Description
Description
• ‘DRX 258C’, a Works-built, late-model ‘Big Healey’ with alloy cylinder head, triple Weber carburettors, ‘high-mounted’ exhaust and four-wheel disc brakes
• One of 28 factory cars, one of the last three built, continuous history from new
• Driven by Big Healey privateers Don and Erle Morley on the 1965 Geneva, French Alpine and RAC rallies
• Tested by Autocar 3 September 1965 when described as “an unforgettable experience”
• UK registered and offered from 20 years in a major private collection
THIS MOTOR CAR
Stuart Turner replaced Marcus Chambers as BMC Competitions Department team manager in October 1961. He arrived when the Mini-Cooper was starting to win events and the Big Healey was approaching maturity. For 1965, knowing it would be the car’s final year in competition, Turner authorised the preparation of three new Healey 3000 rally cars: DRX 257C, DRX 258C and EJB 806C.
All were, in effect, clones of the 1964 machines and were fitted with front and rear bumpers. This car, chassis H-BJ8-31337, was prepared in the spring of 1965 for the Morleys to use on the 10–12 June Geneva Rally. Bearing competition number 1, they finished first in class and third in the GT category, which was won by Jean Rolland in an Alfa Romeo TZ.
Next up was the 19–25 July French Alpine Rally, the famous Coupe des Alpes. BMC entered Healey DRX 258C (as number 137) for Don and Erle Morley, alongside four 1, 275cc Mini-Coopers. Morley was a two-time winner of the fast event and the car was well suited to the long climbs on maximum power over 2, 500 miles of road rallying. The opposition came from the Minis, Bernard Consten in an Alfa Romeo TZ, two Works-supported Porsche 904s and Peter Harper in a Works Sunbeam Tiger. By virtue of Morley’s experience and the power and reliability of DRX 258C, the car won the over-2. 5- litre GT class, finishing second overall in GT after class-winner Harper was disqualified. The Morleys’ record in Big Healeys on the Alpine Rally now read as follows: two overall wins in a row, a second overall in 1964 and a class win in 1965. It was Don Morley’s favourite event.
Once the car returned to England, it was loaned to Autocar for a “week of pure undiluted joy” on road test with Britain’s foremost motoring journal. The testers recorded a 0–60mph time of 8. 2 seconds, with 100mph coming up in 23. 5 seconds. A standard car would achieve that in 35. 3 seconds. With a short final-drive ratio of 4. 3:1, maximum speed for the rally car was 120mph. The test was published in the 3 September issue.
It was then back to Abingdon for scrupulous preparation for the 21-25 November RAC Rally. In a post-event report, Autocar describes ace fabricator ‘Nobby’ Hall making the high-level exhaust silencer that exited just below a shallower co-driver’s door on both entries, DRX 258C and a new car, EJB 806C, for Timo Mäkinen. The rally was held over public roads and unmade forest tracks. Ground clearance was at a premium, so the mechanics welded a large steel sump shield to the chassis. Studded tyres and pace notes were not permitted that year. The rally totalled 2, 500 miles, 500 of which were timed special stages. As a result, Scandinavian drivers were expected to excel.
Clad in a sheepskin jacket, 1962 F1 World Champion Graham Hill flagged contestants away at 2pm on Sunday from the Forte Hotel London Airport start. The route wound its way from London to the West Country, then northwards, with a Sunday night stopover in Bristol. The Morleys’ Healey, number 14, led the cars away from Bristol Airport on Monday morning, heading for the Welsh forests and Oulton Park racing circuit. At this point, snow was falling, which made Erle Morley’s job of pushing DRX 258C into the paddock for Monday night repairs to a broken axle that much harder. A new one was fitted in 25 minutes. The following day, the rally caravan passed through the Kielder Forest and into Scotland, with snow up to 9 inches deep in places. It was the treacherous conditions in Scotland that caught out Don Morley. The twins left the road on the Loch Achray forest stage, the car tipping into a ditch with minor panel damage. With no spectators present to give Erle a hand hauling it out, it marked the end of their rally. Mäkinen went on to finish a close second – by just three minutes – to Rauno Aaltonen in a Works Mini-Cooper S. It was an honourable end to a glittering career for the Big Healey.
Like the other Works Healeys, the car was sold off at season’s end. Pat Moss’s navigator Pauline Mayman, owner of a Birmingham race and rally accessories business, bought it. Mayman was not only an exceptional navigator/ co-driver – she replaced Ann Wisdom in the hot seat next to Pat Moss – Mayman was also a Works BMC Mini-Cooper rally driver who won the Coupe Dames on the Alpine Rally three years in a row and an accomplished racing driver. Mayman drove the car, still bearing the scars from the RAC Rally, back to Birmingham from Abingdon.
Pauline Mayman, husband Lionel and son Christopher campaigned it (with ex-Works Big Healey BMO 93B) with success in club events over the next two years. To better put the power of its powerful engine onto the road, Lionel Mayman installed a Jaguar rear axle with limited-slip differential.
An advert placed by Lionel Mayman in the 31 March 1967 edition of Autosport read as follows:
HAGGLING IS OVER
Must sell my two fabulous works Healey 3000s.
