bugeyeguy – Page 26

Superb Iris blue 1960 Bugeyed Sprite for sale, upgraded, fully vetted, certified and ready for the road!

November 10, 2023 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to Matt from New Jersey! Believe it or not – Matt actually previously owned this car! We’re glad to be able to help re-unite the two! Congrats on taking home Bugeye #400!

The car has had a number of significant upgrades since you saw it last… Lulu is now a whole new machine!

If you are new to our site, Lulu (AN5L 45678) came out of Arizona, where are the car has lived for the past 11 years, purchased shorty after restoration by a prior owner. During that time it was driven little, as it was primarily in storage in the garage of the owner’s second home.

When we got the car, brought the car up a few notches when we gutted all the wiring and installed a new factory reproduction wiring harness. We also went through the hydraulic system and completely replaced all the hoses, wheel cylinders, master cylinder and slave. We also tuned the car after installing a positive-ground Pertronix electronic ignition distributor, new coil, plugs, and wires.

A few weeks ago, we sold the car to a buyer for whom we performed a new and lengthy set of upgrades (listed below). He recently decided to go in a different direction so the next Lulu buyer will enjoy a long list of improvements on this now extensively upgraded (but still very stock-looking) spectacular car.

During these past few weeks, we have eradicated any remaining issues on this car, and upgraded the engine, cosmetics and cooling system. We have also completed all punch-list items. Now that these lists are complete, the new owner will enjoy a car that has been through an extensive upgrade process and has also been through our meticulous departure checklist, a list that was generated based on the 399 other Bugeye departures that came before.

Lulu is now ready to go!

The upgrade list is extensive… for example, we changed the wheels to a much nicer set of original factory steel wheels, added 5 new 155 series tires (the spare is now a matching wheel and new tire), removed and replaced all the carpet in the car with a brand new blue set (including trunk mat), replaced the door seals with proper factory accurate seals in the correct original configuration, installed new tri bar headlights with upgraded H4 bulbs, installed new lifetime K and N lifetime air filters, installed a new aluminum radiator for optimal cooling in hot climates, new factory style choke assembly (for an accurate dash knob), new original style windscreen washer pump, and we have even installed new chrome period correct lap belts. We also upgraded the fuel tank to a new unit with a Viton ethanol-proof sender gasket, which is pressure-tested and ready for a long, new life.

The 948 engine also enjoyed a long list of upgrades such as a new ported 1098 head with larger valves and hardened valve seats, completely rebuilt HS2 carburetors, a new lightened aluminum flywheel, a new stainless steel exhaust header, new larger center pipe and new muffler. We’ve also upgraded the front of the engine with an upgraded vibration damper, for a smoother ride.

When all that upgrades were complete last week, I personally drove the car about 25 miles so we could find and eliminate any remaining squeaks or rattles, and now the car is completely ready for a new home.

Everything has been double-checked.

Wow, that’s a lot of upgrades! While we are sorry the car didn’t go to the last fellow, the car and the new owner are both big winners, since Lulu has taken a leap to the next level, befitting of our “genuine build” sticker, which I have affixed and personally signed. As this was our 400th car sold and it is now even more special with all the listed upgrades, I have labeled this as our 400th build and it will stay as our number 400 in perpetuity.

The new owner will also receive a special 400th Bugeye commemorative t-shirt (staring Lulu!) signed by all of our team (everyone in our building had a hand in making Lulu great). This is our first car that has her very own t-shirt!

So here we have a completely sorted, evaluated, upgraded, tested and ready-to-depart Bugeye, which can be in your driveway and ready to enjoy in a matter of days! Lots of people claim to sell completely sorted cars… after 399 of these, we have a lot of confidence here… I put my name on it!

This one has been built with the experience you can only gain from 399 repetitions that came before, and as a result, this is a great product… Lulu looks original with a 948 engine and drum brakes all-around, but she’s superior in many ways, courtesy of a long list of discreet upgrades.

The car comes with a white vinyl convertible top and matching white tonneau, both of which fit the car nicely (see photos). The side curtains that could use new rubber seals but are otherwise are in good condition. The picture gallery below shows the condition of these items. The tonneau and side curtains also come with a carrying pouch for protection! The top currently does not have a protective bag but we sell nice top tubes and would love to add one to this car for its next owner!

If you have followed us for a while, you know that we name all of our cars… the cars have so much personality that they each warrant their own personalized identity! And of course, we use those names to distinguish the cars in our shop so that we’re able to identify all the cars in our care with ease (“not that blue bugeye, the other blue bugeye!”). This one was easy to name because it has really well-executed, hand-painted “Little Lulu” artwork on the fenders. If that’s not your thing, the artwork can be removed, but we’d recommend leaving it on there… from driving this car around town for a bunch of miles, I noticed that people were really drawn to the artwork, and the name fits the car so nicely that I would leave it be. A few times, I heard:

“Hey, Lulu! Nice car!!!”

