Sprite Lenham? What body?

[Alex_de_Jong]

Dear all!

Who can help me in finding information about this Sprite coupe, Lenham? At this moment the car belongs to my family and is waiting for more information about her history. In general the car is in quite good shape although it did not run over the last 8 years, but with some work to do it will drive again shortly.

The history as known at this moment is as follows:
The car was registered in the UK in 1959, last known licence plate is 5080KC.
The car is now registered in the Netherlands, since 21st of August 1992, licence plate DH-23-64.
Chassis s/n: AN515232
Engine s/n: 12CE-D -H 6636
RHD

Who can answer the following questions:
- What kind of body is it?
- What manufacturer? Is there a kind of type plate somewhere on the body?
- It looks like that the body has been build just after the production of the “chassis”. How can I check this on the car?
- Are there any other cars known with the same body? If yes, does anyone have pictures available?
- Are there any technical items I can check? The suspension on the rear axle is for example different.

I am very interested to get in contact with people who can help me in finding the history of this car!

For questions do not hesitate to contact me. Plenty of pictures are available!

Alex

 

[Alex_de_Jong]

Another picture.

 

[Alex_de_Jong]

And a 3rd picture!

 

[aeronca65t]

Welcome.

There are a fair number of pictures of "Spridget Specials" at this page:

https://www.britishcarforum.com/ubbthread...part=1&vc=1

Also some here:

https://spritemidget.free.fr/galeries/photo/photo2/cadre.html

Here is a video I took from my car in a recent vintage race. The white coupe' is a Sebring Sprite (once owned by Graham Hill):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xjOTvRh5w


You have posted your question on the "Austin-Healey" portion of this website. Most of the cars in this area are "big" Healeys.

You would get a better response at the "Spridgets" section.

 

[Dave Richards]

Lucky guy, all my dad had in the closet were skeletons!

 

[john_j]

Have a look here
https://www.austin-healey-club.com/AH50-gallery/Gallery08-day6-specials/index.htm?2
and here
https://www.austin-healey-club.com/AH50-gallery/Gallery08-day6-specials/index.htm?3

There are lots of Sprite specials - are they like yours?

I don't thinks it's a Lenham - see here https://www.wwah.org/wa_01car7.htm it may be a Sebring, try www.sebringsprite.com also try Paul Woolmer of the UK AH Club, he's a bit of an expert os sprite specials https://www.austin-healey-club.com/Pages/AH50-woolmer-series.htm

 

[bighly]

Try tracing the registration - or even try tracing from the original sprite heritage certificate?


Or try contacting Julian Booty or Peter Rix at Lenham directly

https://www.lenhamsportscars.com/postman.php and see if they have any records of your car

Here's a pic of the later body style (rear quarter window)

https://www.gerardsgarage.com/GarageContent/UniqueSprites/lenham/Lenham.htm

The Lenham Coupe body came in 2 derivatives - an early one, and a late one.
The 'early' one didn't have rear side quarter windows - the later ones did.
The earlier ones were much better looking than the later ones.

It looked like an E-type from the front - and a bit like a Datsun Z car (Kamm tail) from the rear. You could just put the Fibreglass Lenham Coupe body on your Sprite in the 1960's.

Chris Dimmock of Sydney Australia used to own a Lenham coupe - BJP 747 (Australian Rego) - it was known as FLY - as the original UK rego was 152-FLY.

FLY which was featured in Australian sportscar world magazine in May 1973 (before Chris owned it). FLY was more than just a 'rebodied' Sprite. Chris owned FLY
from about 1983 - 1995 or thereabouts FLY was a MkII sprite (until about 1967), then the Lenham Coupe body was fitted, along with a 1600cc Ford engine, twin webers, and a ford gearbox - in the UK. It came back to Australia with Paul Cockburn who built it in England. Around 1975 it was fitted with MKIII Sprite wind up windows & windscreen.

It went like.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif.. well you can guess.....

The Lenham Motor company also produced a 100 based body that made a 100 look more like a Silverstone, than a 100, as well as MGB Coupe bodies etc.

A fella near me was selling a backet case on eBay.