Sprite Culture, 1:1 scale

[JT Previa]

The spot to share inspiring photos, stories and history of full size Sprites.

JT

[JT Previa]

We'll start with a primer from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin-Healey_Sprite

[JT Previa]

[greg nagy]

Sprites/Midgets and SCCA racing

Sprites have been raced in the US from about the point they hit the shores here. The Lindsey Porter book on restoring Sprites and Midgets contains an anecdote about a car entering an SCCA race at Put In Bay, OH while still being broken in. The car quickly became the dominant car in the H Production class as it seemed to be all but built for the specification and in all bodywork forms had an almost unbroken string of HP Championships up until the mid 90s.

For a short period of time, the Bugeye was also classified in G Production.
This was due to homoglation of a number of performance parts by AH. Many of those parts we made standard on the Sprite Mk II/Midget Mk I and when the 1098cc motoerd cars came out, all of the 948 cars were moved back to H production. Even later still, when the 1275cc Spridgets came out, they were placed in F Production, along with the 1493cc MG Midget of the 1975-1979 timeframe. This meant that Sprites and Midgets were being raced in 3 different production classes and became one of the mainstays of the "smallbore" SCCA Production classes.

Due to quirks in the way the SCCA rules are written, our race cars became very specialized little beasties. Class rules specified a rim width, 5-5.5 inches, so "cantelever" bias-ply slicks were developed that fit an 8" wide tread on the narrow wheel. Fender flares were needed to cover the wheels, but we had to maintain the side profile of the car, so the rear fenders on the "square wheel arch" version of the bodywork still cover about 1/3rd of the wheel when viewed from the side. Relocatable suspension rules let us put in coilover setups and 3 link rears. Tonneau covers were illegal, but the new rear suspension barged into the cockpit which was also a nono, so creative car builders came up with "bulkheads" to cover the suspension which, oddly enough, looked for all the world like a metal tonneau behind the drivers seat.

Engne rules required us to use orginal (but modifiable) block, head, crank and carburettors and in the end, the "948" cars (with a 60 thou overbore and 16:1 compession) were making 105+ HP at 9000rpm. The stock motors made about 45hp at 5500. All this with a non-crossflow 5 port head and 2 1-1/4" SU carbs. Those motors were very fragile and did not get "on" the cam until 7k, but that was ok as the SCCA uses rolling, and not standing starts. The SCCA also decided to put all of the bodystyles on one specification line, which lead to some later cars with Bugeye bonnets, or (fiberglass) rubber bumpers on the front end like late 70's Midget




In the mid-late 90s, participation in G and H production started to fall way off. Keeping those monster 948 and 1098 motors togther was an expensive proposition, and other suitable classic roadsters of similar performance were just not being built any more. H production was in danger of being "retired" as a national class. A new concept was tried, where cars with bigger engines were put in the class, but with less allowed modifications to the engine and suspension. This was enough to save H Production, but was not able to save G. The new classification method was also applied to the Sprites and Midgets allowing the 1275cc engine but also limted to the stock "type" of suspension (lever arms, elliptic springs in the rear). A further conession was made to the classic Sprite and Midget racers, who were allowed to keep the fancy suspension, but use the easier to maintain "Limited prep" 1275 at a higher weight. Many refer to this as the "hybrid" Spridget and is the type of car I race.


In its curent configuration, the Sprite and Midget are competitive at most US race tracks in H Production, but unfortuantely uncompetitive at Road America, where the SCCA Runoffs are currently held.
The first two women to win SCCA National Championships, Donna Mae Mims



and Cat Kizer

,

did so in Sprites/Midgets. The SCCA Spridget community is full of characters and legends. Some of these guys have been racing bugeyes since they were new. There is no longer any factory support, or factory for that matter. There are a number of engine builders and prep shops that keep the cars running and the defacto "tuner speed shop" is Winners Circle out of Ohio. Many current H production cars have their logo on the car, so to reproduce, you might want (sorry, on original site it is on a red background)

just a quick snapshot of what I consider one of the best smallbore production cars ever.

[JT Previa]

Greg,

Fantastic write up I peeked at this at work and couldn't wait to get home when I could make some time to read it! What a great perspective on Sprite in SCCA.

Can you give us some more info?

