I may have been hasty in saying that the ex-Stephen Bowen Sebring Rep had been sold. It is still on the market at 33,500 Euros through Carosso NL

A couple of new photos of 4444 DA (Sven Eckhardt)

FROM IAN WEST:
Please find attached a picture of my DHMC hardtop on my 1963 Mk 1 GAN 2 Midget. The car is currently being restored and will run on wire wheels without bumpers. We have altered the front valance to resemble the standard-bodied Sebring cars. The second picture (with hardtop removed) shows the car now part way through restoration. It has had new driver's side inner and outer cills, new floor pan, new rear bulkhead (part), new A post skins (both sides), rear wings (part) etc etc. The passenger side was much sounder than the drivers side which had been poorly repaired in the past. The body work has been carried out by Lance McCormack (ex Mulliner Park Ward) at Romance of Rust in Brentford, West London to a very high standard.It now has very nice door clearances! I have owned the car for 37 years and hope to get it back on the road this spring...

JOHN BAGGOTT
has recently come by this interesting advert from early Sprite days. Anyone ever come across either of the items being offered here?
Feedback

ALLOY-BODIED SEBRING UP FOR SALE
This is the car recently completed by Marcus Fellowes using one of the Tom Blankespoor fabricated bodies copied from RTL 304. Priced at £29,500 full details can be found on the racecarsdirect website

Dave Wood of Orson Equipment has been approached by a guy in Germany seeking a pair of front Sebring splined hubs. Dave has none in stock but would consider making a further batch if we can get a minimum order of 5. Price each is £165. He can also supply Sebring engraved spinners to go alongside these. If anyone is interested please contact me via Feedback or contact Dave direct at: Orson Equipment, Camco House, Dale Street, Bilston
WV14 7JY Tel : 01902 906290
www.orsonequipment.co.uk

BMC Factory/DHMC hardtop wing nuts:

Ian West :

"I would be very interested in getting a pair of these wing nuts made for my DHMC hardtop. I did make a drawing as I was trying to see if I could get someone to make them for me but I'm not sure how accurate my version was i estimated sizes from photos etc. Would happily share the drawing I made if that helps".

GRAHAM BISH replies:

"SC Parts (Group Ltd) list wing nuts for the BMC factory Hardtop. I know they look different to the ones shown on the site though - Link". Item 16: part no.16252

ALAN JONES asks:

"Hi, on the works hard tops, the hard top to bodyshell fixing uses an aluminium wingnut. I understand that a quantity of replicas were made but sold out. Is there a drawing of them please  - as shown in the parts list as ref. Nr 18  on the pdf drawing ESQ165.B If you can help please come back to me via Feedback.

May I start the new year by wishing all my friends in the world of Sprites and all those who kindly contribute to this website a Very Happy New Year.

THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS - TO WHOM I SEND MY GRATEFUL THANKS:
Alan Jones; Graham Bish; Ian West; Dave Wood;

RICHARD HART'S SPRITELY TREASURES CURRENTLY BEING OFFERED FOR SALE ON EBAY
expire Sun 23 Dec

Les Leston Frogeye Sprite & Midget steering wheel boss & hub on ebay, currently at £100

Smiths Speedwell Sprite prototype competition Weston speedometer on ebay, currently at £130

PIERRE LEQUEUX TO TAKE PART IN MONACO CLASSIQUE 2019

Pierre Lequeux has entered UXU 257 for the Monaco Classique 2019. He says: "Ahead of the event I am rebuilding the car. I have put a 4.55 diff on it as well as a new gearbox with 1098 internals which should be useful  in those small roads up the mountains, though probably a pain on the long stretch of road". Pierre can hardy wait to set off from Glasgow in January.

OIL COOLER POSITIONING?
KEN GRASING asks: "Could you remind me on where to find pictures of the correct oil coolers for the Sebring Sprites.  I have a John Philips photo of 7080 AC, with the cooler mounted vertically on the right hand side on radiator, with the inlet for the heater above.  I can’t quite work out the spacing to make this  arrangement work, but then I’m using a modern Mocal cooler". Can anyone help with a good close-up photo of this set-up? Feedback please

Another set of SPEEDWELL DOOR HANDLES, this time with Gordon Elwell of Classic Revival, in good working order, complete with operating links, fixing studs/nuts and gaskets. £275 the pair. Tel: 0115 9663762

THE EX-ALEX & JANE POSTAN BONNEVILLE SPRITE

FEY 678, the supercharged historic rally Sprite is up for sale on carandclassic at £27,500

SPEEDWELL DOOR HANDLES

If anyone is after some of these there is this re-chromed set on ebay at an asking price of £349.99.
NOW SOLD

JAN MUSSCHE'S ALLOY-BODIED SPECIAL SPRITE IS READY FOR PAINTING
- quite something isn't it?

Trevor McIlroy ended his 2018 season by bringing XXC818 home second in class on a very slippy Kirkistown circuit (County Down N.I.) last month. 

