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Bugeye [Frogeye] owner

Lightning

Freshman Member
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Hi all,

Mike here (also known as 'Lightning'. Work nickname, long story!). I am a long term owner of a 1960 Bugeye Sprite named Louise. I bought Louise back in December of 1986. Holy cow - I just did the math on my fingertips and that is 33 years on the dot! I am the 3rd owner. My daily driver is an R56 BMW Mini with a 6 speed.

Louise has a long and interesting past. Originally she was Olde English White, and the original owner was from coeur d'alene Idaho. My friend Ned was a young man who lived in Spokane at the time, and bought her in 1963. He named her Louise, painted her black (current color), and drove her on the road through the mid '60s. In the late 1960s, he started racing Louise in SCCA H Production. Eventually, as they got faster and started working up in class they started racing in HIP (H Improved Production). They raced through the 1970s. Eventually, Ned moved up to a faster class, racing an Alfa Romeo Spider.

Louise was put back into street trim...sort of...and put back on the road. By then she was running a 1098 SCCA spec race motor (far too hyper for the street and pump gas), and a BMC straight cut / close ratio gearbox. She was daily driven from roughly 1978 - 1980, despite not being in a very streetable configuration. Unfortunately, Louise was wrecked in 1980 while Ned was heading for Eastern Washington on Stevens Pass. They were involved in a fluke accident where an oncoming VW bus hit wildlife. The wounded animal was thrown into the path of the oncoming Bugeye. Not good for the wildlife or either vehicle. The bonnet was pretty heavily damaged, but surprisingly the only mechanical failure was a cut oil cooler line. Some side of the road re-plumbing to bypass the ruptured hose got Louse running again, and she limped home where she sat for 6 years.

Shortly after college, I met Ned through my now wife, and we became friends. I helped crew for his SCCA Alfa for several years, until ultimately life got too busy for all of us. Somewhere along the way he mentioned owning a Bugeye, albeit wrecked and needing to be restored. My dad had owned a Bugeye for a while when I was a little kid, so that definitely caught my attention. Over the course of several months and numerous conversations we struck a deal and I bought Louise in December of 1986.

She was in pretty rough shape after a decade of racing, and becoming home to a pack of hungry field mice that did a lot of damage. I towed her home, and started on the restoration in my (very limited) spare time. It took a few years, but I had her back together, running, and painted by the end of August of 1989. Her paint was actually still soft when I loaded her onto a trailer for the first trip to the All British Field Meet in Portland, Oregon (4 hours to the south). That was a very fun trip with my then fiancee, now wife and our LBC.

We drove Louise on the road on sunny days for a decade, occasional trips to work, and a number of field meets. Louise was somewhere between SCCA HIP configuration and a legal(ish) street car. Lots of adventures, a few misadventures, and several Christmas Card photos. :smile: She is currently running a mostly stock 1098 with a Long Center Branch header and Weber 40 DCOE carb. The transmission is the same SC/CR box that was installed in the 1970s. A few years after my son was born I put Louise on wheel dollies, and rolled her into a safe corner of the garage for clean and safe storage. She has been in and out of long term storage several times through the 2000s and 2010s, but mostly in deep storage.

Life has now come full circle, and I finally have time and resources to get Louise into proper shape and back on the road again. I started picking up parts and getting ready to re-restore her properly and get her back on the road where she belongs. There is quite a bit of work to do, but I look forward to restoring her again, sorting out some issues, and getting her back onto the street. Way back in the early days of the Internet I belonged to a predecessor to this forum and it was fun and informative. I look forward to 'meeting' you guys on my continuing journey with my LBC.

I look forward to chatting with you guys! :D

Mike
 

JPSmit

Moderator
Staff member
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sounds like quite a history and quite a project! welcome, come on over to the Spridget forum and please keep us posted
 
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