Flogging a Frog—1961 Sebring Sprite

We walk through Don Murray’s spectacular classic and exotic car collection and dealership called Mesa Concours Cars in southern California, past Ferraris, Porsches, Aston Martins and other automotive masterworks, to arrive at a tiny blue Bug Eye roadster parked at the far end, in the corner, in the dark. This is most assuredly not just any Bug Eye though. I am talking about a very special 1961 Sebring Austin-Healey Sprite Mk1 that finished 8^thin the short four-hour race that year.

It was campaigned by none other than Briggs Cunningham as part of a team assembled by the famous racer and collector that also included Stirling Moss and Bruce McLaren, two giants of motor racing. However, physically, the aforementioned gentlemen were diminutive in stature. Why does that matter? I’ll get to that later. And by the way, Sir Stirling’s sister also participated in the short race in a specially prepared Sprite coupe, as did he.