Sprite

team47b

Saw this LHD Austin Healey Sprite at the car meet today...

sloppyschleckonds

Frogeyed?

Silly Old Hector

Don't be cheeky - he's taken a perfectly straight photo.

Nice little cars - great fun, but not safe on today's roads....

team47b

Silly Old Hector wrote:

Nice little cars - great fun, but not safe on today's roads....

Unlike the Isetta then

tlw1

Love it

arran77

I thought this was going to be a thread about funny lemonade.

phippss

A great car. I have a modern version a 1970 MG midget. Great fun to drive and easy to use. My wife would love a frogeye but not very practical for 2 kids

pinno

All MG's (Midgets, MGB, MGB GT's etc - not the early one's) are held together by the sills. Take them off and the thing bends in the middle. Therefore, all MG's of that era should be crushed and forgotten about.
The most over rated 'sports car' ever manufactured. Oh, and while we are at it, the electric overdrive was pants.

Maybe it's just me.

florerider

pinarello001 wrote:

Maybe it's just me.

Self doubt is a worrying thing.

pinno

florerider wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Maybe it's just me.

Self doubt is a worrying thing.

It is, so I decided to rectify that. Yeeeeeeeha

veronese68

pinarello001 wrote:

All MG's (Midgets, MGB, MGB GT's etc - not the early one's) are held together by the sills. Take them off and the thing bends in the middle. Therefore, all MG's of that era should be crushed and forgotten about.
The most over rated 'sports car' ever manufactured. Oh, and while we are at it, the electric overdrive was pants.

Maybe it's just me.

It's just you. All monocoque convertibles are held together by the sills, and to a lesser extent gearbox tunnel, because they don't have a roof. MGB GTs have a roof so don't fold with rotten sills. :P
Electric overdrive was never fitted to Sprites and Midgets as there was not enough room. But it was a neat solution to add longer gearing and worked well. Volvo were still using them in the late 80s and maybe beyond. As with all of these things when old and neglected they are not so reliable.
Anyway the correct name for the car in the picture is a Bugeyed Fright.

verylonglegs

A British car once made in LHD for the benefit of Mr. J Foreigner?? Someone must report this to the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage...it's an outrage.

florerider

verylonglegs wrote:

A British car once made in LHD for the benefit of Mr. J Foreigner?? Someone must report this to the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage...it's an outrage.

Not at all, thus is the era he is very comforable with, Austin Healy Sprites, warm beer, selling Morris Minors to the colonies, a level playing field tilted in favour of the British etc

pinno

Veronese68 wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

All MG's (Midgets, MGB, MGB GT's etc - not the early one's) are held together by the sills. Take them off and the thing bends in the middle. Therefore, all MG's of that era should be crushed and forgotten about.
The most over rated 'sports car' ever manufactured. Oh, and while we are at it, the electric overdrive was pants.

Maybe it's just me.

It's just you. All monocoque convertibles are held together by the sills, and to a lesser extent gearbox tunnel, because they don't have a roof. MGB GTs have a roof so don't fold with rotten sills. :P
Electric overdrive was never fitted to Sprites and Midgets as there was not enough room. But it was a neat solution to add longer gearing and worked well. Volvo were still using them in the late 80s and maybe beyond. As with all of these things when old and neglected they are not so reliable.
Anyway the correct name for the car in the picture is a Bugeyed Fright.

Don't be such a condescending git, they are shyte and that's that.

Talk to my mate at here who worked at a place called Mr G who specialised in fixing MG's (that's if you get past the M bit). He'll tell you just how pants they are.

Stevo_666

Shock, horror - I'm with Pinno on this one :shock: . MG's are OK if you like some 'wind in the hair' nostalgia but apart from that they are crap. If you want good Brit open top performance, get a Caterham. A Superlight R if you want to have some proper fun and scare yourself.

veronese68

I didn't say MGs were good, just that Piña was wrong in his summary of what the failings are. I can't stand the things, but unfortunately I know my way around them. Been in a Caterham R500, that was a lot of fun.

pinno

Here's a half decent British Soft Top. I say half decent 'cos many of them were retrospectively fitted with a Rover V8:



Doesn't rely on the sills holding it together either.

I'd rather have a Dutton kit car with a 1700 x flow engine. You know when you're doing 50mph on one those with all that fibreglass flapping around. No need for a stereo in one of them.

Stevo_666

Veronese68 wrote:

I didn't say MGs were good, just that Piña was wrong in his summary of what the failings are. I can't stand the things, but unfortunately I know my way around them. Been in a Caterham R500, that was a lot of fun.

OK, I was coming at from a drivers point of view - driven a couple of MG's and both were p1ss poor perfomance and handling-wise. Have been in an R400 myself on track - brilliant. The new R620 must be a proper brown pants experience - like an R500, but supercharged :twisted:

http://uk.caterhamcars.com/cars/seven-620-r

pinno

I feel the need to exorcise this thread:

veronese68

No Piña, Slags are dreadful cars too. They are for fat old men, oh hang on...
I'd rather have a TR6 if I was going for something British of that ilk.
I've driven a couple of MGBs that had reasonable performance. One was an RV8, but why would you when you could have bought something so much better for the money. Kind of fun though. Then I drove a supercharged old nail. Far more power than it could handle, but not in a way that made it fun. It was terrifying, would have helped if the brakes worked.
Driven a series 1 E type back from Le Mans, look great, fabulous engine. Everything else is dreadful. Later ones improved, but got uglier.

Stevo_666

pinarello001 wrote:

I feel the need to exorcise this thread:

Me too, but with a proper drivers car.

pinno

They looked (the e-type) awful when they adapted them for the American market.

I don't think I would ever have a soft top of any description. Honda S2000 maybe or a XK 140. Nah, cars need a roof and if we did have the weather for them, you'd get burnt and go deaf anyway.

pinno

Looks good though: