Make	Austin-Healey
Production	1958 to 1961
Built	48,987 made
Designer	Donald Healey
Type	Roadster
Engine	948 cc (0.9 L) A-Series I4
power	43HP (32 kW)
Wheelbase	2,032 mm (80.0 in)
Length	3,480 mm
Width	1,346 mm
Height:	1200mm
Curb weight	650kg

 The Austin-Healey Sprite mk1 was a small British car built from the late 1950s to the early 1960s.

History

The Mark I series had the nickname "Frogeye" in Europe and "Bugeye" in the USA because of the arrangement of the headlights. Engine and transmission were from the Austin A35 , steering and brakes from the Morris Minor . With a displacement of 948 cm³, the engine produced 43 bhp (brake horse power) (44 hp) (32 kW) at a speed of 5300 rpm. In a test from 1958, the car reached a top speed of 133.4 km/h. ( 82.9 mph). (133.4 km/h) and 

the Sprite MkI launched in 1958 was an extremely spartan roadster : it lacked bumpers, external handles, side windows and soft top (there was a simple tonneau cover). The floor inside was covered with rubber.

The Austin-Healey Sprite is a compact open sports automobile introduced to the press at Monte Carlo by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) on May 20, 1958, just before the Monaco Grand Prix of that year. It was designed to be a low-cost model that "a chap might keep in his bike shed" while also serving as a replacement to the pre-war Austin Seven sporty models. The Donald Healey Motor Company, which got a royalty payment from the manufacturers BMC, designed the Sprite. It was first sold for £669 and used a mildly tweaked version of the Austin A-Series engine as well as as many current automobile components as possible to keep costs down.

The Sprite was built at the MG sports car facility in Abingdon, and it was unavoidable that the design's popularity would result in an MG variant known as the Midget, resurrecting a successful pre-war model name.
When not in use, the car's designers planned for the headlights to be retracted, with the lenses facing skyward. However, due to BMC's cost-cutting, the flip-up mechanism was removed, and the headlights were simply placed in an upright position, giving the car its most recognisable characteristic. Gerry Coker designed the body, which was then tweaked by Les Ireland.The problem of providing a rigid structure to an open-topped sports car was resolved by Barry Bilbie, Healey's chassis designer, who adapted the idea provided by the Jaguar D-type, with rear suspension forces routed through the bodyshell's floor pan. The Sprite's chassis design was the world's first volume-production sports car to use unitary construction, where the sheet metal body panels (apart from the bonnet) take many of the structural stresses. The two front chassis legs projecting forward from the passenger compartment mean the shell is not a full monocoque however. The front sheet-metal assembly, including the bonnet (hood) and wings, was a one-piece unit, hinged from the back, that swung up to allow access to the engine compartment. The 43 bhp, 948 cc OHV engine (coded 9CC) was derived from the Austin A35 & Morris Minor 1000 models, also BMC products, but upgraded with twin 1⅛" inch SU carburettors. The rack and pinion steering was derived from the Morris Minor 1000 and the front suspension from the Austin A35. The front suspension was a coil spring and wishbone arrangement, with the arm of the Armstrong lever shock absorber serving as the top suspension link. The rear axle was both located and sprung by quarter-elliptic leaf springs, again with lever-arm shock absorbers and top links. There were no exterior door handles; the driver and passenger were required to reach inside to open the door. There was also no boot lid, owing to the need to retain as much structural integrity as possible, and access to the spare wheel and luggage compartment was achieved by tilting the seat-backs forward and reaching under the rear deck, a process likened to potholing by many owners, but which resulted in a large space available to store soft baggage.

In 1965 Austin-Healey developed a racing version of the Sprite with the BMC Competition Department  The bodywork was made more aerodynamic after numerous tests in the wind tunnel, a configuration designed specifically for the straights of Le Mans. The lighting system was enhanced with four lights behind a Plexiglas structure. In the center of the front there were two small wings to convey the air towards the radiator. The front suspension was double wishbones. The BMC powerplant had a Weber carburetor, which made it over 100 hp. The five-speed manual gearbox was the MG B. The car weighed 610 kg.

In the first race, the 12 Hours of Seabring, it was led by Rauno Aaltonen and Clive Baker. 37th on the grid, the Sprite closed the 15th and second race in the 2-liter class. It was later entered in Le Mans, where Aaltonen and Baker were joined by the second car of Paul Hawkins and John Rhodes. The former were forced to retire, but the latter, who started 44th, finished 12th overall and first in class. The Sprite was used until 1968, obtaining the class victory again in that year. 

Manufacturer	Austin-Healey
Production	1959 to 1963
Assembly	Abingdon, England
Class	Sports car
Body style	2-door roadster
Layout	FR layout
Engine	2,912 cc (2.9 L) C-Series I6
Wheelbase	92 in (2,337 mm)
Length	157 in (3,988 mm)
Width	60 in (1,524 mm)
Height	46 in (1,168 mm) (Hood down) 49.5 in (1,257 mm) (hard top)
Curb weight	2,550 lb (1,157 kg)

The Austin-Healey 3000 MKI and Mk I British sports cars built from 1959 to 1963, and is the best known of the "big" Healey models.

History

Jensen Motors created the car's bodywork, and the vehicles were constructed at the BMC Abingdon plant. In its prime, the 3000 was a popular car that won its class in several European rallies, and it is still raced by fans today. The Austin-Healey 3000, which replaced the Austin-Healey 100-6, was debuted in 1959. Despite the naming change, the differences between the original 100 and the 100-6 were rather small. The wheelbase and body remained identical, and two variants, a 2+2 and a two-seater, were available.

The 3000 was an unrivalled export success: of the 51,315 cars built (including some 100/6) between 1957 and 1968, 45,596, or 88.8%, crossed the Atlantic and ended up in the United States.

