New to Bugeyes? Welcome to our family! Our video owners manual series continues with this installment… how to operate an Austin Healey Bugeye sprite… dashboard controls.
Check out the video below, and get familar with Bugeye operation basics!
Are you team blackwall or team whitewall?
Bidding just recently closed on our champagne MGA we listed on Bring a Trailer, but during the auction we were faced with an interesting quandary posed by a few viewers: does this car look better with blackwall tires, or with the whitewalls she currently wears?
Backing Plate Orientation Importance
Every Bugeye rolled off of the factory floor in England with four-wheel drum brakes. When maintained properly, drum brakes are perfectly adequate for stopping a Bugeye, as long as they are properly installed. We had a car arrive this week with the backing plates reversed, which might be hard for some people to recognize, but this is a problem that can dramatically reduce braking performance.
One F@#$ing Automobile
“That is one awesome f***ing automobile right there,” exclaims the traffic guy. “I gotta have a picture of that!”
Traffic stops. Everyone waits.
What is it about this car? After 389 sold, you might think this is getting old, but the reverse is true. We still marvel.
This is Sea Biscuit, and we are getting ready to ship this Bugeye to Jeff in North Carolina, the proud new owner. The final test drive yields great comments and smiles. People pause. They pull alongside and ask questions. The world slows down a little bit. And that is such a welcome relief, when it seems like EVERYONE is always in a rush these days. There is, for all of us, just too much to do and not enough time.
[Read more…] about One F@#$ing AutomobileDon’t do this to your Bugeye Sprite!
We had a 1275 “A” series engine come to the shop attached to a Bugeye this week that was making an unfamiliar grinding noise that got a little bit worse when you stepped on the clutch. We determined that it was coming from the bell housing and figured there was a clutch issue.
We were also having irregular difficulty starting the car, and we were suspicious that something in the engine was binding. Much to our surprise, when we removed the bell housing we found the flywheel ring gear displaced on the flywheel. The ring gear had become a saw that was grinding into the oil pump cover.
We’ve never seen this sort of problem before. A new flywheel and oil pump cover fixed the problem and the engine is going back together next week.
[Read more…] about Don’t do this to your Bugeye Sprite!Bugeye resurrection!
This Bugeye was in rough shape when it arrived here at Bugeyeguys world headquarters, having not seen the light of day in over a decade. We were tasked with mechanically resurrecting this car, which had belonged to a relative, so the current owners could drive and enjoy it and now The Great Pumpkin lives again!
