NOW SOLD to Eric in New York! Our 353rd Bugeye sold!
This is AN5L 33167, a 1960 Austin-Healey Sprite Mark I we call “Cinnamon.” Cinnamon is one of the nicest restored Bugeyes in the United States, and if you are looking for an upper-echelon Bugeye, give this one a serious look!
Part of what makes this car so special is that we have already been through it and upgraded it for a prior owner, so dozens of the usual punch list items have already been addressed. We started roughly two years ago with a fantastically restored car with excellent body and paint work, and sorted every last detail for its first owner after the restoration, who lives in Florida. He had us upgrade the car with an aluminum radiator, three point retractable seatbelts, a GPS speedometer, electric tach, and all the reliability improvements that are most common for cars prepared in our shop. That owner later added Ford five-speed conversion to upgrade the car even further!
Cinnamon’s interior is virtually new. She was upgraded with leather-faced seats rather than the standard vinyl. A full red carpet kit was installed with black binding on the tunnel mat for contrast. A stunning wood steering wheel was installed in place of the factory steering wheel, as well.
Cinnamon’s power plant is a 1275 engine freshly rebuilt in 2019 with an upgraded aluminum cylinder head and slightly larger 1.5 inch HS4 carburetors. This engine runs wonderfully, as you’ll be able to see in the driving video below. This is a 1275 engine pushed to a nice upgraded power level… still very user-friendly with a nice idle and no bad habits, yet more power than any stock 1275:
Cinnamon, as a result of these improvements, is a car that was beautifully restored, comprehensively upgraded in our shop, and then upgraded once more with the five-speed Ford transmission conversion. The five-speed is one of our favorite upgrades; it allows nicer highway cruising and easier operation with a fully synchronized gearbox.
A lot of money was spent restoring and then upgrading the car, with what we’ve found to be the best improvements available. We’ve leveraged our experience with more than 350 builds to make Cinnamon one of the best.
Take a look at the video below where you can hear me describe some of the upgrades we did, and some features of this car:
As you should be able to see in the driving video above, Cinnamon is an absolute delight to drive and remains a well-sorted automobile. We also have a video below, taken during the car’s last stay with us in 2020, showing an 11.7 second 0-60 test we did using our GPS speedometer.
Now you might be thinking 11.7 seconds 0-60 doesn’t sound all that impressive in modern terms, based on modern performance standards, but it’s quite quick for one of these cars when you consider that an original Bugeye made it to 60 in about 21 seconds.
The car is expensive given all the improvements that have already been done, but if you’re looking for one of the best Bugeyes money can buy, give us a call to see if Cinnamon is the right car for you!
