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Very Early BE

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JPSmit

JPSmit

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this car belongs to a guy named Dave Creer on the yahoo group BritCarTalk - interesting description and age.

My Sprite is a very early one, serial #L1460, The first serial # was about 501, so mine in one of the first 1000 built. Guessing a 10% survival rate, that would make it about the 100th oldest almost running around. Birth date is 23 May, 1958, yes it has the studded windscreen. I think all Bugeyes have the 3 1/2" wheels.

You can see it at:

www3.sympatico.ca/dave.creer
 
Not too far off from the Ugly Bug "birth date"
 
:confuse: Why did they start at 501?? :confuse:

SURELY there weren't 500 prototypes.....

Is there a reason? or did they just pull that number out of their.... eh... out of thin air?

Just Curious...

"Cheers!" :cheers:

-Bear-
 
From what I heard, they used 500 as the Sprite was the 5th in the healey car models.
01 was the logical starting point and I did see some black and white pictures of car # 501. It was of a young lad who worked for the Healeys back in 1957.
His girl friend snapped 2 pictures of him in the car back in the day.
Now that young lad is the owner of AH Spares, he will not make any copies of those pictures but I can tell you the first Bugeye had external door and bonnet hinges and it was quite a bit different from what we all know today.
 
Thanks for the explanation! :thankyousign:

One clarification... You did mean 5th in the AUSTIN-Healey car models, correct? (As there were Several models of Healeys prior to Donald's joining up w Austin...)

"Cheers!" :cheers:
-Bear-
 
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