slick bug eye Sprite

David Silberkleit, the Bugeye Guy, works on other cars, his company is expert in Sprite restoration

 

Mr. Silberkleit, whose job title is Chief Frogeye Officer, has sold 323 of these early Sprites, and he said every one was different. Some customers want perfect concours restorations; others want upgraded hot rods. Most use their cars locally, within a 100-mile radius.

Larrick of Mount Vernon, Wash., were recently at the Bugeye Guy restoration shop in Branford, Conn., taking delivery of their pale yellow 1958 Sprite, Silberkleit, the aforementioned Bugeye Guy, had made roughly 150 nonoriginal modifications meant to keep Ducky rolling toward Washington, including a Ford-sourced five-speed gearbox for more relaxed cruising, disc brakes all around, electronic ignition, an alternator and — crucially — a beefy aluminum radiator with six-bladed fan.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/business/american-road-trip-bugeye-sprite.html

Elizabeth is looking to find her late brothers 1969 Mk IV Sprite

if you know of it, please let her know at http://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?115278-Long-lost-sprite

the only factory works rally bugeye Sprite is coming to auction

Built by Donald Healey for the 1959 Monte Carlo, Sestriere, and Alpine rallies

I dig that radio too!

https://www.thegentlemanracer.com/2018/09/1958-austin-healey-sprite-mk-1-works.html

1970 Laguna Seca

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/

John Rhodins Team of matched set Sprite and Lotus

https://www.facebook.com/groups/getting.there/

this car was once driven daily by Dr Salk. Of course, it wasn't a pink SCCA Champion then

 the Sports Car Club of America’s first female National Champion, Donna Mae Mims, captured the SCCA H-Production Championship in this 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite Mk I that had been purchased new by Dr. Jonas Salk.

Salk bought the Sprite in 1959 in Paris and imported it into the United States as his daily driver.

 The car’s next owner was Bill Wissel, who prepared the Austin-Healey for competition in SCCA and in 1962, he sold the car to aspiring racer and self-proclaimed “Fancier of Corvettes” Donna Mae Mims, "Donna Mazing, Her Supreme Pinkness" the 1961 SCCA B-Production winner in a 1958 Corvette.

How was it Mims was so focused and winning? Well, it was her nature, and she also kept a day job as the High Performance PR Manager of Yenko's dealership, and ran the 1972 Cannonball in a limo with co-drivers Judy Stropus and Peggy Niemcek

 In her time behind the wheel of the Sprite, Mims would capture three SCCA National wins, plus enough points to deliver her the H-Production championship.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/12/20/think-pink-donna-mae-mims-championship-winning-sprite-heads-to-auction/

Heinz Meixner defects from East Germany by driving through Checkpoint Charlie after removing his windshield 5 May, 1963

One evening Meixner met Margarete Thurau at a dance in East Berlin. As love grew, they made plans for marriage, and Margarete asked permission to emigrate to Austria. East German authorities denied her request.

Undeterred, Meixner decided to drive under one of the steel beams that stretch across the narrow exits in the Wall. He chose Checkpoint Charlie, and riding a borrowed motor scooter, stalled it while the guard checked his passport. Meixner managed to measure the height of the barrier. It was only 37 1/2 inches above the pavement.

Meixner began a painstaking survey of West Berlin`s car rental agencies to find an automobile low enough to slip under the barrier. He selected a sports car, a red Austin-Healey Sprite. Without its windshield the sports car measured 35 1/2 inches in height. He chose a Sunday, shortly after midnight, for his run.

A few hours before starting he removed the windshield and, for added insurance, let some air out of the tires to lower the car even further. Margarete huddled in the tiny section behind the driver`s seat. Meixner`s future mother-in-law was crammed into the cramped luggage area. For protection against possible gunfire, Meixner had surrounded her with 30 bricks.

Sunday, May 5, 1963. It was time for the run. In the early-morning darkness, Meixner drove to the first barricade on the East Berlin side of the checkpoint. He displayed his passport to the guard, who motioned him on to the customs shed. Instead he gunned the motor, whizzed around the vertical bars and skidded past the startled guard.

Before the guards could fire their submachine guns, Meixner raced to the last steel bar, ducked his head, floored the accelerator and rocketed into West Berlin. He was traveling so fast that when he finally hit the brakes the tires left 96-foot-long skid marks.

After the American guards recovered from their shock at this apparition that had materialized out of the early-morning gloom, they welcomed Heinz Meixner, Margarete Thurau and her mother.

Meixner told the Americans, ``I figured it would take the guards three seconds to draw their weapons once they knew what I was doing. I knew Margarete`s mother was protected by the bricks. I felt I could make it with about three inches to spare . . . Now we can get married.``

http://www.vintag.es/2015/07/heinz-meixner-defects-from-east-germany.html

British car show 2014 selected cars

The Gentleman Racer posted a gallery of the Carroll Shelby Driving School, (and it's van and Bugeye Sprite!)

for more photos of the school track and students: http://www.thegentlemanracer.com/2013/04/lost-california-shelby-school-of-high.html

Unusual cars I've only seen at the Rolling British Car day