A FABULOUS WEEKEND AT THE HEALEY MUSEUM
Just returned last night after a really splendid Spridget Meet at the Healey Museum and at Zandvoort. Something like 30 Sprites and Midgets including 8 Sebrings attended. JJO made the 750 round trip without problems and went like a train. I will be preparing a full report with photos shortly – if you were there and would like me to include some of your photos and comments please let me know.
BILL PROUT’S SEBRING SPRITE
Out for the first time at the Fall Festival at Lime Rock Park: “Very disappointing after I spent Eight Thousand dollars on an original Cooper Formula Three BMC engine, only to find some unevenness in the head and block, but I have a great machine shop we work with and in a few weeks should have a lovely 90 HP one liter engine back in the car. But we did get Sir Stirling to sign the dash after he was drawn to it as a fine example of a first generation Sebring Sprite. He was very kind, and that part made us all very proud. I will have more photos soon, and get them to you once we have the engine back in which seemed to want to do everything with water but keep it inside the engine!”
YouTube Clip
Congratulations to Ray English on reaching THE 20TH anniversary of his first edition of “marque one” – his quarterly magazine for Sprite owners worldwide distributed from his home in Australia
Contact Ray by email if you would like to subscribe.
Can anyone help Ray English of
THE SPRITE ROOM find a
Southern Counties Sprite Club badge? Feedback
The Mars Sprite (above) –
an article published in
MG Enthusiast
in November 2004
Gearbox Ailments
With 3 days till we leave for Holland my Sebring’s Toyota gearbox is jammed in 5th. Ouch!
Speedwell Rev Counter
for sale on ebay at £299
– condition unknown
[Seems expensive to me]
Another nice photo of 58 FAC courtesy of Russ Smith who took it at the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours (John whitmore in blue)
SPEEDWELL GEAR KNOB
(supposedly a genuine original)
on ebay. Starting bid £30
Ends tomorrow 13th Sept.
[Pete Taylor] SOLD £42.99
Jonas Lindquist tells me that the gear knobs (shown left) were made by Heritage Garage, Lewes in the 90’s. Genuine, re-manufactured – not original 60’s.
Thanks Jonas
FROGEYE BODY-SHELLS
I recently enquired of Mike Marczynski of Frogeye Spares Company as to their progress with body-shells & he replied as follows:
“As regards progress on bodyshells, we have had some issues with getting the big press that Brian had, to work properly and safely, and are still trying to resolve that issue. Meanwhile, we have arranged to use a local commercial press, with Brian’s moulds, to make the various moulded panels we immediately need, e.g. boot floors. This will happen hopefully in the next couple of days. We’re taking orders for the shells in various Stages, so are very pleased with that, plus the quality of our work going forward. We will receive a large batch of the various laser-cut panels tomorrow, from the original supplier to Brian, so this will also help to get the production moving apace.
I’ve asked Mark to contact you with the prices for Stage 1,2, and 3 bodyshells, and would be very pleased if you could put these details on your website. We’d also welcome any feedback you receive”. [9 Sept 2014]
JUERGEN SCHAEFER’S FASTBACK
(IX 332) nears completion
– his latest message is below:
Hi Martin,
Obviously you had a wonderful holiday down under, which you definitely deserve for all your good works. However this creates a “horror vacui” in your audience, concerning your next years vacations. Three weeks no news !!?
Meanwhile my project has progressed, much slower than indicated recently and even more slowly than promised again and again by my various suppliers/contractors/friends in England. They seem to have contracts with the ferry services and the hotel and restaurant industry in Belgium and England, I know now every stone between here and the Midlands! Finally I have managed to wrestle my toy out of its English captors’ hands and trucked it into my garage, see attachment. The upside of this move is, that every morning I can admire it, sharing with neighbors or passers-by. The downside remains, I cannot approach TUEV, as it is not really drivable, due mainly to its awful no-feedback steering rack (new manufacture due to lhd-conversion, from a major German supplier) and a number of other not yet perfected mods. Amongst others, I’m waiting for a bespoke speedo-cable (clip-on fit to instrument and geared for 5-speed-box), which was promised “within 7 workdays”, now more than 17 gone, hopefully not to exceed 70. A dreadful winter is looming, without sidecreens, ordered years ago from the monopolist expert in the Midlands!!!! So I did not have a chance to drive in style to Silverstone or the Revival and we will miss Spa 6 hrs this year. I will no more attempt to predict any dates, but still have a dim hope to have it registered end of this year. The rear-window tailgate solution looks good and works well under more or less static conditions, but neither high-speed nor rain tests have taken place yet. I’ve only driven “auto-mobile” about 40 km to and from the rolling road at the Nuremberg Bosch service, where we recorded a very healthy and comfortable “century” from the Peter-May-engine. I will keep you informed. Regards, Juergen.
