The Austin Healey Bug Eyed Sprite

The Bug Eyed Sprite is a two seat sports car, no doubt about it. It has leaf springs in the rear suspension and it rode like a Conestoga Wagon.
I found bumps and holes in the road that I did not know existed prior to driving the Sprite.
The 948cc 4 cylinder engine put out 42.5 HP with a four speed stick shift. Not as exciting as I expected, it took about 15 seconds to get to 60 MPH. I played with the dual downdraft carburetors a lot trying to get more life out of the engine to no avail.
Didn't want to get much over 55 or 60 MPH anyway.

There was no rear deck lid. For access to the rear, you tipped the two seat backs forward and you could climb into the space. This was a favorite spot for the kids to ride. The two doors were opened by reaching inside to release a latch......no outside latches.
To access the engine we lifted up on the rear of the hood. The hood and sides of the car tilted forward allowing a lot of access to the front end and engine.

The Sprite sold for about $800 new but today's prices reach $20K. The car was fun for a while but it sobered my view of a sports car. I was used to watching them run around Mid-Ohio in Lexington in F & G production SCCA races. They seemed a lot faster and smoother there.
That was probably the best place for them!
Rich

The 1966 Mercury Monterey

 

Here's a big, powerful, red 1966 Merc. V8 automatic, 2 door hard top we bought in 1967.
A great cruiser for the highway. The picture shows a camper we pulled to an Ohio reservoir for a long weekend. We had our third son, Dan, by then and he taught us a few things about treking around with a baby who was just weeks old. Of course we were going to trek around in spite of that. Jim, shown in the picture, was 8 and our oldest, Rick, was 10 years old. Dan had to get used to pulling his weight at an early age.

The Merc introduced me to a new automotive device. I was traveling home from work a few days after buying the car when it began to rain.
I reached down and turned the wipers to "on" and nothing happened.
Just as I reached for the switch again the wipers went "swish - swish" and quit. I wiggled the switch and they went "swish - swish" and quit on me again. I was getting excited, thinking the switch was buggered when the wipers went "swish - swish."...... I had not touched the switch.
It finally dawned on me the wipers were intermittent and adjustable, a brand new feature to me.

The Merc had black vinyl seats and the front seat was a bench style, very wide and pretty flat.
Bev and I had been to a weekend dance with some friends whom we followed to a restaurant.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I pulled to the rear of the lot and decided to gun it a little. The only problem is I was in a 90 degree turn and I started sliding across that bench seat until I was about half way across. I had a little trouble hanging on to the wheel let alone steer and I could barely reach the brake pedal.
I missed everything and got it stopped ok.
I'm pretty sure that car had seat belts and that little manuever may have helped me decide to wear them. (We probably did have seat belts but again, no one wore them at the time).

By the mid-sixties it was apparent the lighting business was in transition. Consolidation was gobbling up most of the smaller companies. We were being pressed by larger fluorescent manufacturers who were able to automate and reduce labor content.
We purchased an incandescent lighting manufacturer to broaden our product line and began to develop interesting new products.
We also learned to blend in new workers and talents and worked hard to control costs.
By the early 70's additional changes came along that created new challenges for our neat little operation. More to follow.
Rich