Making its first public appearance on the Austin-Healey Club's Stand at the recent English Racing Car Show is a sleek blue coupe Sprite. Modelled closely on the lines of the class-winning Le Mans Sprites, this latest model from Donald Healey at Warwick is more than just a showpiece, for it is a new road-going version of those famous Le Mans coupes and, most significant, Healeys are going ahead with a limited production run for sale at home and overseas.

The new model will not, of course, be a catalogued production car that you can order through a BMC dealer; the cars will be built strictly to order at Warwick and will be powered by a standard 1275cc engine. Unfortunately supplies of the race-tuned 1275cc engines are very hard to come by at the moment and Healeys themselves obviously have preference for their own works cars. For those who wish to tune the standard 1275cc engine there will probably be as many special parts and tuning information available for the new Sprites and Midgets as are currently sold for the Mini-Cooper 'S'.

What will one of the new Sprites cost? Well, talking in round figures, Geoff Healey has quoted £1,240 plus purchase tax for the complete car with the standard engine. Production at Warwick will be on a one-at-a-time personal order basis (perhaps one car per month), so prices are bound to fluctuate with the times and be influenced by the customer's personal requirements.

Under the skin most people are very surprised to find just how near standard the works sprites are compared with the standard model. In their international sports racing class the Sprites are certainly one of the every few cars that utilize basically standard components. True enough, the excitingly different body shape bears little resemblance to the current Mark IV Sprite, but these bodies have been specifically designed to improve the top speed of the car down the long, long straight at Le Mans but at most other circuits they would perform equally well with standard coachwork.

Backbone of the car is a completely standard Sprite chassis/platform, the only modifications being to the floor panels beneath the seats which are lowered at the rear so that the lowest possible seating level can be achieved, which in turn permits a lower roof line. The suspension too is basically standard Sprite, slightly stronger coil springs being fitted at the front while the Armstrong shock absorbers are fitted with competition valves. An anti-roll bar of 5/8" diameter is fitted. At the rear softer leaf springs are used with Armstrong hydraulic dampers. To provide better axle location on the rougher international circuits like Targa Florio, Healeys have employed an unorthodox rear suspension setup comprising angled telescopic dampers and an anti-tramp bracket, but the new road-going model has the more conventional rear suspension.

The brakes are Lockheed, standard 81/4" disc (Mintex XM48 pads) being used at the front with 8" drums at the rear. To comply with the international sports car regulations there's a dual-line braking system with tandem master cylinders. Four stud hubs carry special bolt-on 13x5" rim magnesium allow wheels. Dunlop 500L-13 R7 green or yellow spot tyres are used.

Power pack for the works sprites has been a special 1293cc version of the 'A' series engine. When the 1098cc engines were standard ware in the Sprite, these 1275cc in-line units were extremely hard to come by, mainly because of the non-availability of the special crankshaft. Now, with the arrival of the 1275cc Mark IV Sprite, and the likely supply of nitrided crankshafts for these engines, the sprite owner can at last look forward to carrying out fuller engine tuning in line with the well-proven tuning recommendations for the Mini-Cooper 'S'.

Healeys engine modifications for their works cars have included boring out the 1275 block by 0.020" to give a 2.80" bore and a 3.20 stroke (1293cc). The balanced nitrided crankshaft uses standard Mini Cooper 'S' bearing shells; standard 'S'-type connecting rod bearings are also used. The competition high-lift camshaft (0.394") has a 95 degree overlap. The standard 'S'-type pistons are replaced by forged ones, the compression ratio being raised to 11.9:1 by machining the cylinder head and the block. The standard 1275 cylinder head is gas-flowed, the combustion chambers and the ports being carefully matched. Standard 'S'-type valves are used with matched push-rods and lightened rockers. The static ignition timing is 2 deg B.T.D.C. Champion N-60Y plus are used. Lubrication is by a dry sump system, oil being driven by a gear-type concentric pump off the camshaft to all working parts. There's a separate scavenger pump, the sump capacity being 21/2 gallons including the oil cooler.

Carburation is by a single twin-choke 45 DCOE Weber carburettor upon a short manifold. There are twin S.U electric fuel pumps and the tank capacity is 16 gallons. Healeys build their own three branch exhaust manifold which terminates into a single big-bore pipe. On the racing cars there's a so-called silencer to humour the scrutineers, but the road-going model will have a more efficient silencing system!

For most events the standard Sprite gearbox has been used with close-ratio gears, competition linings being fitted to a 71/2" diaphragm-spring clutch. In search of more top speed at Le Mans an 'MGB' close-ratio gearbox has been tried coupled to an 0.8:1 overdrive operating on third and top gears. With a 4.2 rear axle this gave the Sprite a top speed of around the 140 mph mark on the Mulsanne straight. At Sebring last year a special five-speed version of the 'MGB' gearbox was used, the fifth speed being incorporated in the box to overcome the additional weight of the overdrive unit. The new road-going Sprite will, however, be fitted with the normal four-speed close-ratio Sprite box. The power output of the fully race-tuned 1293cc engine is 110 BHP at 7000 rpm, the maximum torque being 88 lb ft at 3000 rpm.

