Resurrected after 36 years: 1960 SCCA H Production Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite | Ep. 108
Buried inside a dusty New England barn for 36 years sat this 1960 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite. Andrew Bolasky, the new owner of the 1960 Bugeye, was not a born and bred car guy. He went from a music major to the Collection Manager for the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage. Ride along as Andrew explains how he came to own this car and his interesting background in the classic car world.
Photos: Jacob Frey
Recovery Support: Jeremy Vanderzanden
Interview & Walk Around: Hagerty Drivers Foundation hagerty.com/driversfoundation
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I am the live and kickin' "previous owner". Shout out to my kid for bringing the number 4 to Andrew's attention and saving it from the scrap yard! And many compliments to Tom and AB for putting together this very enjoyable video. We would be remiss not to also thank Mr. J Frey for the great photos! Thanks Jake. I got alot of laughs reading the comments too. Cool to know there are folks out there who appreciate a decrepit old sports car. So, just to fill in a couple of blanks and in response to the comments: =The other track we ran was the fantastic Mid Ohio Sports Car Course =Randy Canfield was my hero at the time although we never shared the track with him =This was not Rod Larson's bugeye. I bought it from fellow Old Dominion region racer Steve Sachs. I think Steve built it from the road car. Rod was just the old guy who kicked my ass with regularity around Summit Point. Couldn't touch him =Someone mentioned running a GP Spit at Summit in the early eighties. Was it Rosen? Or maybe Hanselmann? I look forward to watching Andrew's progress. I hope the Sprite is indeed saveable and that it once again will terrorize the road courses. I will see you all there and we can share stories about Sprites and Dead shows! All the best, Mike V
my Dad raced a Bugeye at MidOhio in the early 60s (BRG). Rolled it at Gratten in '63 and with 3 small kids, decided it was time to stop driving.
Glad you are still vertical. You need to do a video with the car for history sake. We need your history captured for posterity. Just like WWII veterans. Cheers
Young guy respecting history. Great! Encouraging! So good to see in our current bash-history time. And...one of my favorite cars! Good job!
You are fake!
Tom: 1. Your style is superb. 2. Love to see Barn Find go to some of the many "Historics" to broaden out the content.
As a kid a guy down the road used to have a bug eye. Loved them ever since.
I hope we can see this car again when he gets it on the track and once the car is restored! Cool car, cool story, great young man!
Barn find hunter is my favourite of your channels
This is a true barn find and what a car to find, I'm from Wales UK and in the late 70s I was 9 yrs old and the family who lived next door had 4 boys between 11 and 17 and they all had scrambler bikes and one day they were riding on a common near us and found a Sprite in an overgrown hedgerow and they brought it home a few days later and got it going a did a reasonable restoration and they had it on the road and kept it for a long time and I have the picture in my memory of the day they brought it home,it wasn't painted silver and blue and had a hardtop. It's great to know that another Sprite has been saved.
Interesting story, I’m from South Wales. Regards, Bob M. 👍
@@bobmizen1 thanks for your comment Robert, I'm from a small village called coity nr Bridgend.
@@adamweston4152 Hi Adam, I know Bridgend area quite well. I went to the Technical College and worked in a few places around there including Morris’s Line Engineering (was Equipment) around about mile from Coity. I live in Crynant near Neath. I’m retired now 69 years old with some health issues. Nice to talk to you. Regards, Bob Mizen
@@bobmizen1 Morris line is just a quarter of a mile from my home and i pass by it a few times a day,my friend John Barnes works there. I used to do washing machine repairs as a Job and my boss had a little shop in seven sisters and we often had lunch at crynant forest in the van . I wish you the best of luck with the health issues and it's been really nice having this conversation, take care and stay safe, Adam Weston.
So exciting to see a young man so anxious to get the history of the car on top of restoring it.
This is absolutely a Cool story!!!
Love this… Bugeyes have the happiest face in automobilia!
