The quaintly titled Bugeye Sprite was born in 1958 as a joint venture between the British Motor Corporation (BMC), owners of Austin, and Donald Healey – who was paid a royalty on each car sold.

The unusual headlight styling, which earned it the ‘Bugeye’ name, was due to cost cutting in the production process that required that the original plan for pop-up headlights be dropped and the lights fixed in a static position. Although quite controversial at the time the Bugeye’s styling is now seen as one of its endearing characteristics.

Less endearing was the fact that there was no boot/trunk. Luggage was stored by leaning the seats forward and then sliding it in to place in the tail of the car with no other external access. The spare wheel was also stored in the same place which made a puncture in the wet a cumbersome and messy affair. An external spare wheel carrier soon became available as an after-market extra along with a luggage rack that provided some easy external storage.

A heater was a £20 option in 1958, with the car itself selling for just under £680 in the UK. A Triumph TR3 was over £1,000 and the MGA £995, so the little Bugeye had the cheap, fun and reliable sports car market sown-up from day one.

Performance, while not stunning, was more than adequate for a small car in the late fifties with a top speed of 80-85 mph and 0-60 in around 20 seconds. Add in the fact that it was cheap to buy, easy to maintain and great fun to drive and it quickly became extremely popular with a wide range of drivers. And for those who wanted more performance an after-market industry quickly grew supplying everything from knock-on wire wheels to supercharger kits.

The wire wheels were a popular addition along with a disc-brake conversion for the front. The wire wheels allowing extra cooling to reach the hard worked brakes.

Although the Bugeye Sprite was only made for three years many still survive and are lovingly looked after. There has also been a kit/replica market over the years and even more exotic versions of the Bugeye like the Sebring Sprite can still be largely re-constructed. A firm in Australia make body kits to convert the later Mkll Sprites and MG Midgets to look like the Bugeye by supplying new front and rear body panels.

And these days it is even easier to increase the performance of an old Bugeye by simply bolting in the later 1275cc version of the A-Series engine with close on 200 bhp available in supercharged and fuel injected form.

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