Austin-Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite road test

[mab01uk]

Austin-Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite road test.
"Classics World take to the road in an early ‘Frogeye’ Sprite, a car that proves you don’t need headline-grabbing horsepower figures to have fun.
Having brought big engines and high performance to the world of British sports cars with his ‘Big Healeys’, Donald Healey set his sights on the other end of the market in the late 1950s. His aim was to produce a modern replacement for both the traditional MG Midget of the 1930s and 1940s (a breed now going extinct since MG went upmarket with the MGA), the customised and sports-prepared versions of the Austin Seven (now also suffering from old age) and an over-the-counter alternative to the myriad of sporty kit cars on the market. Healey wanted his new car to be as small, as affordable and as easy to maintain and repair as possible, describing his idea as ‘the sort of thing a chap could keep in his bike shed.’
With his connections to Austin, it’s no surprise that Healey sourced much of his car’s mechanical parts from the Longbridge parts bin. The 948cc engine came from the Austin A35 (albeit with a second carburettor), as did the independent coil spring front suspension and the back axle. The steering rack was the highly regarded item from the Morris Minor.
Seeking a light but strong and stiff body, Healey pushed boundaries by giving the Sprite a monocoque body ‘tub’, making it one of the first unitary-build sports cars. Seeking strength and lightness meant that there was no boot lid, with luggage having to be squeezed under the rear deck behind the seats. Rear suspension was a shrunken version of the arrangement from the Le Mans-winning Jaguar D-type, with quarter-elliptic leaf springs."
More here:-
https://classicsworld.co.uk/cars/austin ... road-test/

[BAD942B]

just whats needed with the lowest diff ratio possible & a 803cc A series engine for those 20mph speed limits