Check out our NEW walkaround video below!
This car has a particularly special story. Righty was well loved by one family for many years. They took the car with them from England to Dubai to Canada. All that ocean freight is an amazing testimonial of their passion for this car. Now we’ve properly commemorated that passion by mounting the original UK, Dubai, and Canada plates on the car.
Purchased new in England, restored in Dubai, shipped from Dubai to Canada and now in Connecticut… this is perhaps our most well-traveled Bugeye ever!
Meet “Righty” (AN5 12808), a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite that has quite a story to tell. Righty is an original home market right-hand-drive Bugeye, a bit of a rarity here in North America. If you are familiar with Bugeyes, you know that most were built LHD for export. A relatively small portion of the 50k cars built were built with RHD for the domestic UK market.
This is one of those cars.
It is hard to find an original RHD Sprite here in the USA. Note the Euro-spec amber rear turn signal lenses and windshield wipers that park on the opposite side of the windscreen from the USA market Bugeyes we usually feature.
If you’ve never driven RHD cars in America, you’ll find it a hoot. You’ll get used to it in minutes. And you’ll find that RHD Bugeyes attract even more attention than LHD Sprites, which amps up the fun factor!
Righty has a great story to tell. The previous owner bought the car at age 19 in 1975 in England and enjoyed it immensely, taking up to FOUR passengers with him to the local pub! (One sat on the transmission tunnel, two sat in the passenger seat (with one on the other’s lap), and one would ride in the boot! (I’m told this was a rotating arrangement so one passenger was not always stuck in the boot.)
He and his wife even took her to LeMans in 1991, the year the Mazda Wankel won. They stayed in a chalet near the track, and the Mazda was so loud going around the track they couldn’t get any sleep!
In 1994, Righty and owners relocated to Dubai. There, the car laid mostly dormant until 2005, when she received a rotisserie restoration by a specialty shop in Dubai. She wears this now roughly 20-year-old restoration well and her Iris Blue paint still shines very nicely!
After the restoration, there was a bit of trouble getting the car registered, as she is a right-hand drive car, which Dubai typically doesn’t allow to be registered. The owner brought a photo of himself standing in the driver’s seat to prove he’d owned her for 30 years at that point, seen below, at which time the authorities laughed and gave him his registration!
Righty appeared in a Dubai magazine article around this time, which you can view below.
Ultimately, Righty moved to North Vancouver, Canada in 2010, where she remained until earlier this year. Tragically, Righty’s owner passed away in 2020. She has been in the loving hands of his widow, who was by his side for many of Righty’s adventures. The car hasn’t driven much since 2020, so we have refreshed the car to get it back into good driving shape.
Righty’s 948 and smooth case transmission run and shift well. We replaced the brake master cylinder, clutch slave and hard line, and rear brake cylinders to refresh the hydraulics. We also re-sealed the rear axles and installed new rear brake shoes and lowered the rear end-now the car is level.
As with every classic sportscar, there are a few more things that might be of interest to Righty’s new owner. For example, there are currently non-retractable three-point seat belts installed… our retractable belts would be a nice upgrade and easier to use. We would also love to upgrade the older tires to a fresh set.
A nice black canvas top and supports are present and are in excellent shape. The side curtains are usable as-is but we have the parts should the new owner wish to restore them to make them nicer. There is an older tan canvas tonneau present, which is useable, but a new vinyl tonneau would be a smart investment.
This is an awesome, hard-to-find Bugeye that anyone would be pleased to own! Click on “read more” below for the full collection of photos and give us a call if you are interested in taking Righty home!
BTW, The car last had Canada paperwork where it was last plated. We imported it from Canada to the USA and have all the paperwork to register and title it anywhere in the world. The Dubai piece is unique to this car, but the buyer of this car is buying a Canadian car legally imported by a USA dealer. We guarantee anyone will be able to register it anywhere in the world.
A new tonneau RHD would be roughly $750 installed, if anyone would like us to install that upgrade.
