Austin Healey Sprite

It was at the 1952 British motor show held at Earls Court, London, that the name of Donald Healey was shot to stardom. This had been as a result of the launch of the Healey 100 sports car, which became a motoring icon.

As a result of that show, a business relationship developed between then British Motor Corporation (BMC) and Donald Healey was formed with the ambition to build the new car under the name of Austin Healey.

In production the Healey 100 was built mostly from Austin saloon car components and sold very well, particularly in the all–important North American market.

However, whilst BMC had agreed to help Donald Healey produce his Healey 100 sports car, the company had also got its sights upon filling a gap in the market lower down the price ladder. They wanted a small budget sports car.

Following a discussion between Leonard Lord, Chairman of BMC, and Donald Healey, it was decided to develop the new project, using the same system of sourcing parts from other cars being produced at the time. These were readily accessible and cheap to produce.

The Austin Healey Sprite shared many parts with the Austin A35

The engine, transmission, rear axle and front suspension were all from the Austin A35, but the steering components would come from the Morris Minor. To boost the power output from the little four–cylinder BMC 948cc A–series engine, the MG derived manifolds matched with twin one–and–one–eighth inch carburettors were to be used.

The BMC engine itself was actually developed by Morris, as the Austin engine plant at the time was too overrun with work to cope with the demand the Healey project would place upon it.

The new car was named the Austin Healey Sprite and was to represent something of a revolution for that era of sports car manufacture.

Monocoque construction – a different way to build sports cars

Instead of having a separate chassis, as had traditionally been the case since the beginning of car design, this car was to be a monocoque construction. Here, the body was to also perform the role of a chassis as an all in one unit. Saloon cars had already been built this way, as indeed was the Austin A35; the car the Sprite was to share so many parts with.

The design achieved rigidity within the car by constructing a body shell in welded box sections. This took the form of three sections consisting of front and rear bulkheads joined by hollow sill sections and body stiffeners. These would all be mounted onto a floor pan with extra rigidity being provided by the central transmission tunnel.

In many places the body was designed with flat panels with simply formed sections that would help keep construction costs down to a minimum. It was also decided the bonnet and front wings would be made as one unit and hinge at the bulkhead to be lifted as one piece. This not only kept assembly costs low, but provided very much unrestricted access to the engine bay area.

The first prototype Austin Healey Sprite incorporated external hinges to the bonnet, again to reduce costs. The car was intended to have pop–up headlamps, which was something of a paradox, as unlike everything else about the car, these were very expensive to produce and fit.

The Frogeye Sprite was born

By the time prototype car number two was built all this had changed and the headlamps became fixed in individual pods on the top of the bonnet. This is how the car came by its nickname of Frogeye Sprite, a name that was never made official. However, there was never any doubt as to what this term referred to.

The Austin Healey Sprite was manufactured at the MG factory in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and was first launched in 1958. Although its interior was somewhat cramped the little car turned out to be just as intended. Really good fun to drive, cheap to run and to maintain.

With a price tag of £455, the Austin Healey Sprite quickly established itself in the market place. It even enjoyed a successful motor sport career in the hands of BMC works team drivers, particularly John Sprinzel, who enjoyed some success with a derivative of the little car.

Sports cars were never intended to be practical, and the Austin Healy Sprite certainly was not by any stretch of the imagination. There was no luggage space, as the boot area had no lid to it. There also were no external door handles and no side windows making this a very basic vehicle indeed.

Despite the Austin Healey Sprite being quite primitive, BMC sold 48,987 of them, a success no doubt helped by the fact that there was no other manufacturer making anything like it at the time.

Triumph set about challenging the Austin Healey Sprite

The success of the Austin Healey Sprite seemed to spark off something of a war between BMC (British Motor Corporation) and another car company. Standard–Triumph looked upon the little car with envious eyes.

At the time, Standard–Triumph did not have a budget sports car in its model range, but was soon working on a project of its own to address this. In the same manner as Austin had done previously, Standard–Triumph looked to source the components in house, looking to their Triumph Herald platform from which to build it.

With a project, code named Bomb, Standard–Triumph set its sights on going one better than the Austin Healey Sprite and designed something a little more sophisticated, the Triumph Spitfire. Unlike the Sprite, the Spitfire had all–round independent suspension, an opening boot with generous luggage space, extra stowage space within the vehicle, wind–down side windows, exterior door handles and a more spacious cockpit area for greater comfort.

The Standard–Triumph project nearly didn’t happen

However, the Triumph budget sports car venture was very nearly scuppered when the company was taken over in April 1961 by the successful lorry and bus manufacturer, Leyland. At the time, Leyland Motor Company management ordered all work on the Bomb project to stop forthwith and for any items relating to its development to be scrapped.

Despite the order to forget all about the Bomb project, the design team had hidden their prototype under dust sheets in the corner of the workshop. The car was soon discovered, however, by a member of the senior management touring the department and who then gave the order for work on the project to resume.

The car that emerged from the Triumph factory in 1962 was of course the Triumph Spitfire 4. It caused a sensation with the motoring press of the day and was quickly established as a strong product. BMC, on the other hand, had got wind of the forthcoming release of the Spitfire and were already drawing up their own battle plans.

From 1961 the design team at BMC had been working on a newer and more modern version of their little sprts car, the Austin Healey Sprite Mkll. This was also made available for sale wearing an MG badge as the MG Midget, a name that had not been associated with an MG car since 1955 and when the T–series models went out of production. The MG Midget was built as a slightly more up market car of the two.

