Why Hire an Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite?
Quirky, fun days out with lots of admiring onlookers. That’s what awaits you with an Austin Healey hire. And, with its smiley face, there’s no sports car that looks happier than the Frogeye Sprite. Our Sprite for hire in Yorkshire is bright blue with a black interior and black hood. It has a manual gearbox and minilite wheels.
Hire the Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite for a special occasion or just treat yourself. A classic car hire gift voucher makes a terrific surprise birthday or Christmas present. Or hire this lovable two seater sports car for a unique self-drive wedding car or prom car.
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Experience driving an Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite
Pick up point for the Frogeye Sprite is Ampleforth
Hire our Frogeye Sprite from £148 to £215 per day
Austin Healey hire – Frogeye Sprite
The Frogeye (or Mark I) Austin Healey Sprite was produced from 1958 to 1971. Our Frogeye is a 1976 version – strange but true. The explanation is that an MG labelled version of the Sprite called the MG Midget, slightly more expensive and slightly more upmarket than the Sprite itself – it even had external door handles! – was produced until 1979, becoming known as “Spridgets”.
Our Austin Healey Hire car is actually a 1976 MG Midget rebuilt in 2010/2011 with a replica Frogeye Sprite body upgraded to include external door handles and proper wind-up windows instead of removable perspex side screens. Other improvements are the addition of a heater, a more powerful (1500cc) engine, disc brakes on the front wheels, an electric windscreen washer, upgraded suspension and Austin Healey 3000 seats.
The headlamps were intended by the original designers, Gerry Coker and Les Ireland, to fold flat into the bonnet but a reliable way of doing this was found to be so expensive that the idea was dropped. The iconic Frogeye headlamps were the happy result which, along with the cheeky radiator grille, bring smiles to the faces of those who use this lovely little 2 seater as well as of passers-by.
History of the Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite
The Frogeye (or Mark I) Austin-Healey Sprite was produced for only three years, from 1958 to 1961. It was made by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) which had been formed in 1952 on the merger of the Austin Motor Company and Morris Motors, which itself owned MG, Riley and Wolseley.
BMC capitalised on the name of the much more powerful and highly successful Austin-Healey sports car designed by Donald Healey, late examples of which now sell for well over £50,000, also manufactured by them. The big Healey’s baby brother, the Frogeye Sprite, can be thought of as the 1950’s working man’s sports car, pretty well a 2 seater version of the Morris Minor with which it shared various parts, including the same rack and pinion steering system and the same 948cc engine. When first produced it cost just £455 plus tax!
The Frogeye was replaced by a rather dull Mark II version in 1961, itself replaced by equally dull Mark III and then Mark IV versions in 1964 and 1996 respectively. Production finally ended in 1971. Only the Mark I version, known as the “Bugeye” in America, had the “Frogeye” headlights built into the bonnet which help make the car so popular now. The later Mark II, III and IV versions had conventional placed headlights built into the front wings.
Compared to a modern car the performance of the original Mark I Sprite can only be described as very slow. According to a 1958 Road Test it took over 20 seconds to get to 60 mph – and that’s for what was called a sports car! But maybe that seemed quite fast then – the original Morris Minor first went on sale only 10 years before the Frogeye and took over 50 seconds to get from 0-60 (about as fast as it would go).
Our car has a 1500cc engine. While by modern standards no-one could call it fast, it will do 0-60 in around 15 seconds and can cruise all day at that speed or a bit more.
Have tremendous fun with an Austin Healey hire (or MG Midget hire, depending how you look at it) in Yorkshire. Our ‘Spridget’ gives you best of both.
Specifications
Technical
Functional
Type
2 door, 2 seater soft top
Luggage Space
No boot, but there is space behind the seats for a small bag.
Colour
Bight blue with black interior and black hood
Weather Protection
Manual hood
Sat Nav
Socket for sat nav.
Hire an Austin Healey Sprite as a gift
Gift vouchers available for that special person in your life.
Prices – Select the option that suits you best
No single price suits everyone, so Classic Car Hire North gives you a choice of packages
- All Day Hire
- 24 Hour Hire
- Weekend Package
- 2 Day Mid Week Package
- Extras
- Security Deposit
- Driver Requirements
All Day Hire
09:00 – 20:00
£195
Additional days £170 per day
Prices include 200 miles per day
The All Day option is ideal for those who want a tour of the Dales, Moors or the Yorkshire coast. The generous mileage limit of 200 miles will even get you to and from the North Pennines AONB. The majority of people do around 170 miles when they hire a car for 1 day, and don’t incur excess mileage charges.
24 Hour Hire
Return within 24 hours
£215
Additional days £170 per day
Prices include 200 miles per day
The 24 hour option is evening to evening and suits those who are planning an overnight stay.
If you would like to hire our Austin Healey Sprite for the weekend, please contact us for further details.
2 Day Mid Week Package
Tuesday 09:00 to Wednesday 20:00
or
Wednesday 9:00 to Thursday 20:00
£295
Price includes 300 miles
The 2 day midweek option provides a lower price for those who have time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays for a leisurely 2 day break.
Extras
All prices include insurance for 1 driver
Additional drivers £20 per day per driver
Picnic for 2 can be added at £35
Excess mileage charge £0.95 per mile
Security deposit £950
The security deposit is not taken until you pick the car up, and is done as a pre-authorisation on your card. This means that no money is actually taken, it just authorises us to take up to that amount in the unlikely event that the car is damaged during your hire.
Driver Insurance Requirements
Driver minimum age 25, maximum age 75
In general, drivers need to have had:
- a full licence for 2 years or more
- no more than 6 penalty points on their licence
- no more than 1 claim in the past three years
- no mental or physical problems which affect their ability to drive
If you have any queries please contact us.