2214 UE
Hans van de Kerkhof of the Healey Museum came across this advert (right) placed by Mike Reid when he came to sell the ex-John Patten car. I forwarded it to John Poulter who says:
“I have seen copy of the build specification sheet when Mike Reid converted the car to full specification prior to it appearing at the 1962 Racing Car Show. It must have cost a mint even in those days as it had absolutely every modification known at the time with the exception of a dry sump XSP eng. It did have a state of the art Don Moore motor though. I have seen some reference to Reid buying it off Sprinzels stand at the show but that’s wrong as Reid bought the car in Oct 61 and did all the mods including the fitting of the Peel body.
Because of the changes to the car in the early seventies – alloy wheels etc and then the crash, much of the genuine Sebring parts have gone and would now cost a bomb to replicate, for example much of the front suspension is MK4 Sprite which includes the disc brakes, no Girling bits anymore. I asked Robin Leathhart if he could remember what he did with the original wires, hubs and brakes when he did the main changes and he couldn’t recall”.
Bill King kindly sent in this photo, from 1972, of DAC being driven by its owner Bill Brill at Virginia International Raceway. Another piece of the jigsaw.
VEHICLE RESEARCH
David Scothorn lives not far from BMIHT at Gaydon and has offered to carry out research based on registration numbers and related registration details, keepers, etc (as far as they were recorded). He would need £50 to cover expenses.
Contact him via email
Derek Stewart is looking for a bell-housing to mate a Toyota T50 gearbox to an ‘A’ Series engine. Email him.
47 years after 2080 PO was last at the Brighton Speed Trials, its new owner Pierre Lequeux did the standing ¼ mile in 16.28 secs.
Watch it on YouTube
LNX 629E fetches £28,000 + comm’n at auction
The bidding started at £8,000 and rose steadily by £1k at a time to close at £28k (that’s £32k after commission)! The other Baglow car a Frogeye project (354 CDV) achieved £3,200 + commission
and, disappointingly, the Healey Fiesta bidding stopped at £7,200, well below its guide price, so didn’t sell.
Ex-JOHN SPRINZEL FROGEYE
Recently acquired from John in Hawaii, new owner Brett Pruitt is restoring the car to the spec’ of that which John drove in the 1958 Alpine Rally. The engine is re-built and the body stripped for repainting in the original powder blue.
Brett Pruitt has also had copies of the original Speedwell badge, as fitted to John’s ’58 Alpine Rally car, reproduced and chromed.
(From 18.19 Euros each)
58 FAC
David Scothorn sent me this great photo by Dr. John Gilbert taken at Le Mans in 1963, (having driven down in his 100/6 and slept in it!)
Mark Straker cannot get over the amazing similarity between the ex-Frank Tiedeman Sprite sold last year at auction (right) and the one his late father, Tony, owned between 1970 & 75 (left). Both have slots in the doors for handles, the same side vents on their bonnets, the tiny little flares on the rear arches, the detail of the windscreen, roof and even the rear side window mounting method, and rubber flaps underneath. He thinks his Dad’s car was ex-works, possibly with a GRP rear end. Could they be the same car?
[Mike Fairclough points out that both cars also have the roll cage diagonal the wrong way round! ]
JJO’s SHORROCK SUPERCHARGER PROBLEMS
Since re-installing my supercharger in JJO I am finding she suffers from exceptionally high oil consumption – like 75 miles to a pint (compared with 850 miles to a pint in period articles). Paul Watson has suggested I may be using the wrong oil (Classic 20/50) and both Ian Grainger and Nick Conklin suggest I may have to fit a modified lubrication pin. Many thanks guys. Any other ideas? Feedback
642 GEH – the ex-Tommy Gold Rally Car
which featured in John Baggott’s book ” Frogeye Sprite” p154. Richard Yapp sent in these photos of the car during his ownership between 1968 and 1971 when he used it for autotests, autocross, production car trials, sprints, hillclimbs and the odd circuit race.
Richard says: “It had the Sebring bonnet on it then. I’m a life member of Hagley car club and the BTRDA and used the car with my father, pictured with me, to win the Ken Wharton Memorial Trophy for best club performance at Hagley and also the BTRDA driving test, Ian Mantle Trophy, for best non-expert – both in 1970. By this time I had fitted a 998 Formula Junior engine acquired from Gordon Howie , a long time Sprite and Midget man”. Sadly the car is no more having succumbed to the dreaded tin worm but the number is retained by a close friend to whom he sold the car.
