Coventry-based bespoke engineering company Envisage Group has launched its first restomod – under a new brand, Caton – based on an early Austin Healey.
The Healey by Caton will be limited to 25 examples and draws on Envisage’s vast experience in the one-off, specialist and classic car fields – as reported by Autocar as recently as July last year.
As well as creating concept cars for manufacturers and coachbuilding specials for single customers, Envisage is the company that made the body shells and panels for Jaguar’s recent D-Type and XKSS Continuation models.
The Healey, though, is the company’s first vehicle to wear its own branding. Caton is an amalgam of the group’s parent company, Cattrell Hudson.
The base car is the Austin Healey 100/4 BN1, made between 1953 and 1955.
Caton sends the engine off to JME Healeys, a model specialist, in Warwick, and turns its attention to the rest of the car for restoration and modification.
“The mechanical platform is now as capable as it can be,” said Envisage CEO Tim Strafford.
The chassis is lightly strengthened and has known weaknesses and corrosion points addressed, but is mostly just restored as is – important because the car needs to retain its original identity.
The most notable change takes advantage of Envisage’s coachbuilding experience by reworking and subtly altering every body panel or creating new ones.
The finish and shape is one that Caton’s designers and engineers think the Healey’s creators would have liked to give the production car first time around – something now made possible by tighter tolerances and better production and design techniques, plus the fact that the Caton car is such a high-end, low volume product.
Seams that ran along the front and rear wing tops on the original Healey have been eliminated, as have door and boot handles, while the front grille is new, with vanes that appear to sweep under the bonnet, and there’s a new finishing panel on the side vent. Panel gaps are tight and consistent.
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Don't even go there. You will definitely die in this.
Restomod, the minu this word is added to a Car, it suddenly becomes a five or six figure asking price, why?, your providing a donor Car, it's being built to modern standards, making it a better Car, it can't take that long to restore it to better than new.
I'm two years into an Alfa 155 restmod project, the car's still a shell, albeit it's now painted.
Alfa 155. A car so dangerous NCAP was created just to make sure such dangerous cars never reached our roads!
You will if a Dacia crashes into it!
Absolute PERFECTION.
I agree. Apart from the fact that it is a British car, restored in Britain, and the steering wheel is on the wrong side. And it has the wrong badges on it. And it has an ancient engine that only pushes out 185 bhp, that is.
"Lacks any meaningful torsional rigidity"
Which means: "Don't expect this to handle like a decent sports car"
"cart sprung live axle"
Yikes!!! Even the Flintstones had more advanced suspension on their cars than this.
"more than enough power"
This is 2022. "More than enough power" is a thing of the past. With Teslas and Lucids (etc) having so much power they can do 0-60 in 3 seconds or less, 185bhp is lame.
If I just wanted a restored 1950s car, I could get one for well under £100,000. For £500,000 I would expect something a bit more special than this.