Larry G. Miller wrote:
>
> What do you expect from people that boil their bread.
>
> ----------
> From: owner-spridgets@autox.team.net on behalf of Shawn J. Tobin
> Sent: 12 November, 1997 6:08 AM
> To: spridgets@Autox.Team.Net
> Subject: sorry anyway
>
> I have personally been told by an Englishman in America that
> a Sprite really isn't an Austin-Healy. He owned a 100-6. I
> don't care what people think of my car. My personal favorite
> autocrosser was a '64 Catalina. I don't care. It's not my
> Midget's fault it got MG badges and extra chrome. I can't help
> it if I love the little cars, can I?
A Sprite ISN'T an Austin-Healy!! It's an Austin-HEALEY!! If you want
to get
technical and literal at the same time, the only Sprite that is an Austin
Healey is the
'58-'60 "Bugeye" Sprite. It was designed by an employee of Donald Healey's
company and,
of course the car used running gear from the Austin company. By the end of
1960 it was
decided by BMC management that: 1.) The car was to be re-designed 2.) The
factory would
"badge engineer" an MG version (that's why it's the Sprite MarkII and the
Midget MarkI)
However the redesign of the body was carried out at "opposite ends" of the
building.
BMC management asked Don Healey to re-design the front end of the car, while
unbeknownst
to him, they had asked the MG design group to redesign the rear of the car. In
fact
there are photos of a prototype Sprite that had the Bugeye rear with the new
re-designed
front end attached (quite the opposite of the occasional newer body style
Sprites with a
bugeye bonnet that someone has stuck together!). Anyway, differences front to
back are
are obvious. Healey's designers got rid of the seam beading on the top of the
fenders,
but the MG designers left it on the rear fenders. There is more of a rounded
feeling to
the front of the car, as opposed the the "Squareness" of the back. And, of
course, just
compare to round wheel arch of the front with the square arch in the back.
So from all this the literal answer is that all Austin Healey Sprites
and MG
Midgets built after the end of the Bugeye are really Austin Healey MG
Spridgets!! Healey
gets top billing over MG because, after all, they DID make the first Sprites.
And all
Midgets built after the end of the run of Sprites in 1970 still have a lot of
Healey in
them, even though I'm sure Donald wouldn't want to claim the "rubber bumper"
Triumph
powered ones!!
Rick
'58,'63,'68 A-H MG Spridgets
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