......or Frogeye as they call them in ol Blighty......it belongs to my friend Clancy - I swear this guy has more cars stashed away - and I didn't even know he had it. It's been freshly painted and has a new interior, but "some assembly required" as the engine is at his place in Lawrence and the body somewhere near Topeka, 30 or 40 miles away.
It's supposed to have a freshly built 1275 ready to go.
I think if I were buying one of these in this situation, I'd put one of those 5 speed conversions in it - with a 1275 it should pull nicely and still be able to cruise in 5th.
I'm going with another friend who is actually the potential buyer, I'll be doing the "assembly" for him.
Pics later today when I get home.
Owned a 61 for a couple of years. Very fun car. It had a 1275 and front discs.
From the title, I thought you meant a VW. I had always heard the early Sprite referred to as the "BugEye" or "FrogEye" Sprite versus the shortened "Bug".
Well, that didn't go quite as planned.......
The fellow interested in buying the Bugeye (Deighton) wasn't all that interested in Clancy's car - it's a project. And even tho I agreed to do the work.......it's not really his idea of what to buy, but he was still considering it. The car was buried in a barn with a lot of other cars and we weren't able to even get in the car, so we agreed to go see it again next weekend when Clancy would have it out of the barn and over at his place.
So on the way home I called another friend (Alan) who has a running, driving Bugeye and he agreed to let Deighton sit in and drive his, just to see if he will even fit - as Deighton is a fairly big guy. They did, and he did and a good time was had by all, but then we noticed yet another Bugeye sitting under a clear plastic cover in Alan's shop.
This car was absolutely pristine, freshly restored to a very high standard - we asked Alan about this white one and it turned out the owner was ready to sell it, and had planned to consign it to the upcoming Mecum auction. Deighton made the call, and he is now the proud owner! They will deliver it to his shop next week........it is an original one owner 948, but it has been restored, just the kind of car Deighton likes to buy.
So, a productive day for Deighton, but not so good for my friend Clancy.
The red Bugeye looked like a really nice car - not concours quality but way above your average street driver level. Fresh engine, fresh paint, fresh interior and so on and a nicely built 1275 to go in it, just needs to be put together.
What was the asking price for the red bugeye? Don't see them for sale too often.
PM sent
I'd love a Bug-Eye for nostalgic reasons!
My dad had a '58 and I loved "helping" him work on it. My pops worked the night-shift and had the day job of getting me from nursery school. When the weather was nice he always picked me up in the special car as I affectionately called it and we'd get egg-salad sandwiches and eat them by the duck pond in our town. This was the early 80's so no one looked at us funny when I rode in the front seat with no car seat and it was totally acceptable that my pops would take my sister and I both out and about in it to run errands. I often sat on the exhaust tunnel hump partially in the boot, kinda in the front!
That car was so much fun to ride around in.