In a world of 'more serious' classic sports cars, easy to ignore the most basic of the lot. Serious being everything from T Series MGs to 'Big' Healeys, MGAs, TR3s, Jags on and on. But who would guess that the smallest can be so much fun?

We found this car being sold by the son of the late owner....had been sitting for 12 years, the son cleaned out the fuel tank, dumped oil down the cylinders and got it running. Which is when we came along.

The car seemed to have some charms....excellent floods with n sign or rust, excellent body with faded original paint, very good original chrome, wire wheels, very clean interior, and even a remarkably well preserved cotton covered wiring harness. I guess when I was told that 'the car had always been garaged' it was true.

Well....after a lot of work, this the car as it is now.

Did some blending in matching paint, wet sanded the exterior, and the results were wonderful....looks great. Fitted a brand new convertible top and new boot cover. New carpets, redid the seats, cleaned and detailed the dash, and installed a proper center arm rust and a later model Sprite radio console.

Did all of the brakes....new calipers, rotors, pads, wheel cylinders, shoes, flex line, and adapted the car to a later model dual master cylinder for safety. All new clutch hydraulics and the clutch works perfectly.

What was a pleasant shock was that it appears the original owner had had the engine rebuilt (our tests, 150 psi compression in every cylinder, 70 psi oil pressure when warm, quiet valves, no oil leaks and no smoke) and same with the gearbox. Understand, these 'claim's are based on our tests and also finding the engine and trans were very clean AND when we drained the trans oil, was brand new.

Continuing with the car....we converted the car to negative ground, installed new classic looking digital stereo, new 3 point belts, installed a magnetic induction ignition, a high output shrouded electric radiator fan, 12v/USB outlet under the dash, installed a new solid state back up fuel pump, clean ou t the cooling system and installed a 160 degree thermostat, installed new Semperit radials and new tubes, we did a lot of work and covered a lot of details. All to offer a rather special small classic sports car.

Basic details: as a late model Sprite, has the 1275cc 65hp engine and rib case semi close transmission. Which in the light Sprite offers rather lively performance and offers a dandy around town and country road sports car........and with the new top, new heater valve, cleaned heater core, even offers fun driving all year 'round.

And, it IS an Austin Healey which, in least in its name, as a certain cache. Granted the bottom of the pecking order but we did put in a lot of effort to provide a very good example.