Competition
The Sprite (and its MG Midget sibling) have been successful club level race cars since their launch and continue to race in various events to this day. International events were entered throughout the 1960s and surprisingly good results were achieved, including a 12th place finish at Le Mans in 1965. The works cars began with use of a commercially available fibreglass-bodied Sprite (with a Falcon body) before utilising lightweight body panels of standard appearance. By the mid-60s, use was made of the wind-tunnel at Longbridge. Barry Bilbie (the chassis designer) utilised the results to produce a streamlined body, built in Birmabright alloy at Healey's Warwick workshops by Bill Buckingham and Terry Westwood. These cars were powered by BMC's Courthouse Green engine shop's Eddie Meyer's tuned engines and eventually produced a reliable 110 bhp which enabled a top speed of around 150 mph on the Mulsanne straight. One-off gearboxes were made by the same team, with MGB gearboxes modified with an externally-mounted 5th gear and overdrive in some cases. BMC works entries recorded class wins at Sebring, with such drivers as Stirling Moss, Bruce McLaren and Steve McQueen taking the wheel, as well as the Targa Florio and Mugello sports car races.
Read more about this topic: Austin-Healey Sprite
Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)
“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)
“Such joint ownership creates a place where mothers can “father” and fathers can “mother.” It does not encourage mothers and fathers to compete with one another for “first- place parent.” Such competition is not especially good for marriage and furthermore drives kids nuts.”
—Kyle D. Pruett (20th century)