RILEY 1.5 REAR BRAKE SHOES?
Pierre Lequeux is looking for a new set to take as spares for UXU 257 which he is taking on the Monaco Classique 2019. Feedback please [Sven Eckhardt came back with the answer - use early Triumph GT6 ones which are the same]

The December '18 edition of the Healey News Bulletin features an interview with a local Austin Healey 100 owner. The interview was conducted as part of the on-going 'oral history' element of the WCRO's Warwick Healey Motor Company archive project.

GRAEME WILLIAMS BUYS A SEBRING
Graeme is the son of the late Charlie Williams of Williams & Pritchard fame, who were responsible for making Sprinzel's original alloy bodywork fitted to the first 5 or 6 coupes. Charlie died in 1969, and as Graeme says "Sadly I never really took the opportunity to talk to him in any depth about the business. It is only relatively recently that I really came to appreciate the esteem in which Williams and Pritchard are held.  I had one of the original shape f/glass bonnets (as per NSU) fitted to my Frog in 1965. Free-issue then of course! My preference is for the look of this bonnet rather than the Sebring2 and the Monza, but I suspect that is because it was the one I had originally". 
The car he has acquired is the one built in the early 90's by Mike Sutton and following Mike's death it went to Bob Heppell, before now being sold to Graeme. Graeme reports: "Mike must have been an interesting person. I believe he worked for a company of Quantity Surveyors so his methodical “recording” approach would have been very much part and parcel of his work style.  It will be invaluable for keeping the car. At the moment I only have the invoice folder and have glanced at the build record one. That will come down with the car which should come down at the weekend.  I would guess he was very particular about the way it was put together which increases confidence in the vehicle. Probably a bit of a pain to deal with judging by the notes attached to invoices" .
Graeme, on left in the pohoto, has since taken delivery of his new toy - last weekend.

DHMC SIDE-SCREENS - HOW THE ORIGINALS LOOKED:
Pierre Lequeux has sent me these phoptos showing his refurbished (by Andrew Forster) original DHMC side-screens so we can see how they should look.

Roger Williams recently posted these photos on Facebook, of the intended 1969 Targa Florio entry, HAN9-R-250, around the time he restored the car about 2003. It later passed to Steve Coleman who subsequently rebuilt it all over again.
See HAN9-R-250

LWD 959E (TFR 7) IN BRIDGENORTH MOTOR MUSEUM

David Morys: "found this (photo) while looking through old prints in an album. It was taken (probably in the early 80's) in the Bridgenorth motor museum that Bob Roberts owned. A beautiful estate and lovely building to keep the cars. He had a wonderful collection there and presumably some of the cars were on loan as the Brooklands Napier Railton was there at the same time along with the Broadspeed Jaguar XJ12 and the late Paul Hawkins' GT40, plus his gorgeous Bugatti Type 57S."

ANDREW STORER'S NEW SIDESCREENS FOR HIS DHMC HARDTOP

"I have attached some images of my car with its original works hard top and (its new) side screens. As you can see they are an exact fit on the corners - they couldn't be any tighter. The engineering company that made the frames copied my template almost exactly,luckily, otherwise the doors wouldn't have shut! It's also very important to use original frame brackets because the remanufactured items are hopeless. The frames aren't perfect - a slight over-bend at the top front and they are brushed rather than polished but this is in effect the first attempt. They have got a tool so could possibly make more in the future if there was any demand." [June 2018]

[Apologies for the delay in publishing this picture. MEI]

SPRITES RACING AT PAU ~ MAY 2018
Three UK based Sprites made the long journey to Pau in South West France to compete in the Legendary Circuits series Historic Grand Prix event on 18-20 May 2018. They were Ian Hulett (W&P Sebring Sprite GT) David Smith (Sprite Mk4/Sebring) and Steve Atkinson (Sprite Mk 3). They were joined by series organiser Pieter Bakker's Monza Sprite, assorted Morgans, Triumphs, Porsches, Lotus and MGBs as well as two Ginetta G15s and a Davrian, the grid totalling 29 cars. All the UK based Sprites finished both races with Ian Hulett achieving the best result - third in the first race behind a Morgan +8 and a Porsche 911 RSR. For those who are interested, there may be an opportunity to race there again in 2019. Follow the progress on the Legendary Circuits web site.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MIKE CURTIS WHO HAS RECENTLY COMPLETED A 10-YEAR LONG
DETAILED RE-CREATION AND ASSEMBLY OF HIS SEBRING SPRITE REPLICA - 1367 VU

August 2018

Acquired as a very much unfinished (almost un-started) project way back in 2008 Mike has worked long and hard to rebuild the donor shell, source all the necessary parts, make lots of detailed modifications and finally assemble this beautiful example of the Sebring Coupe. Back in June he told me it was finished and I had hoped to meet up with him but was not then well enough to do so. However during July and August Mike was able to take the car on its first few outings on the Yorkshire byways near his home.By September he had covered 750 miles and was due to visit Andrew Forster for a rolling road session at 1,000 miles.

THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS - TO WHOM I SEND MY GRATEFUL THANKS:
Mike Curtis; Ian Hulett; David Morys; Roger Williams; Pierre Lequeux; Graeme Williams; Trevor McIlroy; Jan Mussche; Ken Grasing; Mike Wood;