Sebring Sprite Latest News (2024)

These photos taken by David Morys at last Saturday's Prescott Hill Climb (25 May)

"Just a flavour from today’s event Prescott Historic where else apart from Goodwood can you see such a diverse collection of car from a humble Sprite to a V16 BRM or Rover BRM gas turbine!" Thanks David.

"Here is an article about building a Sprite for Class H in the CSCC Midget and Sprite championship which was a new class for last year aimingto promote racing Spridgets as they were in the 60s but with some concessions to large bore engines and safety, but basically a standard car with big bore engine and Dunlop L sections for lots of sideways fun!"

Marcus Fellows of AMF tells me: "I have another shell on the Austin Healey stand at the NEC show at the end of this month and continue to work with Brian on new panel formers, having completed the gearbox tunnels along with all front suspensionparts in the past month.Our attention will be moving on to both door frames and rear arch panels in the near future".
On left is the newly completed chassis with fibreglass bodywork for Jez Hayter.

ARCHERS SEBRING COUPE FOR SALE

1959 Austin Healey Sprite with Archers body kit. Reg WJJ 998. Owned since 2017 and currently running in HealeySport hill-climb/sprint spec, so road legal in spite of having a high level of performance mods. Selling due to decline in health.
Fitted 1330 Swiftune engine running on a 45 DCOE Weber, straight-cut gearbox (serviced by Hardy Engineering last winter) LSD, telescopic rear shocks, front and rear springs top link and negative camber trunnions as supplied by Peter May Engineering. Alloy radiator and fuel tank. Lightweight starter and alternator. Front disc brakes. Stripped out interior with Tillett B6 seat. There are also a pair of Ridgard seats, standard front springs and fuel tank for conversion back to full road use. Offers C £20,000.00. Contact Lawrence Maudsley on 07831264029 orby email

A RARE OPPORTUNITY ~ XSP CYLINDER HEAD AND OTHER PARTS FOR SALE

An original cast iron Weslake cylinder head as normally fitted to an XSP Austin Healey Sprite pre-70s Le Mans engine with the mechanical Lucas fuel injections - MOWOG casting no 707 ,1280 by Wellingborough Foundry in the UK. Bundled with: i) A pair of Dellorto carburetors.
ii) A cam shaft original BMC factory599 with both gears to suit dry pump application.
iii) 8 port Weslake exhaust manifold.
Seeking €5,550 ex shipping (worldwide)
Contact Julian/Bala M, in Dusseldorf Germany
What's App +49 162 2798732 or email

"Hi,
I just came across your page looking for my late fathers car 712 PTB, he was Graham Bloor owner of one of the three Sebrings built by him, looks like the owner is currently Brent Fowler.
Some history for the archives:
The car was actually first sold to Alastair Chalmers in the early 2000's, as he had sold his original car, Alastair raced it in Europe for a few years but stopped and was sat in his garage for some time as he was racing his Caterams, then he sold it to Ivor Watson, a friend of his just before the end of 2015 when Alastair moved out to NZ. Ivor was racing TVR'sprior to that but ended up selling it as it was not fastenough for him even after modifications that he made, believe it was fitted with a 1340 engine and single webber to compete in FISC. Car was swapped for a Caterham but was never able to locate it from then on.

Originally all three cars were built from the frame up by my father, he did all the bodywork except for the bonnets which were made by John Hopwood from a mould he made from a steel bonnet (he came to my fathers funeral in 2022 and told me he still has the mould!) Interestingly John still has his original car and still competes with it. My father also hand made the inner wings out of aluminium for all the cars and painted the cars in his business body shop workshop (Accident Repair Service, Knutsford, Cheshire, now closed). Engines at the time were 948 overbored to 998 and running 1-1/2 SU's. Engines were built by RaceSpec by Phil Hepworth. John Hopwood was certainly the brains of the operation with design and build of things like custom adjustable brake balance, roll cage design and build and much more that I can't remember as was when I was only around 18-19. I did race the car myself (pic attached with me next to my father at my first race at Oulton Park. All cars also raced at Spa one year.

I moved to the USA in 1995 and in 2019 was looking for the car to purchase myself but was unable to find it, I now own a 1960 race Frogeye and compete with SCCA at Sebring, it is not however a Sebring Sprite. I hope to one day own my father's car.
Great website and nice to see history and archives of these cars, they are very close to my heart.
best regards, Austin Bloor".

Rene Bloemen reports on progress with his aluminium-bodied Sebring Fastback

My apologies for the poor quality of some of the above photos. My software would not accept them in their original format.

I asked John (Poulter) if he could make enquiries as to the situation regarding the restoration of 2214 UE. Sadly, owner John Tizard's daughter Christine reported that both John and his wife passed away several years ago and the car is still with her. She has a brother and sister, the three now jointly owning the car. Unfortunately some of the original parts like the Girling brakes are no longer with the car which currently awaits a wiring loom, trimming and paint. It will be interesting to see what progress is made with this valuable historic car in the future.

