If there were an all-time award for car cuteness throughout the entire history of automobiles, the Bugeye Sprite would sweep the honors. With an almost-giggling grille smile and astonished, star-struck eyes, no other car model projects a happier disposition than the original Austin-Healey Sprite. It’s easy to imagine this little speedster as your best friend,…
For more than 30 years, Mike Cook’s job was to publicize and promote British cars in America. From the height of the sports car craze in the late ’50s to the end of the era when Jaguar ownership passed to Ford, Cook helped create the image of the marques, generate media buzz, launch new models,…
I had my first glimpse of a Sprite during the winter of 1958. John Thornley, MG factory boss and BMC Competition Department instigator, heard that I was writing “Modified Motoring,” a tuning book on the A series Austin A35 and Morris Minor. He invited me to an early showing of the Bugeye so that I…
The GIs stationed in Europe after the Second World War first fell in love with them. And when they shipped them home, America captured the fever. Arguably the MG TC began this country’s love affair with the sports car. MG TCs were fun, nimble, compact and bathed its occupants in sunshine. From those first imports,…
Not all Competitions Require the Pedal to the Metal Instead of the same old wax-and-shine car show, some clubs are reviving the economy run events that were popular in the past but unheard of in recent times. They require a different skill set since they’re driving events—think shifting and braking rather than cleaning and polishing….
We all have them, or maybe are them ourselves. Today, being an owner of Little British Cars makes one something of an offbeat, if not downright eccentric individual. And in the event one is labeled eccentric, your best bet is to blame it on others. “You think I’m nutty, I had an uncle who collected…
For many people, when someone says vintage sports car, the MGA is the iconic image that comes to mind. The flowing, curved body design with oval hood is one of the great automotive designs of all time, and it was a radical departure from the staid, upright MG TC, TD, and TF. Plus designers paid…
When the era of sports cars launched after World War II with the success of the Jaguar XK120 and MG TC, Standard-Triumph wanted in on the market. But the company needed a model that would hold its own in terms of design and performance. The TR2, which debuted in 1953, possessed not only the formula…
The Triumph TR7 and TR8 have long provoked extreme reactions on both ends of the spectrum. Initially TR7 was brutally criticized, while the TR8 was named 1980 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Time magazine listed the TR7 among the 50 worst cars of all time, while Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car said the TR8…
I was devastated to learn of the closing of the Abingdon factory. The date was October 22, 1980, which, just my luck, happened to be my birthday. My friend Peter Franklin who was Public Relations Manager at the time, called to tell me the news. Management closed the doors two days early to avoid any…
