also popular at Southern California car shows, winning a class trophy at the popular Le Cercle Concours at Santa Anita and was also featured in the August issue of Road & Track in 1966.

Over the subsequent years Ralph used the car less and less, until it was eventually tucked in the back of his garage. In 2008, realizing that extensive detailing would be required to put the car on sale, he engaged an experienced shop to do a second frame-up restoration, including stripping and repainting the body and replacing the carpeting. After the restoration, the car was featured in the Austin-Healey Magazine of the AHCUSA, and it received a class trophy at the 2009 Carmel Concours on the Avenue. Ralph continued to enjoy the car, showing it locally and driving it sparingly, until finally offering it for sale in 2013 with only 37,609 miles on the odometer.

Purchased by a collector, the car was put into storage and then acquired recently by the current consignor. In addition to the two prototype Healey 100 coupes built by Donald Healey, this coupe is one of a handful that were ever originally built, of which only five or so are known to exist. It comes with extensive documentation, a partial tool kit, and original-spec knock-off hammer and jack.