The sleek and purposeful bodywork of the works Sprites has been designed by Geoff Healey although use was made of the wind tunnel at Longbridge to determine the contours of the 1965 Le Mans cars. The latest road-going version could well be named the Mark IV, for it is the latest in the line of four different body shapes to come from Warwick. The first coupe was built for the 1961 Le Mans race and is probably best identified as the car with which Mike Garton later scored so many successes.

Quite a few bodies were built on this style including two cars for the Targa Florio (one closed car and one an open version) and one car which ran at Le Mans in 1963. The first of the sleeker Le Mans cars appeared in 1964 and these Mark II versions had the big wrap-around rear window and a modified front-end with fixed wings and a top-opening bonnet. The Mark III version was built for Sebring in 1965 and can be identified by its dual iodine-vapour headlight system and the adjustable air scoop in the nose. Finally, we have the Mark IV, the road-going version, which has been re-styled at the front and rear to comply with European and American vehicle and lighting regulations.

Despite these changes the Mark IV still retains a most attractive little car - a true competition car in appearance - and it must certainly be amongst the best finished, limited production cars on the market today. The hand-beaten aluminium bodywork is a beautiful piece of work and in terms of finish and comfort it equals many a production model. The interior is fully trimmed in black leathercloth to match the snug-fitting bucket seats and there's deep pile carpeting on the floor, the gearbox tunnel, and covering the large rear luggage platform. The instruments (the same as those provided on the standard Sprite) are grouped together in a neat nacelle above the steering column while the minor controls are neatly arrayed on the dashboard. There are proper sliding side screens, which can be locked, as can the recessed door handles. Luggage room on the back platform is adequate and there's a lot of spare room for small oddments alongside the spare wheel which is mounted vertically in the tail.

Although I have not yet had the opportunity of trying one of the latest cars from Warwick, Geoff Healey was brave enough to lend me the old Targa Florio car for a week and I found the fully race-tuned 1275cc Sprite quite exhilarating to say the least! Apart from the almost unbearable exhaust noise, this car was in complete contrast to some of the tuned cars that I've driven over the past few months; it was joy to drive on any sort of journey and was just as happy chugging along at low revs in top gear in traffic as howling along the open road.

My immediate road impressions were of 'tautness' one comes to associate with works cars, the whole car (although being so very light) feels so safe and solid. The steering was firm, nicely balanced, and with little kick-back. The combination of rock-steady suspension and the racing tyres gave that characteristic 'weavy' feeling at low speeds, but once you got yourt foot down the handling gave immense confidence. In fact I found it almost impossible to evaluate the roadholding of the car properly on the road and I had to retire to the seclusion of a local airfield to find out what really happened when the little sprite was driven on the limit. When the car did break away it did so pretty quickly, but a flick of the small steering wheel was all that was necessary to keep the car completely under control.

Weighing just about 12 cwt (thats 2 cwt lighter than the standard Mark IV) the performance of the 1275 race sprites is really quite breathtaking, particularly when you realise that one of these cars could go straight out today and better the performance of the record breaking Sprites which ran at Utah in 1959. The body shape is an important factor here, of course, and it's worth revealing that only 50 BHP is required to propel the Le Mans body shape along at 100 m.p.h!

On the road the beautifully balanced motor just revs on and on and it's very easy to exceed the 7,000 rpm maximum. The easy revving engine, coupled with the close ratio gearbox and quick, precise gear change, means that the car accelerates away through the gears so fast that if you're making a quick getaway, you really have not got the time to take your hand off the gear lever!

Maximum in the gears (7,000 rpm) gives 63 m.p.h. in second, a shattering 92 m.p.h in third, and I did once see the 'ton' come up at an unruffled 6,300 r.p.m. in top. There's no doubt that the little 'flier' would have gone on happily into the 120 m.p.h. despite the fact that the targa body is not particularly streamlined. A remarkable little car indeed!

The works racing Sprites are, of course, strictly competition cars built expressly for the purpose of taking part in long-distance international motor races, which they do with unqualified success. The latest model from Warwick combines the sporting looks and th eexhililarating performance of the competition car with the comfort and amenities of a production model. Based on standard and well-proven components, it must surely have a ready market amongst those who want an eye-catching road car, an unbeatable clubman's car for marque sports car racing, or a competitive car for international events.

(Condensed from an article by Peter Browning and contributed for the June '68 magazine by Ray English)