AeroSprite! Aero & mechanically modified Austin Healey Sprite: consistent 65 MPG US

[nemo]

xpedro Thanks for sharing. What was the inspiration for your body design.

[xpedro01]

Nemo--I had already spent 40+ years messing up good designs. This just happened to be one that lasted a long time. Driving 2.5 hours every day gave me lots of planning details time. This project needed help on a small budget. My very patient wife said "you just cannot leave anything alone, can you". It is just a weakness.Thanks for your interest.

[euromodder]

Holy smokey !

I guess we've found the granddaddy of the AeroCivic
Or he has found us

That's some pretty hardcore ecomodding xpedro
Even though the term probably wasn't invented back then

Pity it's gone, but that's life.

Here's what it reminded me of

[xpedro01]

Hi Euromodder--There was no internet and only one Porche on campus. It was owned by the head of the phycical plant. K State was heated and cooled with steam and a 175 foot tall smokestack. When I removed the 875cc engine from the sprite, he bought it because his wife raced them. Months later he called and said "l thought you might want to know that your engine went 105 miles an hour yesterday in a race".
Thanks for bringing up the memory.

[MetroMPG]

xpedro: added 3 more of your photos to the first post.

I'll send you a private message tomorrow to explain how I did it.

[xpedro01]

Basjoos--MetroMPG came to the rescue and put them with the first note on page one. You can now view what I was trying to send. Maybe some day I will learn.

[minispeed]

Wow great job! I wanted a 59 bugeye so bad when I was looking for my first car, but the values then were a lot more than I can afford, my mom refused to lend me the extra money so I ended up with the cheaper mini. Very happy with it, if I recall from David Vizards book about tuning the A series engine has a chapter on economy, it's from the 70s so there were other people doing eco modding to those engines, however I recall that the upper limit was shy of 60mpg UK so you definetly surpased the potential of that engine.

Seeing this makes me want to drive the mini, too bad for snow!

[xpedro01]

Minispeed--I paid $350 for the 1960 bug eye in 1968. It was blue like the one in the picture, but had lots of rust. I remember a hole in the floorboard. It didn't have a top and I drove in the rain a lot that first year.
I now have a 2000 insight that is in the process of being destroyed with new mods. I am 87 and do not plan to sell it. My latest is a 16" tail using a second bumper decreased to .55 the original area. lt appears to have gained from 71 to75MPG at 55Mph@40 degrees F. on my 18mile test track. I love it.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...5-a-28088.html

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

EcoModder has a longstanding (2011) member, xpedro01, who hasn't posted yet, but who has done (and is still doing) some really interesting things.

Things like this:









Details, from e-mail (posted with permission):

• In the early 1970's I was driving 110 miles per day so I modified an Austin Healy Sprite and doubled its mileage over a period of years to a consistent 65 MPG (unheard of in those days).
• This was a 1960 "Bug Eye" with an 850cc engine. It turned close to 3000 at 60 mph and gave 33mpg on average, originally.
• It wound up with a 1600cc pinto engine (& transmission) with the camshaft retarded 2 notches (poor man's Atkinson cycle)
• Additional (2nd) Buick transmission, reversed, to gain up to a 2.5 overdrive
• The engine cruised at 1100 rpm @ 55MPH (Nixon days).
• A slight incline required downshifting, but I had 12 speeds.
• It was made of junk yard body pieces, pop rivets and bondo. Eye level was 70's skirt level.

Here's the same Sprite in "33 mpg" form:



Ultimately (after a 250,000 miles), the modified car was taken off the road & dismantled for safety reasons. A student got the chassis in exchange for destroying the body. He had a Midget and could use the parts.

The builder says he prefers driving his recently acquired 2000 Honda Insight (which he is also modifying with a short aero tail) compared to the Sprite. No kidding!

Hopefully he'll join the conversation, now that the cat is out of the bag. At 87, he's got most of us on seniority (by a significant margin), but I bet he'll figure out this forum-posting business if he wants to!

---

Oh: the "secondary transmission mounted backwards" trick reminds me of my friend's dad's 1930's-era aero & mechanically modified Model T.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's like having a second Christmas.Thanks for the heads up and photos.No shortage of hero's out there.

[renault_megane_dci]

I love this adventure !

Wish there was more to read about it :-)