Pete Fletcher is looking for a new owner for his Sebring Fastback competition car (below)

Peter also has this Sebring Sprite Coupé which he built as a spare (below)

SOME PICS OF BOB HEPPELL'S COUPE ~ LAST OF THE ARCHER CARS

SEBRING SPRITE RECORDS UP-DATE

I am endeavouring to bring up to date my records of the Sebring Replica cars as well as the much earlier group of original cars. In doing so I have been in touch with Andrew Musgrave who has one of the first Coupe kits suppled by Andrew Forster through Aldon Automotive. The car (left) will bear the registration WET 465 and is due to be painted shortly though Andrew is still undecided about his choice of colour scheme..

Phil Gardner's Sebring Fastback and Ashley GT Hill-climb/Sprint cars

Phil Gardner: "I completed my build in the Autumn of 2017 and used the car for two seasons with Healeysport, with a modicum of success. I put hours of work into the Sebring and I will hate to part with it!! I built the Sebring to replicate the Peter Clarke “Peel” bodied JT 51. The car is built onto a 1959 Frogeye shell, a car that I had owned for quite a while prior to my decision to build a Sebring. It was built as a fast road car but with the intention of perhaps trying a hill-climb or two!! The car is now purely used on the road and I have had to change some of the setup to make it friendlier to drive on the roads. It has a 1310cc engine with Omega cast pistons on a standard crankshaft, a Piper BP285 camshaft and 1.3” roller rockers on a stage three big valve head. It runs twin 1.5” HS4 carbs and a Maniflow inlet and exhaust system. Once run in it was put on the rolling road and had 101bhp at the flywheel. The flywheel and clutch are 7.5” MED lightened and balanced. The front suspension remains modified to 400lb springs, 25% uprated shock absorbers, adjustable top trunnions, with the Peter May top arm kit. The roll bar is 11/16th. The rear suspension has been returned to road specification as it was too soft for the road. The car has front disc brakes and Riley rear drums as per the original cars. It also has a Sebring type pedal box and master cylinder setup. I used to run with either a 4.2 or 4.5LSD Diff, but it now has a 3.9. The car has a full roll cage and was originally fitted with Cobra Classic one piece seats. Currently I am changing these back to standard Frogeye seats but with the exact colour match.During lockdown I decided to build another Hill-climb car, this time for competition use only and with significantly more power. This car is Ashley based and runs a 1380cc engine with multi-webbed Steel crankshaft, forged Omega pistons, Arrow rods and Weber power 45DCOE. An altogether different beast!! I have had two good seasons with it.

Another Sebring Fastback on the road - shortly

The Story behind Stephen Casson's Championship (Class) Winning Lenham GTO

"I bought the car off David (Scothorn) in November 2021, - he had had it in storage since he bought it in 2011. The car had an original Lenham GTO rear end (one of 4 originals according to Sean Rainford), but an AG Thorpe front which was in very poor condition and 2 Magnesium Minilite wheels (alas in too poor a condition to use). The car was much modified to accept a MGA engine and MGB gearbox with alterations to the chassis, and bulkhead as well as the removal of much of the transmission tunnel. The chassis was, in the main, good with only minor rusting to the nearside.
To run in HealeySport, the car had to be restored to original and (parts of) the chassis were replaced along with the transmission tunnel. A new Lenham front was purchased from Sean who has all the original Lenham moulds. A full race 1330 series A engine along with a Dog Box was fitted. The suspension remains standard in the main, just uprated within the regs. A full welded in cage was fitted by GC Fabrication of Ipswich (highly recommended). Brakes are uprated as allowed by the regs. I carried out most of the work myself including spraying the car! It took 18 months from start to finish and I tried to do something everyday! Took 5kg of underseal off the bottom of the car filling a Sainsbury’s carrier bag! Haha.
The car has had a few teething problems this season, mainly due to the rear suspension set-up. With much help from Peter May Engineering, the car is now running well and with a lot of help from the weather and the racing gods, managed to retain the Class Championship in the HealeySport Sprint and Hill Climb Championship".

A Virtually New Sebring Coupe replica for sale

"The bonnet was damaged in a collision in the late sixties, the front part was roughly straightened, cracks repaired with aluminium strips and pop rivets and filler was applied to make the bonnet-shape look good again. The bonnet was used in this condition for several years until I bought it. I have removed the filler and my plan was to TIG-weld the cracks and then to let a skilled sheet-metal guy do the proper straightening and repair of the bonnet. I have now decided to use my GRP Speedwell bonnet instead and now the aluminium bonnet is up for sale. I’m sure most of us know how very rare these aluminium bonnets are! This item is not cheap but since it needs repair (or filler…) I will happily discuss the price with anyone who is seriously interested. The bonnet is currently in Sigtuna, Sweden."

Sebring Sprite 1/32 scale slot cars/models

Alaric Coombs' Lenham GTO

Built in the mid ninetiesby a gentleman called Adrian Clay, Alaric came across it being sold on carandclassic by its subsequent owner.

He was looking for a Midget to do a little motorsport with. It appealed because it is a bit different, and slightly lighter than a standard Midget and already had a rollbar, Type 9gearbox and LSD fitted. Since purchase he has had the engine rebuilt to 1380 cc by Oselli, running a fast road/race cam, Weber 40DCOEand tubular manifold. He has also installed a competition clutch and adjustable suspension (Frontline front and Spax rear).