Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite

The name of the new car allowed people to come up with some interesting alternative names, the Sprogeyed Frite being one of the most colourful. In America the car was know as the Bugeye Sprite, but whatever name it carried it was immensely popular.

Its simple design meant not only low build costs for Austin but a cheap car to buy and to maintain for the customer. The low weight also helped the performance, and while a top speed in the low to mid eighties may not sound too fast today it was no slouch for a car with less than one litre under the bonnet in the late fifties. The acceleration allowed the Frogeye Sprite to hit 0-60 in around 20 seconds.

A strong after market soon developed to add increased performance and looks with everything from knock on wire wheels to supercharger kits being offered. One of the most popular being the front disc brake conversion kit, as the original drums could struggle to cope with an exuberant driver.

In 1961 the Sprite MKll came along and a sister car the MG Midget was also born. Basically the same car but built and marketed by MG, also owned by BMC, with the slight confusion that the MKll Sprite was the MKl Midget. When the Austin Healey name was dropped from the BMC line up in 1971 the Midget name continued all the way up to 1979. People often called the cars Spridgets. In total around 350,000 Spridgets were built over more than twenty years.

The Frogeye Sprite used the A-Series 948cc engine (Bore and stroke: 2.478in x 3.00in) which was a water-cooled inline four-cylinder ohv motor pumping out around 43 bhp at 5,200 rpm. Torque was 52lb ft at 3,300 rpm. Crankshaft had three main bearings.

Transmission was four-speed, no synchromesh on first.

Suspension was independent at the front with coil springs and wishbones and at the back, a live rear axle with1/4-elliptic 15-leaf springs
and radius arms. It had lever-arm shocks all round.

Steering was rack and pinion.

Brakes were drum all around. And 5.20-13in tyres were standard.

Dimensions.
Length: 11ft 51/4in
Width: 4ft 5in