The Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite was a modified version of the Austin-Healey Sprite which was produced by the Donald Healey Motor Company, the Healey Speed Equipment Division and subsequently John Sprinzel Ltd. It was recognized by the governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, as a separate model in its own right, featuring Girling disc brakes as well as engine and chassis improvements. After its homologation on 17 September 1960, FIA regulations permitted the use of 'special bodies' and a small number of Sebring Sprites were subsequently fitted with coupé bodywork in aluminium alloy and glassfibre, the most strikingly attractive examples being those devised by well-known race and rally driver John Sprinzel, who had won the 1959 RAC British Rally Championship. Sprinzel commissioned the coachbuilders Williams & Pritchard, renowned for their racing and prototype bodies, to produce it. The name 'Sebring Sprite' would become a generic term for any Sprite with disc brakes, and later for any Sprite with coupé or fastback bodywork.
(Please note the picture to the right shows a modern replica Sprinzel Sebring Sprite, as produced by Brian Archer, but fitted with a replica of the Speedwell GT bonnet designed by Frank Costin)
Read more about Sebring Sprite: Class Domination At The 1959 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sebring 1960, Sprinzel's Sebring Sprite Coupe Debuts At The 1961 Racing Car Show in London, Sebring 1961, Later Sebring Sprites, Modern Replica Sebring Sprites
Famous quotes containing the word sprite:
“For the most part, the best man’s spirit makes a fearful sprite to haunt his grave.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)