1965 DRX 258C, the most fully developed ever and the last of the line.
1964 BMO 93B, now fully rebuilt on a new chassis (cost over £1, 000) after its Rufforth shunt.
DRX has done only six meetings since a complete rebuild and has not competed since Ron Timmins again breathed life on the engine.
BMO, the Liège winner, is now a new car and has not yet been tested.
Both cars quite capable of lapping Silverstone Club circuit in under 1min 10secs.
Neither of the cars found buyers, as one Healey 3000 was driven to retirement at Silverstone on 18 August 1967 by Christopher Mayman. Another advert placed on 23 February 1968 offered both cars for sale.
Robbie Gordon bought ‘DRX’, recalling: “Lionel took me out for a demonstration run and drove it round Birmingham’s Bull Ring [shopping centre] like a maniac.” The car was still in rally trim with double-spare-wheel bootlid. It was campaigned with enthusiasm throughout 1968 including a one-off drive by larger-than-life saloon car expert Gerry Marshall at Snetterton in an attempt to beat occasional works driver John Gott in a similar car. On this occasion the great man’s skills failed him.
Gordon placed an advert in the 1 November 1968 issue of Autosport , describing ‘DRX’ to “Full Works race specification, but licensed for road use and quite shattering as a road car.” Price £1, 625, roughly the same as a used 250 SWB or DB4 GT.
Ron Collings purchased it and appeared in print in Autosport club racing reports several times in 1968 and 1969. It was often described as the “Robbie Gordon 1965 ex-Works Healey 3000”. Collings’ ownership of the car extended into March 1970 (3rd at Snetterton). By then the Healey was running on 12in Borrani Ferrari wire wheels barely accommodated by flared wheelarches. Collings owned another significant Healey, DAC 953C, and in 1974 sold both to USAF officer Steve States who raced the former but kept ‘DRX’ almost untouched at Gordon’s premises while serving in Europe. Five years later, Gordon sold ‘DRX’ for States to Christopher Mayman and Keith Barber.
By the early 1980s genuine ex-Works Big Healeys such as ‘DRX’ were valuable collectors’ cars, Steve States recalling that the car’s value had increased five-fold while in his ownership. So Mayman and Barber’s use of the car was mainly at Austin-Healey events – it was just too valuable to race.
In 1983 it passed to one of the world’s greatest collectors, Sir Anthony Bamford. Around this time, Jonathan Everard, the founder of JME Healeys, was instructed to bring the car back to as campaigned in 1965. Everard served his apprenticeship with the Donald Healey Motor Company at Warwick in the early ’60s. His father also worked there. The work was completed in 1985 (confirmed in a letter dated 1 June 2006) to full 1965 Alpine Rally specification, with an emphasis on cosmetics as the car was to be displayed in a museum.
It was offered at Coys NEC auction in April 1989, when described as “totally rebuilt to concours standards by Jonathan Everard” for vendor Mike Hayward (consigned by a young Simon Kidston). The car sold for £230, 000, then a record price. A further owner was Jaguar collector Alan Lloyd, before it passed to well-known enthusiast Anthony Trevelyan in 2004 who had the car mechanically rebuilt by Jonathan Everard. Two years later the car was for sale again. To promote it, in May 2006 the Healey was the cover car of an early issue of Octane. The famous DRX 258C had been reunited with Don Morley, now retired and living on his Suffolk farm. The feature mentions further restoration work done by JME to bring it to peak working condition, the writer confessing to Morley after an hour in the cockpit on a very wet day: “God that was fabulous, what a wonderful car.” Our client bought it soon afterwards and it has remained in his museum ever since.
In an inspection conducted by Healey specialist Jack Rawles in December 2025, the expert confirmed the car was “presented in a condition that is consistent with what I would expect to see on a ‘Works’ rally car. The overall presentation, equipment, and specification align closely with works-prepared cars of the period… [though] not presented in exact original specification.”
Various features such as Works-correct chassis strengthening, correct rear dampers, unique-to-works-Healey heavy-duty rear leaf springs and quick-lift jacking points bear out the car’s authenticity. The original 5¾in front spot and fog lamps are noted as “rarely seen outside Works cars, as they were all hand-made”. Some concessions to modern driving including a modern fuel tank, later- pattern exhaust, aluminium radiator and MGB-type front dampers can be easily reversed. Some historic accident damage was observed on the left-hand chassis rail.
Rawles concludes that “this is a nice and very interesting piece of BMC history”. A Heritage Certificate was issued by the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust on 6 January 2026, noting: “The factory record confirms H-BJ8/ 31337 is a Works competition car.” The car is still UK registered on its original plate, DRX 258C.
As one of the final Works Big Healeys, this car is a significant piece of motorsport history. It was driven by possibly the finest exponents of the model, modest and dapper Suffolk farmers the Morley twins.
Despite having spent most of the past two decades on static display it runs well – though would benefit from recommissioning – and offers the chance of recreating those long European rallies on modern events, racing at the Goodwood Revival or the Le Mans Classic in a proper ex-Works GT car.
