Junkyard Find: 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite

by Murilee Martin

Published: February 24th, 2011

As I write this, I’m sitting on the floor of the bag-claim area at the Houston airport, waiting for my LeMons accomplices to arrive from California, with Pantera cranking in my headphones in order to get myself in the proper Texas frame of mind. Yes, races on consecutive weekends; it’s like being in a traveling rock-n-roll band, only with the smell of burning brakes/engines/wiring instead of groupies and limos. With low-budget racing in mind, let’s contemplate a battered little racer that won’t be seeing a track, ever again.

Yep, it’s a Bugeye. As the owner of a much-butchered Sprite, I’m saddened to see this former race car in a Sacramento-area self-service yard, preparing to be devoured by The Crusher’s cruel steel jaws.

Evil Clint, the madman behind the Previa-blown 320i racer, found this car on a recent junkyard-prowling expedition and sent me these photos. He didn’t have any use for the headers or Borgward transmission on the ground next to the car, but he did pull this nice aircraft oil cooler from the Sprite.

#1950s #1959 #1959Austin-HealeySprite #AustinHealey #Austin-HealeySprite #BugeyeSprite #California #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Sprite #Spridget

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 13 comments

J Mendez on Feb 25, 2011

Geez!!! Please someone save the pocket rocket from the jaws!!!!! I saw one at a classic race here in Monterrey a few years ago, nice car! (no matter what TopGear says we have races and classic auto clubs) Best regards!

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Andy D on Feb 26, 2011

hmmn 12v positive ground Lucas electrics. Whitworth tooling. Wimpy pushrod engine and weak ass transmission. But if the driver's door on the 528e beside it is any good ...

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