Obscure Cars?

[Norm Peterson]

Sorry, but the Sprites are all steel. Not that there's a lot of it - you can have only so much in 80" wheelbase, 48-ish track, and ~1400 lbs curb.



I'd best describe the Sprite (and it's MG Midget twin in later years) as being one size smaller than the MGB, which is more of a Sunbeam Tiger/AC Ace/Shelby Cobra size chassis.

Somewhere I still have a couple of magazine articles where somebody shoehorned a SB Ford or Chevy into a Sprite, and I've considered doing something similar more than once. Any way you slice it, it's going to be a bit nose-heavy, so I'd look to either the SBF, an LS?, or all-aluminum 60° V6 of around 3.5 liters as alternatives. The 60° engine would more than likely involve less footbox "massaging", and would be the lightest of the bunch. Even a Honda S2000 powertrain (remember, that would be in a car of half the S2K's weight).

The early Sprites have also had Mazda rotaries swapped in, and one of the top E-Mod SCCA autocross cars had a 2-rotor in it. Then the guy got serious (read 3-rotor). Last I heard, it either was for sale or had been sold.


Norm