This is a nice warm drive to revisit in the middle of January. It features “Morgan,” our first Super Sprite. That car has a blown and two-port injected 1275 engine. We are now building Gumby and when finished that car will have a similar identity. Gumby, however, has an upgraded four-port injection system (one injector in each cylinder) on a cross flow aluminum head. You can see that engine taking shape this week… in the photo below, you can see the trick roller rocker assembly going together on Gumby’s billet aluminum head. These colored rocker arms feature needle bearings for much more precise and smoother valve operation, with less wear to all components.
Some have asked why we don’t use rotary or other powerplant swaps to get more power. I prefer keeping things as stock as possible, so as not to diminish the soul of these wonderful little cars. That may seem contradictory when you see a radically different head as shown on Gumby, but at least the bottom end (and valve cover-not we’re not using the aluminum one shown) are stock. We want to keep as much of the original equipment as possible and add tasteful upgrades without losing the essence of the car. This is a subjective process, but a changeover to rotary to me feels too far afield, inspite of the amazing power upgrade that engine might provide. Of course if you go too far, you can also suffer breakage of other components, so we have put together the best upgrades that work in harmony with good reliability.
We can only build a few Super Sprites every year so if you want one for the summer of 2017, you need to get in touch as soon as possible. We welcome the opportunity to build you one of the best Bugeyes in the world.