Just saw my first BugEye street-parked the other day, and it was hard not to smile. Not many cars can make a Miata seem huge...
Tom you need to take a drive up to Pennsylvania. Very encouraging to see a young man taking up a trade. This country needs that.
Great interview, cool car, and it's hard to imagine anyone better suited to taking on the restoration. I hope Andrew does race it, because those are a hoot by all accounts.
Hi Tom, that young man seemed very genuine and sincere. I can’t think of a better new home for the bug-eye. I’m very fortunate living fairly close to the annual Goodwood revival over here in the U.K. and whenever I’m there it’s heartwarming to see and meet so many truly wonderful enthusiasts that really care about our automobile heritage. Stay blessed Tom 🙏🇬🇧
Outstanding! I love that this young man has such a sense of the importance of automotive history!
This is my favorite,rescuing and restoring classic cars
Tom has got places to go and cars to see, love the bugeye, the yellowcab was also a looker! Hop in the woody Tom and go see the guy! Cheers!
There’s a lot of support out there for the bug eye. Good luck.
Its great to see a young man so convicted of owning and repairing his vehicles. The Chevy? "I'm never getting rid of that". Good for you!!!
Well done. Great story and a great car.
Great story. I went to Summit Point many times to view races or time trial myself. Wish I remembered that particular BugEye, but , no. Wishing great luck in that restoration to that young man.
Awesome! Keep us posted on this one Tom! Andrew, look forward to your progress on the car. I wish you well.
Andrew, Please film the restoration and post it on YT. My dad had one for a while, but obviously not a practical car for a growing family, and we ended up with a VW Kombi haha.
What an awesome story. Great Bug eye !!
Fantastic. Glad you are looking to restore it. These Sprites can run again in vintage racing. Glad you found it and suggest you do a full body off restoration. Check the frame closely for rust. And yes you need a new safe rollbar, but don’t,t destroy the vintage look with a roll cage. Vintage racking is more about the car as there are really no trophies. Just a little bragging rights until the next race. I have a vintage 1971 SCCA Spitfire I purchased, restoring and will have on the track soon. It raced previously on both coasts. Lots of history and better, lots of fun and re-engineering. Enjoy your restoration travels. Look forward to seeing your progress.
such a great story both of the car and andrew's. he seems like a pretty cool guy and hope to see more of the car in updates.
Fantastic story. Thanks for sharing.
Great story, thanks for sharing! That bug-eye looks like it's smiling now :)
Great story Tom ,I hope we get to see more of this young man's journey on this project.
My Midget 1500 just went into the storage unit for the winter today. It is not a Frogeye Sprite, but it is a lot of fun to drive, and putting it away is always a little sad. So seeing this video was pretty uplifting.
Great story... you can tell this is the right guy for that car or any car that needs restoring. His demeanour makes you imagine he will be meticulous and methodical in his work. Good luck with it sir.
Great story! Wish I could find my first race car from the 1970s, a 1970 Triumph GT6 in my profile pic. Good luck Andrew!
I've known this young man since day 1 (or actually before). I'm proud of him and what he's accomplished.
Thank you!!
@@andrewbolasky7827 Andrew, I’m so glad you posted this! I love your Sprite and it’s story, and would love to keep following along! I hope you will consider starting an Instagram account for the car, and posting the link here! In any case, many thanks! All the best!
@@andrewbolasky7827 a wonderful story both of the car and your background. please find a way to keep us updated. love that chevy as well. new england petrol heads are a dedicated lot.
Excellent story and car.
Great find!!! 👍👍👍
If not for him we would never have seen this video. Nice guy with history to reclaim.
Outstanding Find !! I'm I probably saw that car race at Road Atlanta when I worked there ! NICE !! LOVE IT !! GOD Speed w/ restoration on this beauty !!! HooAh !!
Bloody great story, be great to see it racing again.
Cool guy and love that he also has the 58 Chev he will never sell. I have my Dad’s 72 LTD. Not for sale at any price.