It’s all good fun. I hope you will give Lulu serious consideration! Click “read more” below for more photos!

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Our fastest Bugeye ever is for sale!

November 10, 2023 by bugeyeguy

Ever since we got into building and selling classic cars about 17 years ago, we’ve been trying to build the most reliable Bugeye on the planet to provide a headache-free experience for our customers. This electric FrogE is the closest we’ve come to delivering on that commitment. I am well aware there are some people out there who are really resistant to electric classic cars in terms of removing what they see as the soul of the car and replacing it with electric components. For those people, we still have many gas-powered options. But for anyone looking for practicality, reliability and ease of operation, this configuration is worth a serious look. While there is no exhaust note, it’s so fast and smooth that the extra power is an attractive trade-off for many customers. You can have super speed with electric or super sound with ICE. It’s your choice. Regardless, the FrogE gives us one more platform to offer new customers and if it breaks down any barriers to entry, we’re all for it. This is one more way to keep these cars alive for generations.

This particular car is the fastest Sprite we’ve ever built with a 0 to 60 time of 7.29 seconds, which is at least 30% faster than our previously quickest Sprite (which was gas powered). That’s fast.

We’ve completely restored this Sprite from the ground-up and then added the electric components which include five Tesla batteries from a low mileage Model S (that was totaled). These batteries give us 32 kw of capacity which is good for about 95 miles of range if you use the car in a spirited manner (as I have been). If you are conservative on the accelerator, you can probably get more than 100 miles of range. Temperature matters too… if you’re in a temperate zone you’ll get more range than we’re getting right now in 40° fall weather in New England.

This car is a dream to drive. It has no bad habits and no issues- it just goes (and will continue to go) for a lot more miles than any gas-powered classic car engine will ever go. You will have to maintain the lever shocks (although we have a tube shock conversion that might help expand the longevity), and there are still rear wheel cylinders to wear out eventually (we do have a rear disc brake upgrade that would increase the lifespan of the rear brakes as well) so there is a little bit of maintenance. You’ll need new tires at some point (they’re brand new now, but they’ll eventually age out) but other than that, the motor is bulletproof, so is most everything else!

These batteries should degrade no more than 10% after 10 years and we made the system modular so that in 50 years the batteries can be removed and upgraded or replaced. Other than that, you’ve got an amazing reliable and consistent platform. All you have to do is charge it and we’ve made that easy as well with the flip-up fuel cap on the rear deck.

Is this the future of classic cars? Time will tell, but in the meantime, we’ve got a really impressive way to live with a Bugeye. You can drive it with one pedal. The regenerative braking is impressive and all you have to do is regulate how much you back off as you decelerate for a stop sign to increase or decrease the regenerative braking and alter your rate of deceleration. It’s a lot of fun! You don’t need the brake pedal often and that will also increase the lifespan of the brake system.

I’ve become quite a convert; I spend my days driving gas-powered bugeyes and other classic cars, but there’s something very refreshing about this electric platform because it feels very low stress and peaceful, especially the traffic lights where there’s no fumes and no oil spots on the ground and no vibration and no carburetors to manage there’s just a deep well of torque anytime you want.

If you’re interested please give a call. We are selling E3 and we will also be happy to do a conversion of your classic British car to make it electric powered as well. People ask me for kits all the time and unless you are a highly qualified builder, I don’t recommend a kit… it’s very difficult to make these work, and we’re lucky to have the experience to be able to do that for you. Rather than purchase a kit, I’d encourage you to send your classic to us and we will do the conversion here and leverage our experience to get the job done promptly and safely!

Click “read more” below for a full compliment of pictures and give us a call if you’re interested!

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Great 1960 Austin Healey Bugeyed-Sprite driver for sale!

November 9, 2023 by bugeyeguy

Now SOLD to Mike in Florida! Congratulations on owning Bugeye #401!

Bugeyes often look like vintage penny candy, and this one is no exception!

Meet “Flip,” (AN5L 27223). We just purchased the car from the most recent steward in Florida, who had purchased the car from us in 2021. The car departed our shop in February of 2021 for Florida with zero miles on the new rebuilt original speedometer and now shows just 799 miles, so that means you have a chance to purchase one of our cars that has been through our Bugeye upgrade process less than 800 miles ago, when the car received multiple upgrades, plus our six hour departure check-over to ensure that every part of this vintage car is ready for a new home. As such, you get a superior car to what you might otherwise find online from other sources.

