Jay Leno Bought a Sprite!

[pwd72s]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP0jRiKOi9Y&ab_channel=JayLeno%27sGarage

It's the summer of '61...I'm still 17. Driving my '50 Ford over the South Santiam pass of the Cascades, I pull off on the side to recycle some fluid. I walked out from behind the tree to see a 1960 Austin Healy Sprite nosed in behind my Ford, it's driver asked if I was having car trouble. That's how a lifetime friendship with my buddy David began. Alas, his lifetime...David died in an industrial accident back in the early '90's. We roomed together during college...often swapped cars when he had a hot date...yep, my Ford had a back seat. But, oh the Sprite. o-60 took forever, top speed only a hair over 80...but a total gas to drive! Once, on a whim, we went to Sacramento to visit his older sister. Late night drive back...we made it from Sacramento to Alturas, California on a single 7 gallon tank of gas...more like 6 1/2 gallons of gas. Never so glad to see a service station in my life...I did the math...keeping it at a steady 4,000 RPM, we got 48 MPG... This only one of our road trips..

Damn, I miss David...always will. Still in touch with his widow and sons tho...

So, here's Jay Leno...trying to explain the charms of that car. Old cars are about memories...this video caused a flood of them for me.

[Steve Carlton]

My uncle had one in the mid-60s. Put a mail order supercharger on it. “Went like a bat out of hell for a year and blew up.” I was probably in 4th-5th grade at the time

[devodave]

Back in HS, I had a 62 MG Midget, same car, including the 948cc engine, but with a regular bonnet and boot (hood and trunk per the manual). It was a box car in that is how I got it, in pieces in boxes! That was a fun ride! After an unfortunate accident, I parked it for a few years in my dad's garage. My dad ended up trading it for a radial arm saw while I had it stored in his garage, right when I thought I might have the time and resources to restore it.

Although this is not my car, here's what they looked like.

[masraum]

My dad had a bugeye before I was born. He told me several stories about it. Apparently the head was milled to bump compression a bit. He was a gearhead. He also had a big Healey, I think a '67, I think when my parents lived in Hawaii. He had 2 or 3 corvairs too. When I was tiny, maybe 2-3 yo, he had an MG Midget. He was 6'2" and 200#. For the most part, all of the interesting cars stopped when I was about 4. After that it was based on cost and practicality. He did get a corvette when I was 15. That was his thing after all of those years of boring and slow.

[fintstone]

Bought a Sprite? I always preferred 7 UP.

[oldE]

I was impressed watching Jay get into the Sprite. I was talking to a mechanic buddy of mine one day as he was finishing a brake job on a MG Midget. He asked me to get in and pump the pedal while he bled the system. Getting in was a challenge (I was 6'3" back then). To extricate myself I had to basically crawl out. No way I could have driven the car.

Best
Les

[Steve Carlton]

[asphaltgambler]

Lol^^^^^

[GH85Carrera]

One of my buddies I met just after I got my 914 has a "sprgit" It was a h\mix of Sprite and MG parts. He changed the rear end to some insane low gearing. It was not to slow 0-60. But 60 was max speed due to redline. It was in the horrible old days of 55 MPH speed limits. We had fun driving around in separate cars. Of course we never broke one single traffic law!

[LWJ]

I have casually looked for one over the years. Would be fun.

[jyl]

My neighbor has one, brings it out of storage when summer starts. Naturally, it’s still in storage this rainy year.

[SpyderMike]

The first car I ever owned...a 1969 dark green AH Sprite. Fun.

[cassisrot]

I always liked the bugeyes. Great autocross cars that you could drive flat out on the road and cops never turned an eye.