• What is the outside diameter of you tires?
• How wide are those babies, 8" contact patch?
• Any more photos of your car (red no 10)?
• Are the squared rear fenders indicative of a set of years of Sprite manufacturing?
• Was there one primary reason for the cars racing success? Power to weight ratio? Inexpensive (was it)? Great motor? Suspension? Unit body construction ? Other?
• What is the main rival to Sprite in these classes?
• How does a Mini compare on the track?

Thanks again

JT

[Abarth Mike]

How does a Mini compare on the track?

If you squint really hard you might just see the tail lights


Did anyone put a 970S engine in a Sprite? 10,000 rpm My road going '67 1293 S would pull 7,800 in top gear. (just a tad under 120 mph).

[greg nagy]

Greg,

Fantastic write up I peeked at this at work and couldn't wait to get home when I could make some time to read it! What a great perspective on Sprite in SCCA.



Can you give us some more info?

• What is the outside diameter of you tires?
• How wide are those babies, 8" contact patch?

H production cars with 13" wheels are using 20.0x8x13 bias ply or 215/530R13 radial slicks. the Latter works out to about 20.5x8.3x13 but is best fit on a wider wheel.

• Any more photos of your car (red no 10)?

I have been sticking most of mine on my google+ or linking to on FB, since I don't get much of a chance to take the pictures on my own. Too busy driving. here is an album from VIR this spring.

https://plus.google.com/photos/107022207625333271853/albums/5746137338124177265

• Are the squared rear fenders indicative of a set of years of Sprite manufacturing?

All square bodied sprites and midgets, except for 72-73, had squared off arches. The reason that has been given is that it helped the tortional rigidity of the unibody when they gave the car a trunk with lid. the bugeye lacks this. Opinions are mixed on whether or not the 72-73 cars (called RWA) proved or disproved this.

• Was there one primary reason for the cars racing success? Power to weight ratio? Inexpensive (was it)? Great motor? Suspension? Unit body construction ? Other?

Low cost, simple design, lots and lots of people doing tuning work and popularity breeds popularity.

the BMC A-series was a pretty efficient design for all of its limitations and highly tunable. Alot of people did alot of dyno work to make that engine better and better, relatively cheaply.

When it was in business, BMC/BL also had a very nice GRASSROOTS contingency program, which was a big help when otherwise you get a 5$ trophy

• What is the main rival to Sprite in these classes?

In the old days, HP also saw Fiats/Abarths and one very lucky Morgan. Currently we race with Fiats (850&X/19), Minis, Spitfires, Early VW Rabbits and Siroccos, 1st and second gen Honda Civics, and the Toyota Yaris, of all things.
G prod is gone but once held Alfas, Spitfires, MGA, Datsun 510s, Hondas, VWs, etc in its final days.
F Prod held the bigger engined Spits, x/19s, Lotus 7As, Porsche 356, and now also has VWs, Volvo 142s, MGBs, VWs, Hondas, Datsun Roadsters, Porsche 912/914 and the new roadster sports car standard bearer, the Mazda Miata.

There are more models in each class, but I am not recalling seeing them

• How does a Mini compare on the track?

Fully prepared to the GTL rules, a Mini is comparable to a F Production Midget. GTL minis were mini Trans-Am cars with more liberal rules, but the aero of a brick. FWIW, Huffakers Mini had a RWD layout.
The Mini in H production has similar engine preperation rules to the Sprite/Midget. i have only seen one and ran much faster lap times, but not a fair sample as i do not know how well prepared the car was.

Thanks again

JT

[JT Previa]

Thanks Greg and Mike, great insights into the 1:1 SCCA world.

Now some folks thought I was a heretic advocating to flare the wheelwells on an early Sprite when I build the rat rod. But Sprites have a long history of specials, including the well-known Sebring Sprite coupes. For an in-depth history of these Sprite variations, ya gotta check out http://www.sebringsprite.com/.

For anyone looking for pre-1970 inspiration for the SPX class, have we got a prototype for you! I first found this car on http://www.racingsportscars.com/phot...969-09-07.html



I'd say this car means business! A descendent of an early Sebring Sprite, this car traded it's coupe body for a special roadster with flares, a streamlined cockpit, a new bonnet with integral light wells, a carb blister and a partial integrated tonneau (full tonneau not allowed thank you). Finished 7th in P1.3 (a 1.3 liter Prototype class - unbelievable! ). Another Sprite special finished 17th.



Driver John Phillips, this time at the Targa Florio (again from Racing Sports Cars). The fender flares cannot contain those wide tires!



