• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Trophy for the Bugeye!!

Share this page

longbridgehealey

longbridgehealey

Obi Wan
Country flag
Offline
:banana: So last year, so we could park in the infield of the fair, we took our 100-6 to the Apple Harvest Festival up in Adams County, PA. By entering the car, we could park in the car show right in the middle of the festival, rather than in a field a mile away, and be bussed in. So the 100-6 was there in the middle of 200+ Fords and Chevys, etc. of various years from 1920 on up. The only British car in sight, and it won People's Choice for it's class, the 1950's.
So as we were leaving, I told my wife that this year we would enter the Bugeye, and see what happens this time. So (as you all know from my never ending series of questions the last couple of months) in July I started trying to get the Bugeye back on the road, since it has been waiting patiently for me for quite a few years while I worked on the 100-6.

Long story short, yesterday was the day. 287 cars, the Bugeye and a great looking MGA and a nice MG Midget the only British cars on the field. And there were some really nice cars there, from Cobras to - well, just about everything.

BEST OF SHOW!!!!!! :banana: :devilgrin: :banana: :banana:

:thankyousign: Thanks to all of you (and my future son-in-law John) who helped me get her back on the road- she's still got a very long way to go, I think nostalgia and "my (fill in the blank) used to have one of those" won the day for us.

Larry (and my wife Pam who talked to all of the folks who stopped to look at her).
 
Best of show definitely REQUIRES a picture Larry!!!! Congrats!!! :thumbsup:
 
Oh my goodness, well done indeed.
 
Thanks everybody! Pics coming later this week. But remember, she's no Ms Agatha, she's still got a long ways to go. (Ms Agatha is her hero)

:thankyousign:

Larry
 
Kudos indeed! Well done!
Confirms what Frogeye owners know: crowd pleaser extraordinaire
 
At shows always folks standing around Miss Agatha takeing photos and telling stories.

I just love it, upsets the american iron folks. hehe.
 
Yep Jack, that's how it went. People would be standing there telling us their LBC story, and the next thing you knew my wife would have their kid in the drivers seat, getting their picture taken. The Best of Show award was a people's choice, and the Bugeye got over a hundred votes. It's really funny, because she's a long ways from being a show car, still has the original dash, torn and worn seats, chipped paint job, etc... I just got finished redoing the brakes, creating and covering the inside panels, putting carpet in, dist cap, wires, plugs and rotor, and a new master cylinder. She doesn't look that great, but the folks loved her! She was the only car there with a constant crowd around her.
 

Attachments

  • 18714.jpg
    18714.jpg
    69.1 KB · Views: 181
longbridgehealey said:
Yep Jack, that's how it went. People would be standing there telling us their LBC story, and the next thing you knew my wife would have their kid in the drivers seat, getting their picture taken. The Best of Show award was a people's choice, and the Bugeye got over a hundred votes. It's really funny, because she's a long ways from being a show car, still has the original dash, torn and worn seats, chipped paint job, etc... I just got finished redoing the brakes, creating and covering the inside panels, putting carpet in, dist cap, wires, plugs and rotor, and a new master cylinder. She doesn't look that great, but the folks loved her! She was the only car there with a constant crowd around her.
Click to expand...

Well deserved. Our tiny Spridgets are 100% curiousities nowadays, and a Bugeye is even more unusual with its happy smiling face. Add to that your willingness to share the car with others with your wife's putting kids in the driver's seat - I bet it really connected with the visitors. I go to too many shows where the cars are not cars. Yeah, they look like cars but they're untouchable - they're like your Mom's living room furniture, look but don't touch. They're preserved relics not running vehicles. Your car was FUN and approachable. And I cheer you for that! :cheers:
 
We have a pair. Ain't it a joy.
 

Attachments

  • 18715.jpg
    18715.jpg
    64.6 KB · Views: 181
Yes indeed!!
 
Thanks!
 
Maybe we can be a matched set.
 
Bookends!
 
It isn't just the kids that love a Frogeye at a car show.
All these beauty queens had me take their pics with their camera phones sitting behind the wheel.
"It's soooo cute!" was exclaimed over and over.
I just get such a kick out of the crowd's response to a BE.
Even a paint job needing old beast like Screamin' Mimi
gets attention if not awards.
Sigh...one day she'll get that new makeup.
 

Attachments

  • 18716.jpg
    18716.jpg
    62.8 KB · Views: 153
Isn't it great? People seem to love the looks of the car as much today as they did fifty years ago!
 
longbridgehealey said:
Isn't it great? People seem to love the looks of the car as much today as they did fifty years ago!
Click to expand...

...and some people still hate it. The designer of the sprite prototype, Gerry Coker, was at the Austin Healey Conclave in San Diego last year. He gave a very clear impression he did not like what happened to the car after he left the company. Oh well, can't please them all. I like it as much now as I did as a kid.

Brian
 
... but he always follows that story with a statement about how he now is happy to claim it since it has a popular following. All sort of tongue in cheek.
 
Back
Top