WSM 203S FOR SALE
on Car & Classic
a 1962 USA car with aluminium bonnet, believed now in Japan.
DAN PAUL has just completed building his standard-bodied Sebring after 3 years and done 300 shakedown miles in it. http://sebringsprite.blogspot.co.uk
Steve Nash is planning to convert his Midget Mk 2 known as “Ker
ROGER DAVIES
asks if anyone recalls Sebring Sprite reg. 9 CKT which he bought, written off, in the late 60’s? Email him.
Phil Zamlynski reports from the U.S:
The body of my car is now in the paint shop, so I’m about 2/3 weeks from bringing the car home to assemble seats, wiring, and safety stuff. It’s painted silver metallic as John Sprinzel’s original. I recently attended a VSCDA race weekend; there were 19 plus Sprites and MG Midgets. I also found out the there is a factory prepared Bugeye Sprite in storage collecting dust!
Nikolaj Mortensen’s car has been acquired by Sylvain Proyart
354 CDV – Ex-John Baglow Frogeye to be auctioned at Bonhams, Beaulieu on Sept 6th
Paul Marlborough writes: “My late father (Brian Marlborough) was the second owner of the late John Baglow’s early Frogeye 354CDV. I had for several years badgered John into selling me the car for sentimental reasons. John would occasionally visit me at home with stories of his rallying and we occasionally went to the odd show together or met up at Mini shows. I guess now my only option will be to bid at the auction”. [Lot 400 – est £3,000 to £4,000]
PHILIP HARRIS-BLAND asks: ” I wonder if anyone could tell me if the rear shroud of a Mk 1 Sprite has the same contours as the rear shroud/boot area of a Mk 2 Sprite? I would like to fit a Mk 2 boot lid to a Mk 1 rear and thereafter fit an Ashley hardtop WITH a bootlid. Any information would be greatly appreciated”. If you can assist please contact him by email with copy to Feedback please.
SOLD ON EBAY for £2,499
to Sven Eckhardt was this restoration project with some Speedwell features incl its ½” anti-roll bar, and exhaust manifold. Reg No. was TRV 202. [Alistair Ross]
SEBRING SPRITE REAR WHEEL CYLINDERS
The 8″ rear drum brakes used on original Sebring Sprites (as well as Turners and other marques) had ⅝” bore wheel cylinders which are now virtually unobtainable. The outer units can be acquired from Powertrack Limited but they have no cylinders. I prepared the attached drawing and Andrew Moynagh in NZ had a pair made in stainless steel for about £60. Might be useful for someone.
SOLD on EBAY for £612!!!
As Pierre Lequeux says: “for that price you probably could hire the service of a valet to open the doors of your car”
Graham Robson has acquired the Brian Arculus WSM: 793 XPP and plans to race it in the last two rounds of the HRDC All Stars at Snetterton & Donington
Our trip down under – 7th to 29th August.
On 11th Aug we were in Melbourne, Australia and Tony Bennetto of the Bugeye Barn and his wife, Kerry, kindly drove us out to Eagle Point, to the home of Ray English who has created an amazing Aladdin’s Cave of Sprite Memorobilia in the “Sprite Room”. We spent the day looking over all the many models, badges, photographs, articles and the enormous archive of records which Ray has amassed over the years. From this room he publishes his excellent quarterly magazine “Marque One” which he circulates to subcribers around the globe. Ray also took me for a drive in his Bugeye with Sebring bonnet, which he uses daily.
Entry to “The Sprite Room”
Just a sample of all that is on display
Ray at work
My 2nd Sprite day out during our stay, was to Picton, south of Sydney at the home of Joe Armour who owns the 1968 ‘works’ Le Mans Sprite. We were joined by Neil Blaney in his Bugeye, Bob Blayden in his Sebring rep, and Bob Rowntree, the local Sprite engineer, with two friends,Richard and Dennis, plus Paul Orton who, I am glad to say, is now recovered from his racing accident.
We gathered in front of Joe and Lenore’s rural abode
Bob brought along his immaculate Sebring Rep
Off for a brief run
When we ran out of fuel I took some photos.
Back at base
Joe allowed me to take the wheel for a few miles so I can now say I’ve driven an ex-works Le Mans car. It felt great and I would have welcomed an opportunity to open it up on a circuit somewhere. Thanks Joe.
On the way home Bob and I visited Neil’s home at Pheasants Nest to inspect his nearly finished Sebring Rep.
