Bugeye Sprite: 50 and Counting

Healey 100 designer Gerry Coker came up with “a working man’s Ferrari,” which could be kept in a bike shed, and used standard parts from BMC sedans

by Gary Anderson

Question: What collectible automobile copied the chassis design of the Jaguar D-type, was introduced at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, took first, second, and third at Sebring during its first year of production, and yet was intended “for a chap to park in his bike shed”?

Answer: The first generation Austin-Healey Sprite, known to generations of enthusiasts for the one design feature the otherwise-complimentary auto press criticized: the protruding headlamps that reminded us Americans of bug eyes and the English of frog eyes.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Mk I Sprite, body style AN5 with a 4-cylinder BMC A-series engine, was produced for just over three years from mid-1958 to early 1961. In that time, 49,000 Bugeye Sprites were sold, making the Bugeye one of the most successful introductions ever by British Motor Corporation.

In fact, with very few changes, the basic design—restyled in 1961 to remove the protruding...