1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder

#1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder drivers
#1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder driver
#1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder plus

It fires on a pull of the starter knob, the 948cc overhead-valve four eliciting a cheeky induction whoof through its twin pancake-type Cooper air filters with an accompanying mischievous exhaust parp on throttle blip.

#1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder drivers

‘All Sprite drivers have one,’ Mike explains. Eureka! Left-hand-pull, right-hand- peg application. Eh?Ĭonfused, I pull the choke knob out slightly and it promptly retracts back in. Who better to share this journey of discovery with than Mr Spridget himself? He’s been buying, selling and fettling them since the early Eighties.

#1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder plus

There are a pair of bucket seats, Smiths gauges – including a tachometer which along with the heater and demister, screen washer, radio and front bumper would have been optional extras – plus a big helping of exposed body-coloured metal (all the rage today, of course) to brighten things up.ġ958 Austin-Healey Sprite MkI – road test

Like the exterior, the cabin is very basic.

#1964 austin healey sprite master cylinder driver

I reckon any prospective driver would have to hit 6ft 5in before incurring a problem – it’s positively Tardis-like in here. It takes me three attempts, accompanied mentally by the lyrics of one of my daughter’s favourite songs, ‘Left-cheek, right-cheek, left-cheek, right-cheek’ as I contort, manipulate and finally find… a surprisingly comfortable seating position and generously long footwell, albeit with the pedals slightly offset to the right.

In fact it’s exactly what you’d expect to find in the Sprite’s Austin A35 parts donor, and a distinct barrier to elegant ingress. Hmm, that large two-spoke steering wheel is the antithesis of sporty. Instead, my celebratory mission to retrace some of the original MG test routes begins with reaching into the hollow door shell to pop it open. But 60 years ago this was Donald Healey and Leonard Lord’s low-cost sports car, so forget what you know about automobiles and go with the budget low. Reaching for the door handle is a mistake because there isn’t one. It’s not as if any of these could be applied to my own frame – I have a fairly lofty 6ft 2in to shoehorn in. Alternatively there’s wee or any number of other adjectives that emphasise its lack of proportions. It’s cute enough, but the Austin-Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite sitting outside specialist Mike Authers’ Oxfordshire premises could be described by the word dinky, or perhaps minute. Small car, big birthday – we celebrate the Austin-Healey Sprite in its purest form.įirst impressions are not good. Happy 60 th! …to the Austin-Healey Sprite, sports-car game-changer. Sprite 60th anniversary drive. To celebrate the model’s 60th anniversary we take one back to BMC’s original test route. Happy 60th! Austin-Healey revolutionised the sports car market with its nimble and affordable Sprite.