1959 AUSTIN-HEALEY SPRITE CONVERTIBLE 'SHELBY SPRITE'

Details

This 'Bugeye' Sprite is one of three training cars owned by Carroll Shelby and used at Carroll Shelby's School of High-Performance Driving. The high-performance driving school was located in Southern California at Riverside Raceway in the early 1960s. It is powered by a 948cc 4-cylinder engine backed by a 4-speed manual transmission. The Austin-Healey was used for approximately 5 years to instruct students - including young movie stars - in the art of road racing. Peter Brock, manager and

driving instructor at the school, wrote in a letter that the car was the 'workhorse' training vehicle of the school. When Carroll Shelby bequeathed the driving school to Bob Bondurant in 1965, the Sprite was sold to the manager of the Algar Porsche Dealership in Rosemont, PA. It was raced at various SCCA events in the Northeast until it was damaged and then subsequently stored for a period. In 1973 it was repaired and returned to racing, until it was retired again in 1992. There have been many magazine articles written about the car throughout the years. Photos of the car during its time at the school and a letter from Carroll Shelby about the car are on display at the Austin-Healey Museum. It has had a professional restoration to return it to its former glory as a training car at Riverside Raceway and it is currently race-ready. This “Shelby Sprite” is an example of Carroll Shelby’s influential automotive history.