>I saw mention of a "discovered" LeMans Bugeye recently - was it Clasic and
>Sportscar? Didn't they have aluminium (or partially aliminium) bodies? Maybe
>just the bonnetts?
The Le Mans Sprites had bodies made from an alloy called Birmabright, which
work-hardened to a toughness similar to sheet steel according to Geoff
Healey. The bodies were hand-hammered onto wooden dollies by a panel
beater whose name escapes me now, but he had been shaping car bodies by
hand for something like 25 years when Geoff wrote the book and had gone
stone deaf by that time. They'd been using this Birmabright alloy for
a long time, as it was lightweight and easy to use. Those of us who have
done any fabrication know what this implies about the cost...
"More Healeys" has a sort of "before and after" shot of the race shop,
with the chassis of one of the specials before they put the body panels
onto it. It's just the floor pan, the sills, the duprights that hold the
doors on, the cowl that connects them, and the front and rear chassis
legs going out to the suspension. There's a six- or eight-point roll
cage tying into this for support, however. Then the alloy panels were
connected to this framework, their shape depending on the race. Most
of the Targa Florio Sprites were open, with little pseudo-275 GTB/4
bonnets (really really cool!) and simple rear ends. The Sebring and
Le Mans Sprites were coupes, with body styles that changed over the years
and as the wind tunnel refined the designers' concepts.
I mentioned the Super Sprite very briefly in passing the other day. That
was another alloy-bodied Sprite special that would have been a lot of fun
if it had been allowed to go into production. The body was swaged down
the side like a Big Healey, and was a little rounder in front (with, I
think, headlights in a more conventional location) and a rear more like a
Big Healey than a Bugeye. But the big change was the presence of an 1100cc
Coventry-Climax sohc engine, complete with a pair of 40DCOE Webers, under
the bonnet. Now *that* would be a fine car for G Production! Unfortunately,
BMC wasn't much more far-sighted than B(gip)L was to become, so they merely
issued a stern warning never to use engines from outside the company again
and the car died quietly.
The last Sprite prototype is interesting in light of the last thing I heard
about the all-new MG that's said to be coming here in a year or three. There
was a Sprite prototype called WAEC (for "wheel at each corner") that used a
Mini-Cooper 1275S drivetrain mounted behind the driver. The car's styling
was simple, looking a little like the Targa Florio Sprites including a
"targa" bar to stiffen the middle of the chassis in support of the engine
and transaxle. This car had stock Sprite steering and front suspension with
stock Mini (front) suspension at the rear. Depending on whether you like
pot roast, tempura shrimp or grated parmesan cheese with your noodles, this
car was the prototype of either the Fiero, MR2 or X 1/9. Handling was said
to be astounding, though it was less stable (in return for having faster
responses) than the regular Sprite. Tooling costs would have been minimal
and most of the pieces could have come from regular production models, making
it easy to recoup development costs at a Sprite-like price.
The best part, though, is why BMC didn't want to go into production with it.
"Sports car owners are too conservative," they decided, and this was too
great a break with tradition, in spite of the fact that by this time even
the Indy 500 was being contended by English chassis with mid-mounted Cooper
engines in them. Another great G (and F) Prod car shot to hell.
|