The Mk III will also be the last Austin-Healey of large displacement: the continuous mergers between the British car groups meant that the Austin-Healey brand had "in-house" rivals, such as MG and Triumph . To replace the 3000 Donald Healey proposed to mount a 4-liter Rolls-Royce engine and Borg-Warner automatic transmission on a chassis and an enlarged Mk III body by 15.24 cm . However, this solution proved costly to implement and inadequate for the American market due to the safety regulations that would be introduced in 1968 . Without American customers, the Healey -Rolls-Royce operationit would certainly have been a failure and so the 3000 legacy was taken up by the MG C , an MG B adapted to accommodate the Austin-Healey six-cylinder engine.

The engine power was calculated, as for almost all British sports cars of the time (except the MG and some Triumph models), with the American method SAE Society of Automotive Engineers , which gave an engine more powerful than on the road, since measured on the bench, without the accessories that absorbed power, such as mufflers, carburetor filters, etc .;therefore 10/15% must be removed from the SAE power to obtain the actual horsepower, defined with the DIN (CV) method, ie with cars on the road.

The Austin Healey 3000s have had a long and important history in racing and raced in the most important rallies of the period and still continue to be used in historical reenactments today. The BMC racing department immediately used the 3000s (in all versions) in rallies until 1965 , when they were slowly phased out due to the regulation change favoring the more modern Mini Cooper 'S' . The best known factory pilots who achieved success with the 3000 were Pat Moss (sister of the better known Stirling ) and Ann Wisdom, the twins Erle and Donald Morley, Bill Shepard and Rauno Aaltonen .

In the USA, while the "old" 100 had set several land speed records on the salt lakes of Utah, the 3000 participated in numerous track competitions, thanks to permissive American regulations, including the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring with John Gott, Clive Baker and John Chatam. 

Mark I

The original 3000 was built from March 1959 to March 1961 and became known as the Mark I only after the Mark II was released. Compared to the previous 100/6 the MkI is equipped with the same 6-cylinder in-line engine with rods and rocker arms but with displacement increased to 2912 cc (bore increased to 83.36 mm), compression ratio 9: 1 and 2 SU HD6 semi- carburettors. reversed, with 124 HP of power at 4000 rpm and 22.4 Kgm of torque at 2700 rpm (calculated using the SAE method ). With this engine (type 29D) the car reached 183 km / h. The other differences concern the brakes, with the Girling disc front .

Like the 100/6, it was initially available in 2-seater (internal code BN7) and 2 + 2-seater (internal code BT7) versions and among the options included spoked wheels, overdrive, laminated windscreen, heating, adjustable steering column, hard- fiberglass top and two-tone paint.

An automatic starter was adopted between July and November 1959 , abandoned because it proved unreliable, in December 1959 an oversized radiator was fitted, in June 1960 Dunlop RS5 tires were adopted as standard and in December of the same year the rear reflectors were revised and enlarged headlights.

In total, 13,650 Mark I (2,825 BN7 and 10,825 BT7) were produced

Mark II

In March 1961 the new 3000 Mark II was put on sale, like the MkI in both 2-seater (BN7) and 2 + 2 (BT7) versions.

The 3000 Mark II adopts 3 SU HS4 carburetors in place of the previous 2, a modification probably made to allow the adoption of 3 Weber carburetors in the race , and a re-profiled camshaft to obtain 132 HP (SAE) at 4750 rpm and 23 Kgm of torque (SAE) at 3000 rpm and reach 180 Km / h. The body was also modified with a new complete oval grille with vertical bars and seat belt attachments while from August 1961 the brake servo became available as an option, which significantly improved braking performance, and from November of the same year it was modified. the position of the gear lever, which became central instead of to the left of the transmission tunnel.

In January 1962 the new version of the 3000 was launched, the more luxurious 2 + 2 seater Sport Convertible (BJ7) which replaced both the BN7 MK II, in March 1962, and the BT7 Mark II, in June 1962.

The most important changes concerned the new folding top from the passenger compartment (until then the top could only be mounted when the car was stationary with a complicated procedure), descending windows and a more enveloping windscreen. The engine (type 29F) on which the triple SU carburettors , difficult to adjust, were replaced by two SU HS6, developed 131 HP (SAE) at 4750 rpm and 21.8 Kgm of torque at 3000 rpm which pushed the 'car up to 188 Km / h. The options were similar to those of the Mk I but when the BJ7 came out the factory hard-top was eliminated .

PERFORMANCE: Mark II

• engine capacity: 178.10 cu in, 2912 cu cm;
• fuel consumption: 19.9 m/imp gal, 16.6 m/US gal, 14.2 x 100 km;
• max speed: 107.5 mph, 173.1 km/h;
• max power (SAE): 136 hp at 4750 rpm
• max torque (SAE): 167 1b ft, 23.0 kgm at 3000 rpm
• max number of engine rpm: 5500
• specific power: 46.7 hp/l
• power-weight ratio: 18.1 lb/hp, 8.2 kg/hp
• acceleration: standing 1/4 mile 17.8 sec, 0—50 mph (O—80 km/h) 7.8 sec
• max speed in 1st gear: 35 mph, 56.3 km/h;max speed in 2nd gear: 49 mph, 78.9 km/h; max speed in 3rd gear: 79 mph, 127.2 km/h; max speed in 4th gear: 107.5 mph, 173.1 km/h

after 11,564 MkIIs were produced: 355 BN7 Mark II, 5,096 BT7 Mark II, and 6,113 BJ7. A total of 11,564 were made: 355 BN7 Mark II, 5,096 BT7 Mark II, and 6,113 BJ7.