There was a bloke living in England who owned a crashed E-Type Jaguar. Wondering what to do with the wreckage, which wasn’t repairable, he kicked the tyres of his 1960 Mk1 Austin-Healey Sprite and suddenly had a brainwave. Maybe, just maybe, he could shoehorn all that Jag six-cylinder power into this tiny little sports car! This bloke wasn’t short of a quid and knew most of the specialist engineers who could make this transplant possible, so a plan was hatched.

First published in the August 2025 issue of Street Machine

The Healey Sprite is a very small car. Built cheaply using the 948cc four-cylinder engine and transmission out of Austin’s A30 sedan, this two-seat budget excitement machine instantly got tagged ‘Bugeye’ due to its twin pop-up headlights planted at the front of the downswept steel bonnet. It was little and light, with no boot, and slippery-fast with 43hp at 5000rpm from the overhead-valve, twin-carb four. If this bloke could succeed with his wild transplant, the car would boast 265hp at 5500rpm from 3.8 litres of six-cylinder, twin-cam Jaguar power – if it would fit!

So, this guy got the very best people in Britain to work on his project. While the sheet-metal work was happening, Jaguar rebuilt the engine, while transmission company David Brown overhauled the four-slot gearbox. Aston Martin supplied the live rear axle, and the car was given to Lotus to redesign the brakes and suspension.

Because of the height of the Jaguar engine, the original forward-opening bonnet shell wouldn’t fit anymore, so an off-the-shelf aftermarket replacement was adapted, which eliminated the ‘Bugeye’ lights. Aftermarket Minilite spoked alloy wheels were added, and this package of instant violence was then ready for the road.

Dr Geoff Davis was an Australian surgeon living in London, and he managed to buy this mighty little midget, shipping it to Glen Innes, NSW.

Living alongside the Jag-powered Sprite was a 1920s Roll-Royce that Geoff had smuggled out of India; a Maserati; a sports racing Ferrari Monza 750; and a weird, all-wood, three-wheeled sports car that was so light there was never a need to carry a jack – just lift up an end!

The Monza 750 had been raced in Oz by Stan Coffey, and when Dr Geoff bought it, he used this very quick machine as his go-to road car, driving it for thousands of kilometres until the three-litre four finally wore out. Geoff found another good one in America, but it didn’t arrive for years, with the container eventually found in Vladivostok before finally being put on a ship to Australia!

Somehow, I heard about Geoff’s collection and organised a trip to Glen Innes to have a look and a drive. The cars all lived inside a big garage at the back of Geoff’s motel, and after I took photos, Jan and I were invited to take the Sprite out along the bitumen country roads to see how it behaved.

The big Jaguar six started easily, and I was surprised by how quiet the little car was. And it was also docile and easy to drive. The Lotus suspension easily coped with bumps, and the Sprite felt light and enormously powerful as I continually blasted well above the speed limit and got drunk on the sheer power of it all. Then Jan drove the car towards me as I lay in the middle of the uphill road to take some photos.

When we’d finally had enough, we sadly returned the little Jag-hearted Sprite, taking away only some incredible memories of that wintery Glen Innes morning.