Great story. I had a stock 1961 white Bug Eye during my college days in the early 70’s. Worked on it a lot, learned a lot! Such a blast zipping around the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area. Thanks for sharing the car, and your journey to find your career/calling.
That journey to find my calling is longer than we had time to discuss, but it’s safe to say I’m very happy with how things ended up. The classic car community is incredible and I’m a glad to be a part of it, the amount of support I’ve received in regards to just this project is and will always be incredible to me. Im always happy to share stories, but I have a bigger thank you to give to you and other viewers/commenters like you who support this channel and people like me!
What a great Guy! Perfect caretaker.
Great story glad its being saved.
Great story, very nice young man. I wish him the best.
Wow great story thanks for sharing it with us
Now #4 will be in all of our hearts!
Hey Andrew, great find, great story and have fun restoring this car. I was at Summit Point in the early 80s myself and remember the Bugeyes well. Perhaps I have even seen this car before! Cheers.
That is an absolute treasure. Hope to see more.
Tom thanks for bring a great story to us.
I remember that car at Summit Point! I may have photos of it stored away somewhere. My family was pit crew for a GP Spitfire at the time.
No way!! Please let me know if you find them!!
@@andrewbolasky7827 I’ll hunt through some shoe boxes. 👍
great story thank you
Very cool interview, good guy!
Great video Had a 58 Bug eye!
What a great story. I really enjoy these videos. Good luck with the restoration.
Wow, so nice that this was ment too be..hope he keeps a up date on it for us viewers..tks Tom for sharing cause this is close too ur heart
Love to see this when it’s up and running..
Amazing story.
I actually had a 1960 H Production AH Sprite I raced in Florida Region SCCA in the early 70's. My Car was also white with a bright School Bus Yellow 1-foot-wide stripe and orange pinstripe. Its number was 4 and it had American Mag wheels shod with GOODYEAR Blue streaks. I campaigned the car for a couple of years, then sold it to race IMSA Baby Grand AKA Goodrich Radial Challenge, Goodyear Eagle Radial Challenge, and finally Excretive Motorhome Challenge 1975-78. I never forgot the Bugeye that took me through Divers School to my National Completion License. I think often of finding another and restore to my original car.
i graduated from Ohio technical college in 1991 great find
Hopefully we'll see it back at the track some time soon!
I have a lot of fond memories of my 1959 Frogeye. It had raced SCCA in the LA area.
Awesome. In the eatly 70s I found an SCCA prepared F Prod 57 MGA in a home's basement in W PA. Originally prepared in 1958. Freshened it up and used it for driver's school. Loved the fragrance of the Castrol R it ran on. Pretty quick. Traded it for a really tatty 61 XKE roadster up in Watertown NY.
I am curious as to where In W PA you found your MGA because my grandpa and his sons had a basement full of Race MGA parts. If you could let me know what town you found them I’d appreciate it
I'm guessing that years later, you considered it a trade up then?
Awesome story!!
I have a 63 sprite mk2 that was at once used to race. I love that it’s so far from original. I even made a new dash and currently building the motor. It’s going to be a very fun car
Great touching story.
Small world. That car was found directly across the street from my wife's grandmothers home. Dorothy Erickson, whose house was originally the Pony Express stop that she ran. We have much family and friends all around this location.
Rode along to the Nurburgring 1000km race in1961 , in a fresh Bugeye with an Army buddy. Still have the photos. Also, my best friend in high school convinced his dad to ditch his 1950 Dodge for a new 1958 Biscayne in which he had him order a 348 stick !
Love the frogeye!
Great story! I’m really enjoying these photos, they are a wonderful addition to the video that help tell the tale. I’d love to see these in high-resolution, but I didn't see a photographer credited or a Flickr account linked.
bevin karr
Back in 1966/67 when I was looking for my first car I drove one of these, what a hoot! A go-kart for the street. I ended up with a 101 Series Alfa Romeo Sprint Normale. But I may have seen this car at Summit Point, I lived in Northern Virginia and went out to the races there.
