[1][6][7][8] Donald Healey was a British aircraft and automobile engineer who became a rally driver, piloting a variety of marques starting with a Buick in 1921 and proceeding through Triumph and Invicta, to Riley Motor in 1933.

During the early part of World War II (WWII) Healey remained at the Triumph factory designing aero engine carburettors.

During the war years Healey began planning a high performance car, envisioned as a revival of the Triumph, for the post-war market.

A.C. Sampietro, known as 'Sammy', was an engineer who had worked for Alfa Romeo and Maserati in his native Italy and then with Thomson & Taylor and Talbot before applying his skills as a chassis designer to Healey's project.

After the war, while still working at Humber, Healey, Bowden and Sampietro began planning to put their new sports car into production.

Sampietro designed the chassis that became the basis for the company's subsequent cars, collectively called the Warwick Healeys.

Called the Healey Duncan Drone, and nicknamed the Spiv, this car had an extremely simple roadster body with minimal equipment.

[2] The body was produced in light alloy for Healey by Abbey Panel and Sheet Metal Co., Ltd. of Coventry, at a cost of £150 per copy.

[2][29][7] The Silverstone was the first Healey to use a tubular metal structure to support the body, instead of the timber framework used on earlier cars.

[21][8] The main side members were made of an upper "Top hat" steel rail with a plate added to close the bottom.

[22][30] The chassis was shortened for use in the Silverstone by removing the rear extensions, but the car has the same wheelbase as the Westland and Abbott Healeys.

[28] The D-Type's bucket seats were replaced by a bench in E-Type cars, which also added a bonnet scoop on the top of the engine cover, and a larger windscreen.

[2][33] Promotional material from Healey indicated that the company offered a Wade Ventor supercharger as a factory installed option.

[11] In another search for more power for the Silverstone, Sampietro did a preliminary design for a narrow-angle V8 engine with a wet linered light alloy cylinder block, but the cost to produce it was prohibitive, and the project was abandoned.

In December 1949 Donald Healey sailed for America aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth, hoping to persuade General Motors to provide him with a supply of Cadillac's new 331 cu in (5.4 L) V8 engine.

[9] When GM declined to supply the hoped-for engine, Healey contacted Mason, and work began on development of the Nash-Healey sportscar.

The first instance is fitted with an enveloping ponton body designed by Hodges and produced by Panelcraft Sheet Metal of Birmingham, England, trimmed with a Nash grille.

The Nash grille was replaced by another piece, the power bulge in the bonnet was deleted, and other minor features such as a scuttle vent, fog lamps, and revised wheel plates, were added.

[47]: 4 Power for this version came from a 3.0 L (183 cu in) inline six cylinder engine from the Alvis TB 21 fed by two SU carburettors.

[43] The Alvis-Healey also used the clutch and transmission from Alvis, and replaced the Nash-Healey's torque tube rear drive with a rigid Salisbury axle suspended on coil springs and located by trailing links, with the drive reaching the rear axle via an open Hardy-Spicer driveshaft.

[43][48]: 10 In 1949 American sportsman Briggs Cunningham brought two Silverstones to the United States; chassis D9 and D15, the latter of which was bought engineless from the factory.

[53] Healey received one of two Cadillac V8 engine loaned out by GM, the other going to Briggs Cunningham in the US for installation in chassis D15.

[53][58] Healey Silverstone chassis D48 was originally sold to Harry Mark Walker of Leicester, then passed through owners D.S.

D48 was purchased by Guy Griffiths in September 1964, who began a program of development to make the car competitive in hill climbs.

With a new exhaust manifold and the head shaved to raise compression, it finished ninth in class and one-hundred seventy-seventh overall.

[64] As cars with cycle fenders had been banned from competing at Le Mans, the original Silverstone items were removed, and two full-length side pieces were added that gave the appearance of a full-width body.