BUGEYES FOR SALE

Concours Gold! Own one of the first Bugeye Sprites to reach America in 1958, now for sale!

January 31, 2025 by bugeyeguy

New Price – $44,995!

We’ve made a further price reduction this week on a historically significant early Bugeye Sprite! When you consider that this car is one of just a handful of judged and certified gold-level examples and also has the pedigree of this very low number likely pre-production Sprite, this is a great price! We can’t make another with this provenance, and to build a car with gold level accuracy takes hundreds of hours! It’s all done for you here… and she even comes with the correct tool kit, with all the right pieces that would have come with a new Bugeye Sprite in 1958.

AN5L 552 is likely a pre-production car that failed initial testing and was factory reinforced and put back on the production line in the first few days of Sprite production. Because it is such a special car, we restored and rebuilt it to accurate factory specs and then had it certified as a concours gold level car, the highest level of certification available.

In fact, in 2015, 552 was judged in Gettysburg, PA at the national Austin Healey Club enclave where gold level is the highest honor a Bugeye can attain for accuracy and condition. At that event, four judges spent roughly three hours evaluating the car and scoring roughly five pages worth of components for originality and condition. This car now wears a gold concours registry badge on the grill with pride! (see below)!

This early car was well worth the hundreds of hours we spent preparing her for the concours event. We made a DVD/digital download about the unique early features (which you can purchase by clicking here), all of which we restored to capture these features for posterity. For example, we built a custom spare tire tray to match the one shown in the original Bugeye brochure. This tray is still visible in the boot of this car (below).

*A shot of the boot on 552 reveals a high-sided boot tray, a stark contrast from the flat mat used in later Bugeyes.*

*A promotional photo from an early Bugeye Sprite sales brochure showing the boot tray present on early Bugeyes.*

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“Goldie,” a 1959 Super Bugeye Sprite for sale, superb performance and upgrades! Signature model!

January 2, 2025 by bugeyeguy

Nearly $100,000 was spent to build out this car. We built it right, and given our experience with hundreds of Sprites, we know how to make a great product. For example, with a supercharged Sprite you need to make sure that the clutch pressure plate is upgraded or you will have a slipping clutch from the extra boost. Goldie has this modification, along with a long list of other upgrades.

This $100k project is available at a deep discount and is on offer for $54,995. Read the post below and give us a call if Goldie would look good in your garage!

If you like upgraded classic cars, this one is worth a serious look. We built Goldie in the Spring of 2021 for a client who wanted the best of everything (he’s now got too many cars and asked us to find Goldie a new home). This five-speed 1275 engine car has a big boost (up to 8 pounds) supercharger kit (and an upgraded clutch kit to handle the extra power) as well as a new ring gear, rear disk brakes and a complete new valve job with hardened valve seats for unleaded pump gas. Just about every part of this car is restored or upgraded within the past four years.

The transmission is a Datsun 5-speed, in excellent condition. In Spring of 2021, we changed the radius arms and changed the rear wheel bearings and axle shafts. Previously, we had put in a new wiring harness, all new copper nickel brake lines and installed new powder coated black rims with powder coated lug nuts. We also put in four new lever shocks and LED lights.

We upgraded the interior hardura mats and custom stitched them with matching gold thread. We then built custom seats with all new foam, also with matching gold thread. And we made a matching custom tonneau too. We also removed and polished the cockpit trim, replaced the windshield and glazing rubber.

The car has a 1275 engine and supercharger, alternator upgrade, new carburetor, spin-on oil filter, electronic ignition, seat belts are upgraded, speedometer is upgraded to a GPS unit, exhaust is better, header, supercharger, high performance clutch for the power upgrade, aluminum radiator, rear disk brakes, etc, etc.

If you want a really zoomy Bugeye, take a close look. This super Sprite is worthy of my signature that lives on the fender, and she was built by our dedicated team of pros, just 387 miles ago. The prior owner has a large collection of cars and only used the car sporadically since we delivered it in May of 2021 so the new owner will get to enjoy a long list of upgrades, which totals more than $40k! Someone will be very lucky to take Goldie to a new home!

Click “read more” below for a full compliment of photos and give us a call if you’re interested!

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Caramel topping

December 20, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Behind every stunning sculpture we build is a healthy dose of color angst. We sweat the details here, and the colors on Sage, for example, we are so far off the traditional color map that we worked particularly hard to make this car look hot. The tonneau color was the final choice, and one that I do not make lightly, because the tonneau adds a giant splash of color to the center of the car.

It has to be right.

Here’s the unveiling of our final choice… we looked at multiple espressos and an infinite variety of chocolates (from milk to dark) but we ultimately settled on a rich caramel stayfast topping. This color perfectly matches the highlights in Sage’s leather dashboard covering and perfectly complements our color theme, serving as a rich accent to the car’s Sage green exterior. We sewed this custom tonneau here in our shop with contrasting khaki thread and then we custom fit the new tonneau to the car.

Magnifique!

Sage is still available, and if you are looking for the ultimate head turning cars and coffee king, this car is a stunning, one-of-a-kind signed edition. Sage is the best Bugeye we can build (and you can own).

*The tonneau material underneath a swatch of the dash vinyl shows the delightful contrast between browns.*

Sage is now complete. If you are serious about owning a stunning reinterpretation of the iconic Bugeye Sprite, click the photo below for more information and give us a call!

Super Sprite delight

November 29, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Now that we’ve sold 425 Bugeyes (and restored roughly another hundred of them for clients around the country), we’ve had a lot of time to think about what constitutes the ultimate British sports car. I’ve owned Big Healeys, MGBs, MGAs, MG-T series cars, as well as TR3‘s, Spitfire‘s, Minis, Morris Minors and some Lotuses; I always come back to the Bugeye as the most capable, stout, and fun car to drive and own. If only they had a little more style and luxury to them, then we’d be all set!

*This is* Angus, *a Super Sprite we have built for a customer in California. Lots of fun touches on this one, including new minilite knock-off wheels, Blockley tires, and a chopped windscreen!*

That’s what we’ve set out to do with each Super Sprite. We build each Super Sprite as its own unique interpretation of itself; we give each of them a little more style, a little more horsepower, a little bit better performance, and capitalize on the wonderful foundation that we were given when the cars were built roughly 65 years ago.

Check out the video here, you get to see some of our favorite Super Sprites, what I consider to be among the best Frogeyes in the world. Sage, Goldie, and Jesse are for sale (click their photos below to learn more), and if you’d like us to build your own custom Sprite, please don’t hesitate to call! We will be bringing Sprites to our shop in Connecticut all winter long to transform them, and if you’d like us to look at your car, please do get in touch!

A contemporary interpretation of a very basic car

October 4, 2024 by bugeyeguy

Back in 1958, $1795 didn’t buy you many color choices. That was then. Now, we want it all. And thus we have built a Bugeye, reinterpreted.

If you like modernized classics, we think you’ll like “Sage,” our newest stunner. We will have this car done in about a week. Check out the video below to see how we are doing, and check out the photo gallery at the end of this post for some up-close photos of some of Sage’s best features!

Of course, if you prefer original stuff, we have offerings more suited to you, as well. Check out AN5L 552, a Gold medal-winning Concours Bugeye, and a rare opportunity to own a preproduction Bugeye! Click the photo below to learn more about 552.