Now that the car is in our shop once again, we have further upgraded the nice interior with metal threshold covers in the footwells and improved X-bracing to better stabilize the flip-forward nose. These are welcome improvements to make this nice car even better-our clients love the ease of operation of a flip forward bonnet. So if you are looking for a nice driver that has been carefully evaluated and upgraded, give this one a serious look!

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Stunning 1995 Porsche 993 six-speed C2 Cabriolet for sale!

November 9, 2023 by bugeyeguy

NOW SOLD to Roger of NC. This beautiful Porsche is going to live along side Candy! Thank you and congrats, Roger!

NEW-We’ve just modified wonderful stainless exhaust tips to make them fit properly, so check out the new look for the back end! Fantastic!

This 1995 Porsche 993 911 C2 Carrera Convertible (WP0CA299XSS341789) is remarkably clean. It’s hard to believe the car is 28 years old with almost 71,000 miles. Take note of the engine, which is quite tidy with a handsome stainless exhaust system!

Like many, I am a huge fan of this 993 series, the last of the air-cooled 911s. I have a white ’97 twin to this car, and I have loved every mile in that machine. Many agree these cars are at the sweet spot in the 911 evolution… simple and analog enough with nice comforts added, and easy to drive well. You should be able to see from the driving video below that this car roars!

The paint is excellent. I could find only one tiny stone chip on the front bumper… the rest of the car is ding free, and the paint is quite lustrous. The aftermarket 18 inch wheels are arguably a lot more interesting than the flat and dare I say boring original wheels that came on the car. Tires are a bit older and would be nice to replace. Interior is excellent, just showing some wear on the shift knob, but the seat bolsters are in wonderful shape.

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A beautifully Rescued Bugeye! Land speed record candidate?

November 4, 2023 by bugeyeguy

Here’s a special car that we’ have’ve been working on for a long time here at The Bugeyeguys World Headquarters. The car has moved to its home in Indiana, but I have reposted this because it’s such a cool build, and fun to revisit!

This car started as a Bring a Trailer auction vehicle that needed just about everything repaired, tightened-up and/or replaced. We bought it on behalf of a client who wanted us to create a Bugeye capable of competing for a land speed record attempt in the under one liter class, which was a tall order for a car with so many worn components.

[Read more…]

Our best performing Bugeye to date!

November 3, 2023 by bugeyeguy

Our third electric FrogE conversion (E3) is now complete, and I was delighted to lay down the fastest 0-60 time I have ever recorded in a Sprite, 7.29 seconds (measured by our GPS speedometer’s 0-60 recording feature).

For context, the original 948 powered Bugeye reached 60 in about 20.5 seconds.

Our fastest perviously timed 1275 powered Sprite, with performance mods, reached 60 in about 10 seconds. Per published road test data, a 1969 Lotus Elan reaches 60 in about 7.2 seconds, and that’s with the stock twin cam 1600 engine and dual Webers. A 1969 Porsche 911S reaches 60 in somewhere between 6.5 and 8 seconds (depending on which test data you believe). But the numbers are almost irrelevant… what matters is that this car performs like a very respectful sportscar that can suddenly be mentioned in the same sentence as these supercars of the day. We’ve entered a whole new universe with this conversion, different from anything and everything that we’ve known in the Bugosphere up to this point.

I have driven more than 500 sprites. This car has the most impressive performance of any of them. There’s enough power to spin the rear wheels in ways never before possible in any of the gas-powered Sprites I have known and driven through the last 17 years. And the car still retrains delightful balance and handling, just like the original.

I have never driven a V8 Sprite and I suppose that power plant is extremely quick in a Sprite too, but I haven’t pursued V8 conversions because I fear they upset the delightful weight balance, change the handling, and change the steering input required given a more front heavy front end bias.

In our electric FrogE, balance is right and steering is light.

This is a game changer.

Regardless of how you feel about electric conversions, there’s so much performance in this package that you have to at least consider this new option. We’ve built a classic car that will never have a leaking rear main seal, piston-wall scoring or leaking valve guides. These electric motors are bulletproof and will run far longer than even a brand new rebuilt 1275 Engine. There is no transmission to fail, no synchros to wear out, no tachometer-drive to bind or rattle.

No matter how much you miss the exhaust note, it’s easy to fall in love with the torque and overall performance of a FrogE. I found myself distracted relearning how to drive this car with so much extra power, and for me, that focus distracted me from any regret for the missing exhaust note. In other words, it’s easy to be distracted because this car is that much fun!

This one might be for sale… call to discuss. Or, we would love to build another one just for you!

Call or email if you are interested!

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