Tuesday 17 July 2012

Sebring Sprite

My friend Jay dropped by a month or so ago to show me his Austin Healey Sebring Sprite. The Sebring  was built in the late 50's for the Sebring Race in Florida and its hasn't got all that much in common with the production car. A heavily worked engine of about 1275cc and a huge Weber side draft carbie. No doubt a cam too. Lots of light body panels. Jay is a fan of primitive cameras too, so we set up a couple of pinhole exposures. Of course we drove it too and it really goes well. I had a standard Austin healey back in the 60's (also bright red) and they were a conservative car by todays standards and really quite primitive and FUN. But what a great drive. If you were pushing it you needed to be thinking! Mine maxed out at about 95-100 and it felt like it. This one has a hard top mine was soft. It felt like being in a incredibly fast shopping trolley. Being very small it clawed around corners amazingly well. Great Joy!! I just wish someone still made basic little quick cars without all the airbag and plastic rubbish.

What more would you want

1 comment:

Joanne said...

I heard a story about the little red car you used to own in Sydney....