Another from Sebringsprite.com



JT

[BRAIN]

Sprite images

a couple of images....

Brian

[DrDiff]

I remember the Huffaker Mini from the SCCA runoffs on SpeedVision. (Gee that was a LONG time ago!)
It ROCKED! If I recall it was set up similarly to the way Renault set up the R5 Turbo.

...SNIP... Fully prepared to the GTL rules, a Mini is comparable to a F Production Midget. GTL minis were mini Trans-Am cars with more liberal rules, but the aero of a brick. FWIW, Huffakers Mini had a RWD layout. ...SNIP...

[DrDiff]

Love the smile on the side of this one!

[/CENTER]

[Black3sr]

Here is my first Sprite. A '59 in 1961. I drove it to East Coast and back. Also to Mosport in Sept of 61 for Canadian Grand Prix. It was the light powder blue with dark blue interior.


Here is the later money pit I bought sometime around 1980. I camped out of it at Mosport, Shannonville and Watkins Glen in the late 80s. A friend now owns it and let's me drive it occasionally. You can see how small they are compared to my current toy Fit.

This pic use to hang at work.



The birth certificate



This was Spritefest in Carlisle PA in 1988. No I did not take mine there. It was something to stand and watch them leaving in a long line from convention centre where we stayed to the fairgrounds.

[JT Previa]

Brain - Great photos from grimy to gorgeous. That yellow and green Sprite has some elegant details: Perspex hood scoop, side fender vents that Dr D enjoyed and a faired in head rest!

Black3sr - Thanks for sharing your Sprite memories. Next time you drive your old Bugeye, swing over to New Enland and give me a ride will ya?! I've never ridden in one.

Paul mentioned Huffaker Engineering earlier in the thread, they are one of the premier Sprite preparation outfits (and other BMC cars as well) in the US, winning multiple SCCA titles in several classes. Well, I finally put two and two together and figured out that Joe huffaker is the guy that built the Genies in the early 60s! He has an amazing career including prepping cars for Indy!

This article profiles his wonderful career:

http://http://automotive.speedtv.com...oe-huffaker/P1

http://http://www.huffakerengineering.com/



JT

[JT Previa]

Okay, some 1:1 photographic research.

I visited Nashville early this summer, a college reconnaisence trip for my musician son (Belmont U, specifically, Nashville music scene in general). After seeing Junior Brown, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley, we had some time to kill before flying back east. A Yelp search of the iPad revealed the Lane Motor Museum, right near the airport:

http://lanemotormuseum.org/

This place was fantastic! Full of the weird and wonderful, with an emphasis on small European cars. Matra-Bonnet? Check. Citreon? Check. Renault 5 rally car? Check. DKW, BMW, Mini, Caterham,...ridiculous. These are my kind of cars, the weirder, the better.

So did they have any Sprites? Yes they did, a 67 non-Frogeye. No, I didn't get a picture. But I did photograph an ultimate SCCA MG Midget - which, the museum guides says (and our Wikipedia info taught us) is the same as the Sprite with a different grille.

This thing was so low the ground it would fit under my bed You'd bang you shin, not your knee on it. Impeccably turned out in BRG:





Note the 1.75" ground clearnance, that's about .053" in 1/32 scale...











Now this museum has a crazy fundraising scheme: in the spring and fall, they let supporters bid to drive their cars. Yep, you can pay from $400 to $800 per car to drive off with 2 - 3 of your friends on a scenic route to a luncheon and then back to the museum. If this were in the eligible cars, I'd want dibs on this!

JT

[greg nagy]

That is the museum owners (Jeff Lane) former race car. It is/was trick everything. If you look closely in the engine bay pics, you can see two rods running from above the virtual front axle ceneterline to small arms up near the bulkhead. Those are actually part of the drop links for the front sway bar, which runs across the front of the firewall just under the oberg filter and the M/C resivors. Odd place for it, but allowed easy adjustability. You can also see that this car has the metal "half tonneau" to cover the rear suspension.

I doubt this car will ever make an appearance at the "Rally for the Lane", but the event is a nice way to see and drive some other unique street cars. At certain times, the museum will also do tours of the basement, which is the primary storage space and workshop for the cars not yet on exhibit. Worth seeing if you can arrange it.

My car is not nearly as low. just enough to get the end of a 2x4 under it to lever it up so I can get a jack under it.