The Sprite made its debut before the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix as an inexpensive motor “a chap could keep in his bike shed.”
The little car was designed by the Donald Healey Motor Company and was produced in Abingdon at the MG factory. Originally to have had retractable lights, cost cutting at BMC gave the Sprite its iconic look and name—“Frog Eye” on the right side of the pond, and “Bug Eye” on the left. It was also the first mass-produced sports car to utilize unitary construction, where body panels take much of the structural stresses, as a result there was no trunk lid, as a way of bolstering structural integrity. Any luggage or the like got pushed into the good-sized space behind the seats where the spare lived.
Powered by a 948-cc, four-cylinder engine derived from the Austin A35 and Morris Minor 1000, with larger twin 1-1/8-inch SU carburetors, it sported a front end with rack and pinion steering from that same Morris and a rear end with quarter-elliptical leaf springs and lever-arm shocks. With no door handles and a basic interior, you end up with a lightweight, simple, quick bit of kit.
Sprites were entered in rallies and races across the globe. They won their class in the 1958 Alpine Rally and showed America what they were made of by taking a class win in the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1959. The “Little” Healeys are still effective racers today, running in everything from the SCCA to VSCCA, all these many years after their creation.
Contributing photographer Michael DiPleco started his affair with Sprites back in 1972. Lured by the smiling grill of the Bug Eye, he traded a Sunbeam Alpine with a blown engine for a Healey that needed rather more work than he expected. His second Healey was with him for roughly 30 years until the devil’s choice of a head-on collision with a pick-up truck, or a trip into a ditch—in the end, the two flipped over and ended their time together.
His latest creation from Abingdon has been with him for the last eight years. In the last year, an engine and transmission swap from a 1967 model was performed. The 1275-cc engine with its Weber carburetor is now putting out a “ground-pounding” 60 bhp, while an upgrade to front disc brakes keeps this British powerhouse in check.
After lunch on a brisk afternoon in Ulster County, Michael and I head off for a drive. As he told me, “ you don’t have to be going fast to scare yourself in a Sprite.”
You also don’t have to be going fast to have a whole lot of fun in a Sprite. You do what you have to do with a non-synchro first gear and then you are off through the others, listening to the happy growl of the little engine that could.
With no top and side curtains you get a sense of freedom tearing down winding fall roads. A highway might not be as much fun, as you are looking straight at the spinning lug nuts of 18-wheelers, but a country lane is the perfect stomping ground for a Bug Eye. It turns where you want it to go, it’s just fast enough, it stops with no problem—and it is just SO damned cute!
I always wondered why the 100-4 and the 3000 were called the “Big” Healeys. After my time in “Boo,” (DiPleco says, “I just looked at her and said she’s ‘Boo’”) I know why. You want to be good friends or lovers if you are going to share the space in a Sprite, but one way or another you are going to have more fun than you’re going to know what to do with in a Bug Eye.
I now know where my friend Michael gets his grin from. It’s the same one on the front end of his car. I had one too after the drive.
My thanks to Michael and Boo for a great day in the country.
Specifications
Length 3486 millimeters / 137.2 inches Width 1346 millimeters / 53 inches Height 1264 millimeters / 49.8 inches Wheelbase 2032 millimeters / 80 inches Front Track 1162 millimeters / 45.75inches Rear Track 1137 millimeters / 44.74 inches Ground Clearance 127 millimeters / 5 inches Weight 670 kilograms / 1477 pounds Fuel Capacity 27 liters/7.1 U.S. gal/5.9 Imp. gal Engine BMC Austin A-series 948-cc (Boo 1275-cc) Engine Type Spark-ignition 4-stroke OHV Fuel Type Gasoline Carburetion 2 SU carburetors (Boo 1 Weber) Valves per Cylinder 2 Horsepower net 31.7 kW / 43 PS / 42.5 hp (net) (Boo 60 hp)
Performance
Top Speed 82 mph • 0-60 mph 19 sec • 0-100 mph NA • Avg. mpg 33 mpg
Valuation
Price at Launch £669 • Excellent $20,500 • Good $12,000 • Average $8,000 • Poor $4,500
