We’re excited to be invited to the 2025 Greenwich Concours with AN5L/ 501, the first production Bugeye Sprite. 501 will be part of The Cars of Donald Healey display… come find us there on Sunday June 1, 2025!
If you’re unfamiliar with this sort of thing, 501 is exactly in the same state as it was on the day it left the factory in March 1958. Every nut in bolt is a match; every component is exact. We painstakingly built the car to survive four hours of judging at a national Austin Healey club event in 2022, where every inch of it was scrutinized, and the car was given Gold certification, the highest honor. National club Concours is a grueling affair, not for the faint of heart.
At the Greenwich Concours, and most other similar national multi-make Concours events, judging is more of a 15-minute affair where a team of judges listens to the car’s story and gives it a look-over to determine how it stacks up against other similar cars (of different makes) in the class. It’s a very different kind of show from a national marque-specific event. Greenwich judges will generally be looking at the overall package and story, while national club judges are generally looking at micro details. While both Greenwich and the Austin Healey national club meet are Concours events, they are radically different in their focus, and it’s exciting to be able to participate in both types of shows!
About a month ago, I spent most of the day driving around the Connecticut coastline in 501 for a magazine story that will be coming in June (stay tuned for that article in the coming weeks!), and I was able to again appreciate how nicely this car drives. While I really love the modifications and reliability upgrades that we perform for Sprites on a daily basis, it is always a pleasure to drive a totally stock, completely accurate Bugeye, and 501 works beautifully.
By the way, there is a driving portion of the club Concours judging; everything has to work as designed, and one of the judges went for a drive with me to make sure that the car performed accurately. At a Concours like Greenwich, you could push the car to its place on the lawn, so nobody cares if the horn or wipers don’t work; however, at a club event, everything has to work exactly as it did when it left the factory, so it’s a very high bar to obtain.
Thus 501 drives beautifully, and I’ll be blasting down interstate 95 on next Saturday morning, on my way to my place on the show field, zooming down the highway in much the same way the new owner of this car zoomed around California 67 years ago. Same car, same condition, same smile… different era!
The Greenwich Concours takes place on Sunday, June 1st, and you can read more about that event by clicking here. We hope to see you there!
And by the way, one of the more interesting aspects of Concours prep involves floor covering. Everyone wants the original rubber mats, but very few sets have survived 70 years of abuse, and no one‘s yet been able to make them. You’ll notice 501 has a custom floor covering that looks exactly like the original ribbed mats. Until somebody can 3-D print rubber sheeting, this is the next best thing to the original recreation, and if you’d like to order a set, you can do that by clicking the photo below, or by clicking here.
