Garish gold Austin Healey heads to auction

Gold tends to be a pretty undesirable colour for cars in the UK – on the whole, we prefer black, silver and sleek chrome, thank you very much. But this Austin Healey is undoubtedly supremely British, and comes resplendent with gold detailing on just about every surface.

It was first revealed at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1958, but was sold to the Daily Express even before it entered public view. Taken off the production line at the Austin Healey factory, the 100-Six was painted ivory, while everything that would usually be chrome-plated was instead dipped in 24-karat gold.