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Austin Healey Sprite MK4

By 1970, the Austin Healey Sprite was a name many knew well - it had come to market in ’58 with the MK1 which many of you know as the Frogeye but by 1970, the second to last year of production, it looked very different to its 50s namesake.

Ownership of these later cars, to me, in today’s modern world is a lot easier than the earlier cars. The doors which can be unlocked from the outside and don’t require reaching in, the attached hood and the larger 1275cc engine just mean that whilst the Frogeye styling melts even the coldest of hearts, these later MK4s have a degree of functionality and practicality which makes them a tad more usable.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning at this point that the MK4 Sprite and MK3 Midget were virtually one and the same give or take some badges and trimming at point of launch in the mid-late 60s. the Sprite as we test here today was priced at £672 whilst the Midget was priced slightly higher at £684 - but both shared one fixed price - the heater, which was an optional extra marked up at just over £14.

By late 1969, just before the this vehicle we test here today was sold in march 1970, both the Sprite and midget were now £811. It’s also worth noting that 1970 was the last full year of BMC’s licensing agreements with Healey, which meant the last 1,000 or so cars sold in the latter part of 1971 were simply badged Austin.

1971 saw the end of the Healey-Sprite and thanks to mergers amongst many marques in the UK to form British Leyland, the line up had become a bit cluttered. The Midget survived the shake up as did the now British Leyland owned Triumph Spitfire, which had gone from a rival in the Midlands to a cuckoo in the nest.

But that’s the history - what about the performance?

Well, on a MK4 Sprite of this age, you’ve got the 1275cc lump I’d mentioned. It was a bit of a damp response auto press wise at the time of launch because they’d got the same engine in the Cooper S but they’d de-tuned to cut costs. The crankshaft compression ratio was down, valves and ports a little restricted.

You’ll get about 65bhp from new, although I would expect something in the region of that now the engine has been rebuilt, you’ll get around 93mph as your top speed - which I’m taking as gospel from the Autocar test as I don’t exceed 50 on today’s test and around 30mpg for typical fuel consumption.

The car is standard on the brakes front, with unassisted discs to front, drums to rear on this which pull it up nicely on test. I did note mentally but forgot to mention on test, there’s no synchro on first, which considering the automotive landscape of the time, wasn’t shocking but could’ve been a nice to have.

But we are over half a century from when this car was new - so it’s had quite an adventure in the last 5 decades. Previous owner Kevin tells us why he picked this Sprite and why he decided to do a costly restoration on it.