Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite

by Gary Anderson

The Bugeye is guaranteed to put smiles on faces.

Want to make people smile? Just drive a Bugeye Sprite into any old-car gathering and its insouciant expression will have everyone grinning back. For eyes, it has headlamps that look as if they were pasted on as an afterthought, for a nose, a little round emblem, Ad to this the open-mouthed grin of the grilleand it becomes impossible to look at this car and keep a straight face. Take it out on a quiet, curving two-lane road and it will make you grin, too. With only 48 bhp from the 948cc engine, 0 to 60 takes 21 seconds and 70 mph is a real strain, but the little car’s neutral balance rewards a nice line through the curves and the four-speed transmission is entertaining in between. When Donald Healey developed the Sprite, he wanted it to be cheap to buy and own, small enough to keep “in a chap’s bike shed,” and above all, fun to drive. The Sprite is a marvel of cost-cutting simplicity and innovative technology. Most components came out of the Austin/Morris...