No longer a Frogeye Sprite
as the characteritic headlamp arrangement disappeared

The MG Midget and the Austin Healey Sprite Mkll had a more square body profile to that of the Frog Eye. This was grafted onto what was essentially the same frame as the old car it replaced. It even had the same cramped cockpit, which was unfortunate.

The rear of the body now had a boot lid with luggage space beneath, while at the front the once familiar frog eye look disappeared, being replaced with the conventional set up of separate wings housing the headlamps. In between the wings was a narrower and certainly lighter in weight bonnet panel giving much more limited access to the engine bay.

The little BMC A–series 948cc four–cylinder engine was fitted with larger 1¼" carburettors and given improved cam shaft timing to increase output. Steering, suspension and brakes remained largely unaltered.

MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite both get a bigger engine

In 1963 the MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite were both fitted with the larger 1098cc variant of the trusty BMC A–series engine, along with other users of the same power unit in the BMC range, such as the Morris Minor 1000 and Austin A40.

At the same time, front brakes were up rated from drums to discs. This was the first time disc brakes were fitted to a mass production car, although an aftermarket disc brake conversion kit had been independently supplied by the Donald Healey Motor Company of Warwick prior to this date.

Apart from these changes the two cars basically remained the same as before. They continued to be manufactured alongside each other with their being very little difference other than the name badges they wore.

More refinements made to the cars

It wasn’t until 1964 that any significant change was made in the specification of the MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite.

The body of the Sprite MkIII and Midget MkII, although did not alter in silhouette, now received an all new dash layout, fitted carpets in all models, a new windscreen with easier to fit hood attachments, plus wind–up windows to replace the outdated plastic side screens.

The modifications were all inspired by market pressures, which had been leaning towards less sparsely equipped and more comfortable sports cars, like the Triumph Spitfire. The Triumph consistently outsold the little Abingdon cars all through their production life, always offering a little more sophistication.

A stronger engine

The BMC A–series engine was also strengthened, with larger main bearings compensating for the rather weak bottom end, a larger clutch and a stronger gearbox being fitted too.

In an attempt to stay with the competition, the quarter elliptic sprung suspension that had given the car such good handling characteristics, yet such harsh ride, were replaced by the more conventional semi–elliptical spring layout. Although the car lost a little of its handling accuracy and sharpness, the change in design did improve the ride quality enormously.

Another distinct advantage with the new suspension layout, not realised when the cars were young in age, was the new suspension did not impose so much stress upon the monocoque structure. The result of this was that split seams, cracks and corrosion around the rear floor and bulkhead areas were much less common with post 1964 cars.

By 1966 the performance of the Austin Healey Sprite and the MG Midget was beginning to look a little feeble when compared with its competitors, and even against the saloon cars of the day. Indeed, the Mini Cooper S was on sale and with exciting performance attributes and was starting to have a big impact upon MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite sales.

Another engine upgrade for more performance

In an effort to counter the pressure from competition, a slightly detuned version of the 1275cc Cooper S engine was fitted to the 1967 Sprite Mk1V and Midget MkIII. In addition to the improved power performance the new engine provided, the two cars also benefited from a new design in fold down hood.

At this time, cars destined for the USA market began to seriously deviate in their specification from those built for markets in the rest of the world. This came about due to the ever–tightening safety and emissions regulations imposed by the US Government. Also, Midgets bound for Australia were exported as kits from England.

BMC becomes British Leyland

In 1968, BMC was also swallowed up by the Leyland bus and lorry company, which had bought out the Standard Triumph company in 1961. Now, the Triumph Spitfire, MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite were all to be built by the same company.

Despite being under new ownership, it wasn’t until 18–months later was the Abingdon factory ordered to make any change to the MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite.

The first Leylandised cars emerged in 1970, and although differently badged, the models continued to be made side by side and with the same sheet–metal specifications. However, they now had a much more upbeat and contemporary appearance, due to a myriad of trim changes, both on the outside and in.

Gone was the 1960’s style bright work and a new blacked out radiator grill was complemented by slim–line bumpers that were fashionably quartered at the rear. Completing the slimmer effect, body sills were painted satin black, artificially giving the car a sleeker side profile.

New Rostyle steel wheels were fitted as standard with the more traditional wire wheels being offered as an option. Inside the car, instead of neat stitched upholstery, there was now heat welded vinyl and other synthetic materials that gave the car a somewhat tacky internal appearance. This style of interior trim became synonymous with all British Leyland models and remained with the MG Midget right up to the end of its production life.

Austin Healey Sprites no longer exported

Towards the end of 1971, sales of the Austin Healey Sprite were confined only to the home market. Also, the name, Austin Healey, began to quietly disappear from the Leyland showrooms, leaving only the MG version to soldier on.

At the end of its production the Healey part of the Austin Healey name was absent from the last 1,022 cars, leaving them with just the Austin badge. This was apparently due to the break down in relations between British Leyland and Donald Healey, when the contract to build Healey cars had lapsed and with British Leyland unwilling to renew it.

The remaining MG Midget, however, continued in production and exported all over the world. Between 1958 and 1979 a total of 355,888 Austin Healey Sprites and MG Midgets was built with Midget production eventually ceasing in 1979.

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Wednesday, 30-Mar-2011

Austin Healey Sprite