1960 Frogeye Sprite "Super Sprite V8"

I usually find when "things" need to go" the distaff side are involved.

It is the Market Harborough Classic Car Show tomorrow so I was inspired to get my Sprites out of the garage....Well I needed to do a big tidy up and this was a good reason to do it now. As can be seen it is a bit crowded in there:-



An hour later:-








Another hour and there were two out in the sunshine:-




Any RR folk are welcome to pop in as we are only 400m from the centre, out on the Northampton Rd.

I really like that car...

Holy thread resurrection!

In an attempt to reinvigorate myself I have entered the Sprite in the Kelmarsh Classic and Competion car show in August. It is only five miles away and so I thought I really ought to go!

Now I have got to get the Sprite running again...

After a good holiday I opened up the garage to do some work on the Sprite.
First job was to remove the bonnet



Then look at the carbs and see if they still open and close - they do!





Finally remove the radiator to access the ignition wires more easily

When I fabricated the manifold for the downdraught carbs I wanted to keep the operating system tucked away, so there is a linking bar running above the valley gasket (It was actually a cut down and altered bar from a flat four Alfasud with twin carbs). This bar connects all four carbs but is actually driven from the rear carb lever. This lever had an added bracket that connects to the throttle cable. It was this end carb lever that was going over centre.

However, on stripping it down, I found that it was not quite aligned to the adjustment screw and so a quick re alignment, screw the adjuster further in and the lever ball joint is further round, lengthen the connecting link to the linking bar and it no longer goes over centre. Hopefully the pictures make it clear....or not!

I'd get it running first, clutch may be OK and there may be other things like new leaks that appear and are easier to fix with the engine out once it's running.

Thanks Kevin and Darkspeed. Although I could get it running and try to free the possibly stuck clutch it is a bit difficult to do it on my drive - and in race trim it is not road legal.....So a slight change of plan.
The ram pipes are off -



The more discrete bulged bonnet and windscreen are back on-



The lightweight race doors are off -



and the normal wind up window doors are back on -




Yes it is going back on the road. It is also more likely to sell as a road going V8 Sprite rather than a drag racer.

A bit more progress as I have replaced the yellow carb bungs with.....trusty tea strainers - stainless steel no less!

At least they stop stones and nuts etc falling in - and allow the low bulge bonnet to close.