I am going to log out and back in again as someone else to "like" this video again.
Thanks for saving that car!
Hey Tom, very cool. An aside, the cab in the background is from the movie “ It’s a Wonderful Life “. My favorite film. I’ve been to the NB Center but, have never seen it in person.
I have my dad's 59 Bugeye race car, also HP, drove at Watkins Glen. Fuller roll cage. Bright orange. Currently on a rotisserie, hoping to start on the floor pan this winter.
Awesome!
keeping the dream alive.
Great story. Hopefully we will see you at a VRG event sometime in the not too distant future (we run Summit Point every May for the Jefferson 500). Reach out if you have any questions about prep or getting licensed.
Racing Deadheads! The first thing I thought of when I saw “Hey Now”. Such a cool find!
Fantastic tom . Let's see some more of these face time episodes
Currently building a 1960 Bugeye that was once a Racecar. Lucky that mine has no rust and very little damage. Mine will be for the street. This young man will spend many hours and lots of dollars to repair his . I wish him luck.
GRATE vid, THANKS!
Tom Great video Well done
Look at that minty shorty caravan!!!
I picked up a 1972 Midget in 1978. Wrecked and the engine had rusted. I fixed it up and drove it. I found the bonnet to a bug eye in Tallahassee. I picked it up and strapped it on top of my midget for the drive to Orlando (in the rain). Imagine the sight. Never finished the project. It became someone else's.
Nice, My Dad was racing at Summit Point in the same years (1983 & 1984). Different class but it is highly likely I saw this car on the track.
Ask him if he remembers Mike Vanderzanden!
goosebumps
Tom I’m sure you will be doing a follow up on Andrew’s bug eye. Very cool story.
Wow! Kudos! Lets have a follow up please.
Cool little car
Love it!
Great find! Is that Camerons dads 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California in the background...he spent 3 years restoring that car....
Real score
This is the kind of find an old car guy like me has always dreamed of. My issue would be a place to keep it and money for the restoration. Although I was offered a 1970 Triumph GT 6 race care for free. Although I couldn't do anything with it at the time I had a friend that wanted it. We put it back on track.
Will this car be renovated? please make a video of the changes. I'm curious. thank you (translate)
This is awesome! When I was in high school, ‘64-‘68, I wanted a Bugeye Sprite so bad I could taste it! Please, please, please keep updating us on this car’s story! === If Andrew has an Instagram account that he could post updates on, maybe that could get added to the notes at the top of this video! === 🔥🔥🔥
Lucky SCORE!!! Have fun.. I had 5 Sprites..and I saw the Dead 25 times...
My first car was a 1959 Bugeye, BRG,completely stock and gutless but it handled like it was on rails and was a lot of fun. This is going to be hard to believe but this car actually had the one and only example of a 45rpm record player (made by Philips) mounted under the dash. Ridiculous because you could really only use it when you were parked. I grew up working on cars which was good because most cars of that period - especially British cars - were not very reliable and parts were notoriously difficult to find.
Old Yeller, wow, a Frogeye with a record player. In the late 1950’s my dad had a Chrysler Imperial with that same record player under the dash. No problem playing it, the tone arm was heavy and the car had that dreamy soft suspension. We only ever got one 45 for it, the theme song from Disney’s Davy Crockett. “🎼Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!” I hated that song but my siblings loved it. Thanks for bringing me back to that time.
Vega rims with monza caps. I had many.
Hey Tom ! As soon as I saw that car I tought about our good old friend Peter Egan and his own Bug Eye epic adventures ! Any news from him ? BTW, there's a young guy specializing in Brit cars, especially Austin Healeys. He's in Iowa I think. His channel is called "This week with cars". He could be of help for this young man, for parts or tips, while restoring his Sprite. He knows them inside/out ! Cheers, Tom !
That collection of Red and white sprites he had was hilarious but they were all in great condition.
WOW
You have to think of Randy Canfield and his winning Bugeye!