TOO GOOD TO RALLY?

Dave Puzey is a bit of a Classics regular – this is his fourth appearance in the magazine. The first two were with a Rover SD1 Vitesse. There was another V8 in his third appearance, but that time with a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger which he restored. That car had been bought in 2005 as a bare bodyshell, and Dave was pushed to finish the restoration in time for the article in 2010.

However, even as he was finishing the Sunbeam, Dave had already bought his next project. This was the 1958 Austin-Healey Frogeye Sprite we are featuring today, and in many ways it could not have been more different to his previous projects – small and with a tiny four-cylinder engine rather than a thumping big V8. Oddly enough though, one of the main drivers behind getting it was not that Dave wanted something completely different, but because he can't weld, and finding a decent welder to do things properly was proving difficult at the time. Plus, of course, if you do find a decent welder, then the cost of that professional welding soon mounts up.

However, if reading that introduction makes you assume Dave went out and bought a shiny car that only needed a little titivation here and there, then think again.

'The Sprite,