Of all the Sprites manufactured between 1958 and 1971, the Mk ‘frogeye’ is the most distinctive
SOME time between 1958 and 1961, workers at Pressed Steel in Stratton work on body shells of a car which went on to become a classic.
The Austin Healey Sprite went through several later incarnations, but the Mk1, affectionately nicknamed the ‘frogeye’ because of its headlight housings, was uniquely distinctive.
According to Bob Kemp, Sprite specialist with the Austin Healey Club, the Stratton plant put the shells together before the cars were sent to a factory in Abingdon for painting.
Of almost 49,000 Mk1 sprites manufactured, it is thought that about 3,000 survive, and they are highly prized as practical, drivable collectors’ vehicles.
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