ever since I posted about Team Sprite, the high school girls that restored a bug eye Sprite, around 2007, I've loved to find and post stories of high schoolers learning auto mechanics, and here's a donated 48 Chev Stylemaster that Hylton High School of Woodbridge VA is fixing, to auction, to raise funds for their auto mechanics program

 

do you remember Team Sprite, and Team Isetta (the same team, new project the next year) from 2007?

Team Sprite: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/01/high-school-auto-restoration-class.html
Team Isetta: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/01/team-isetta-had-300-at-hillsborough.html 

yes, I have been blogging since 2006, and have covered so darn many cool projects, high schoolers, and teachers! 

Bugatti owners better bewarned that the meek are inheriting the earth, and the German cars are conquering the French!

After another year of 'fine tuning'  Team Isetta  returned to Hillsborough on the 26th of August 2012  to participate in the Parade D' Elegance.

The real surprise came when the Team Isetta car was awarded both The Chairman's Award (“presented to the exhibitor most deserving of recognition by the Concours Chairman and Vice-Chairman.”) and The People's Choice Award (“This award recognizes the automobile you would most like to drive right off the field this afternoon.”)

 Last year the People's Choice Award was given to Mozart's 1937 Bugatti Type 57 Corsica (valued "in excess of $25 million")

http://www.morethanthecar.com/

Team Isetta had the 300 at the Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance held August, 28, 2011 at the Crystal Springs Golf Course!

above clipped from http://www.teamisetta.com/

above 2 images from http://www.flickr.com/photos/22166506@N06/6094230867/in/photostream/

above 3 are from http://www.thebayareasbackroads.com/2012/01/1957-bmw-isetta-cabriolet-300.html

Team Isetta almost finished! July 2011 is the target for completion

We’re still pluggin’ along on the Isetta. Usually just one or two girls at a time and Mark, who at 12, was with the project from the very first day in May of 07. One of the girls, I call her the son I never had, managed to get a three hour block every Thursday morning. When she signed on the car was spread all over the shop, unpainted and looking rather forlorn.

We are doing our best to make this a very true restoration, and that has taken a lot of research and a library of over 700 photographs. It took quite a while to find an untouched original cabriolet to crawl around, but we managed to locate two, and they have been an incredible help. Oddball things (try to find new 8mm X 1.25 nuts with a 14mm head, they only make them with 13mm heads now) we either make or have made. We’ve discovered, through several very knowledgeable enthusiasts both here and in Germany, quite a few little known (or perhaps rarely applied) facts that help us to perform an accurate restoration. We’re shooting for a finished, ready to show, car by July. There are some great guys out there, building some beautiful cars; it’ll be fun to see how this little back-woods build stacks up.  http://www.morethanthecar.com/
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We still get e-mails on the Team Sprite website http://www.morethanthecar.com/ , I think it’s near 20,000 hits to date, quite remarkable for a little school in the foothills of Northern California. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/01/high-school-auto-restoration-class.html

Most of those young ladies have graduated from, or are just finishing up college, but we still keep tabs on each other. I’ve known several of them since they were eight or nine and it’s been a real honor to watch them grow up.

You may recall that four of those young women and I, went in together and purchased the bugeye as a tub and 21 boxes of unlabeled parts. When RM auctioned the car 18 eighteen months later, we paid off a substantial Visa card and split the remainder of the sale price. With the Isetta, we’ll be free to show the car for a year or two without concerning ourselves about financial obligations. Because it was to be a rotating class, and there was no school funding for something like this, I picked up the tab on the Isetta and the money can stay there until the next project pops up.

Brian Powers http://www.morethanthecar.com/
Living Wisdom School
Nevada City, Calif

to read all about the Team Sprite or Team Isetta coverage: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Team%20sprite

The "Team Sprite" car gets auctioned again, and still gathers compliments

The Oct. Barrett Jackson auction had the Team Sprite car auctioned and Automobile Magazine in the Feb 2009 issue spotlighted it, page 93. It was only driven 34 miles since the restoration, so the first owner must have kept it as a showpiece is my guess. It sold the first time for 24 thou, this time for 20 thou. That first owner should have enjoyed it more, and kept it longer.

http://www.livingwisdom.org/highschool/latest_news/High_articles/AHMag-YouGoGirls.pdf for a 6 page magazine pdf that cover the story really well.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-favorite-all-time-car-stories-is.html

In favorite all time car stories, is the Team Sprite high school car restoration, now onto their new project ! Team Isetta !

In Jan 07, a story spread around the internet about Living Wisdom High School that had a really cool teacher, a really cool project, and some 13 to 18 yr old girls with the best class that we all wish we could have been part of. Restoring a '58 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite from a completely disassembled project car.

Starting with a basket case in the fall of 2005 and about 2 dozen boxes  of unmarked parts (some weren't off the Sprite!) the last owner had removed in his attempt to restore it, a Bugeye Sprite was reconstructed and restored by a teacher with moxie, and girls with a afterschool project to enable their learning  the fundamental automotive skills of repair and maintenance. They restored it and auctioned it at the Jan 19 '07 RM auctions for 24 thousand.

I posted http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/01/high-school-auto-restoration-class.html then, exchanged an email with the teacher, and never forgot how cool the story was. I've shared it with readers here, and told lots of people at car shows while we enjoyed swapping stories.

They are onto the new project, a '57 BMW Isetta 300! Living Wisdom High in Nevada City Ca. is the place I consider to have the coolest kids car project ever.

The Isetta was parked in '67 or so when it broke the driveshaft donut, and was started on in May of 2007 by the team of 5 students, this time one boy added to the previous all girl project, and they are not financed by the school. It's an after-hours and summer project, that is funded by donations. Cookies are welcome, but parts support is priority one!

http://www.morethanthecar.com/