Could the eccentric Van den Plas Healey survive?

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Some of the Healeys before Austin were coachbuilt cars by Muliner of England, Pourtout of France, Beutler of Switzerland and even Bertone of Italy. Unfortunately very, very, few of these cars survive, although hopes are still high of finding one of them one day.

We couldn’t remember the coachbuilt Healey by Van denPlas of Brussels though, which may have been the one to top them all. And so we wondered if anyone knows anything about its possible survival? We looked for more information about the car, which is where Bill Emerson’s unrivalled 2002 ‘The Healey Book’ comes to the rescue. For this time we are going to quote directly from it here, as Emerson’s words sum it up perfectly:

“In 1948 at the Brussels Automobile Show, Van den Plas displayed what must be the most extraordinary body ever placed on a Healey chassis. Healey chassis B1609 and Riley engine B430 provided the basis for this exceptional automobile. The teardrop shape and extensive use of chrome on the wings were typical of French coachbuilders in the 1940s and may have been the genesis for this particular design. The artist’s rendition of the Van den Plas coupe for a contemporary advertisement is shown with drawings of a Duncan saloon and Westland roadster. Both The Motor and Auto captured photographic record of the Brussels Automobile Show and it is from them that a visual record of this custom-bodied Healey survives. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the actual car is unknown, although conceivably, someone knows the location or fate of this magnificent example of the coachbuilder’s art.”

In the meantime, this photograph of the car turned up on the world wide web also. But together with the write up above it seems to be all the information available on the car. Or is it?

(Words editor, pictures archive/coachbuild.com)

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