bugeyeguy.com

The largest restorer and reseller of Bugeye Sprites in the world


CURRENT INVENTORY IS SHOWN IN THE SMALL PICTURES JUST BELOW THIS TEXT!
(if a car is not pictured here, it has been sold)

1962 restored Triumph TR3B, same owner last 50 years!

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This is a very special Triumph. If you love these early Triumphs (like we do,) this would be a great one to have. The “B” models are the last of the series, and comparatively quite rare. While approximately 75,000 TR3s were built, only approximately 3,300 were TR3B models, which were transitional cars as the TR4 was coming into circulation. TR3Bs all had TR4 engines and a fully synchronized gearbox instead of the non-synchro first equipped gearbox that were so common in the 50s. The engine is slightly more powerful, displacing 2138 CC instead of the 1991 CC engine in prior years. Thus this car is both the last of the series and arguably the best of the series!

We purchased this car from the owner of nearly the past 50 years, who acquired the car in 1972 fromTexas and spent very generously on a massive restoration in about 2000. There are extensive receipts documenting the restoration. TCF 1166L was originally light blue, and he chose this very attractive dark blue (which looks like a TR6 color to me). This is a four-speed car without overdrive (although we can add overdrive for the new owner). The underside is very solid and quite nicely restored. The body is also excellent and the 20 year old paint job presents quite nicely.

The car starts and runs great, and a valve job with hardened seats was recently completed. Tires are older and should be replaced soon. We just changed the master cylinders, slave cylinder and rear wheel cylinders. The disk brakes up front are great! This is a great one you won’t want to miss!

Proper buffers

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These little L shaped rubber buffers are often missing on cars that come to visit, and thus we add them all the time. They also dry out, crack and become rock hard, so they need to be changed periodically.

The hard part is locating them, and so in this post, we have the proper dimensions so you can situate yours properly. These dimensions shown will help you drill holes in the correct location, at least fore and aft. Your car should have those original holes in place, but if your rockers were replaced, or your car had recent bodywork, the holes might be gone so you have to recreate them.

Front hole on the fore-side buffer is at 2″ from the forward-most lip on the rocker. Front hole on the aft buffer is at 13-1/8″ from the forward-most lip on the rocker. 

Locating the buffers on the perpendicular axis is more challenging, because many front fenders bend into the inner fenders. You might find that the buffers have to be trimmed slightly to make everything fit. Of course, the best solution is to bend the wings so they are parallel with the rockers before you mount the buffers, but this isn’t always possible if new paint is involved.

This is one more important detail to get right on your car. These rubbers will help damp the nose, protect the paint and make your car more rattle-free!

Sloppy Steering

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The clamps that secure your rack to the car should have a bit of rubber filling the void between the steering rack and the rack clamp, which locks the rack in place. If missing, the rack will be loose on its mounts and potentially wiggle, as you can see in the video below, which diminishes the tight steering we all know and love. Take a look at yours!

In the video below, I am trying to move the right front tire by holding it at 9 and 3 and the entire rack is moving side to side. Idealy (of course) there would be no movement or lost motion and the rack would be held steadily in place by the clamps.

If you see this happening during your “shake test,” you’ll want to add some form of additional rubber spacer between the rack and the clamp so this doesn’t occur. A piece of rubber from any old inner tube should be sufficient. I suspect these shims often go missing during restoration.

As shown in the photo above, we offer new steering racks if necessary but they don’t wear out often. You’re more likely to find the clamps loose and rack boots worn (click here to purchase new rack boots), but the rack itself will be fine. However, be sure to check and make sure the lack of this bushing isn’t causing your grief before you replace the entire rack. (If needed, you can find the rack by clicking here.)

1960 Bugeye Sprite SCCA made five-speed road car, for sale! Video drive-former racer transformed!

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NOW SOLD to Rob and Julie in Pennsylvania! Congratulations!!! Our 334th!!!

Meet six-year old Axle. His grandma chased me down on a test drive (while I was driving the Bugeye above) so he could see a “real live racer.” You can meet Axle in the video. In the meantime, this week, we are psyched to bring you this superb ex-racer (made street-demon) which we now have for sale.

We built out this car in 2015 for a client who wanted the raw and stripped feeling of a racer with some creature comforts added back-in. So we put in stock brake pads and a five speed Ford Transmission, along with LED lights all around for better visibility, a performance exhaust system, K and N air filters, and two brooklands screens for “just enough” wind protection.

