Update by Tim Suddard to the
Austin-Healey Sprite project car
May 2, 2021
Now that we'd brought home this Bugeye Sprite, a big question loomed: Exactly what did we buy?
The car hadn’t run in years and came with humidity-softened boxes of parts. Time to dig through everything.
Step 1: Simply unpack the car.
Step 2: Vacuum out the remaining dirt and make sure the car is free of wildlife.
Step 3: Put the car up on the lift and inspect. As we suspected, there was very little rust to repair. A spot in the lower-front A-pillar area and a small, easy-to-repair section of the floor would need attention, but that was about it.
Also, while this Sprite had been a race car for much of its life, it still remained fairly close to stock. It didn’t have a trick rear end. It never received a fancy suspension setup. Everything did look fairly worn out, though.
Our dreams of finding a championship-winning Sprite with a storied history were quickly dashed. What we discovered instead was a mildly prepared, clapped-out Sprite with just a few speed parts: Panhard bar, hardened front spindles, front anti-roll bar.
So we won’t feel bad about making major changes. More on that soon.
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