The result is a car that’s a real hoot to drive. We call this one “Fletch,” otherwise known as AN5L 29594, and you’ll enjoy every mile paying tribute to the many weekend racers who once lapped tracks around the world in their Sprite. Now, you too can lap the neighborhood with a new smile!

Our goal with this build was to keep as much racer present as possible, while making the car street-friendly. One nifty innovation we added was the original fuel gauge! Since Fletch was fit with larger oil and water gauges on the dash for better visibility on track days, we wanted to leave those in place so we could underline the racing heritage. While fuel gauges are seldom used on these racers, it becomes essential for street use, so we took an original fuel gauge and hung it beneath the dash in front of the shift lever. Thus the original gauge now looks like a well-planned period accessory.

Also on board is an aluminum radiator cross flow radiator for optimal cooling, electric cooling fan in the grill, Pertronix electronic ignition, air horn, rubber floor mats and door check straps. Front disk brakes are fit, of course. All the creature comforts were removed for racing, and now added once again for life back on the street. Seats were rebuilt in 2015. The car has a 1098 race engine, that idles quite nicely and has plenty of power. This is a totally street-legal and user-friendly ex-racer that anyone can drive and enjoy.

Racing front sway bar tucked up high for improved ground clearance (from the car’s racing past)

Also of note is the racing power kill switch on the cowl. We have rigged that as a master kill switch with removable key, and it works great as an anti-theft device. We put the ignition and light switch back into the car when we upgraded it in in 2015. Turns out we have no key in the test drive featured here and used we the kill switch to shut off the car, but we will re-key that before the car leaves for the new owner.

Fletch is a very user friendly race-inspired street car, unlike the rotary powered racer parked next to it below, which is an all-out race car that is not really streetable. This car is a delight to drive, with enough patina and racing battle scars that it is not a worry, and thus very easy to enjoy with minimal liability!

Give a call if interested!

Video Owner’s Manual… part 1, basic operation

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Here’s a video for anyone interested in learning the basics of Bugeye operation. We made this one for the new owners of “Morrie,” (a great Iris blue Bugeye we just sent to new owners in Michigan, to replace a Bugeye that (sadly) burned to the ground in the massive fire in Paradise California in 2018).

Of course the video also works for anyone new to Bugeyes.

Congratulations Amy, we hope you enjoy your new Sprite!

Radical Rotary Bugeye drive!

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For the past few months, we have been reviving this green radical Bugeye beast for the new owner. This is perhaps the most powerful Bugeye we have ever had in our building, and certainly the widest. The car is not for sale, although it might be in the future. But while it’s here, we thought we would share some pix and video, as well as the specs of this Bugeye variant.

The car has been sitting for roughly the last 15 years, so, as is common, we had to drain the fuel, change the fuel pump, clean the injectors, rebuild the calipers and replace all the stuck hydraulic components. We changed the front tires since they were cracked and not holding air. We had hoped that the monstrous rear tires would still provide some grip even though they are old (at least to test drive the car) but, as it turns out, the rear tires are so old and dried-out that my test drives were like driving on ice. There is so much power that the old tires just can’t hook up, even when warm. So new rear tires are on the way.

The car is a beast, with tons of power and will certainly be even more fun to drive once we get the new tires mounted! Come for a test drive in the video below:

If you are wondering about it’s components:

It was built as an autocross/track car & it was a contender for the national SCCA E Modified title. Equipped with a 250 horsepower Mazda 13B Bridgeported Rotary engine, & a Saenz Racing 5-speed transmission. Has a fiberglass tilt 1 piece front clip with nice flares + an integral air dam + the “BugEye” headlights shaved off.  It has a Halon Fire-X system, Fuel cell with a Cobra filler neck that is centered on the rear deck (similar to how it would be located on a Shelby Cobra), Electromotive Tech II engine management & ignition system, Haltech programmable fuel injection, power steering with a narrowed Corvette steering rack, adjustable coil-over suspension with Fox adjustable racing shocks on the front & Koni coil-over shocks on the rear, 5-link rear suspension with Watts-linkage, 4-wheel disc brakes, JFZ 4-piston front brake calipers, Tilton pedals & master cylinders, braided stainless hoses. 13×10 & 13×12 alloy wheels.

Above you can see the video tour of the car we posted a few weeks ago. Notice the immense exhaust channel in the passenger seat area-it’s a true one seater. The car has two large mufflers and it is still pretty loud!

Contact us at David@bugeyeguy.com or call (203)-208-0980 during business hours