Old Race Cars Never Die.....

My interest started when I was 15 and my brother (8 years older) bought a white bugeye and I has been hooked ever since, however when I was about 7 or 8 my brother bought me a model bugeye and helped me glue it together so I suppose that is when it started.

In about 1980 I bought a Mk 3 midget for $2,500 for my wife and we kept it for a few years selling it at a profit. The reason we sold it was that my 1 yr old daughter would lean over and try to change gear. The car also was too good to modify so I lost interest in it.

I decided a few years later to buy a Bug and rebuild it. I went to Sydney with $1200 dollars and bought an ex-race, butchered bug to build, however a friend told me of two Bugs only 15 ks from Dubbo that could be for sale. My brother and I bought them for $1500 ( 2 cars and many spares). He took the smashed one and I took the ex-race car that was a real mess.

It took me 8 yrs to build it working in a car port (I still build my cars in this car port). Since then it has been used daily and has given me and others great joy. The motor started out as a 1200 Nissan with a weber and this has become a 1500 with twin 40 mms and narrowed Cortina Diff and Cortina brakes etc. The front bonnet was a fibreglass sebrig that was almost as old as the car that had holes everywhere in it.

As regards to the first Bugeye I bought, I am currently rebuilding it. I have about 2 yrs to go so that my kids can have the first Bug to drive while they are at home. The work I have done so far is to cut out the rust at the rear, floor and sill panels of the car and put in a complete tunnel out of a wrecked Mk2 (Both my cars had no tunnel when I bought them). The running gear will be much the same as my current bug as I like cheap horse power and reliability.

The highlights of ownership are -
* having my car in Fast Fours and Rotaries (Sept Oct 91)
* having lots of comments about it when I drive it
* being able to keep up and be faster than other sports cars that are raced. (worked Datsun 2000s)
* only costing me $8000 for building and ownership for 8 years. (apart from rego and petrol)
* not having any low times with my car in 8 yrs.

I have no intentions to sell either car and hope to have them for many years to come. I sometimes think a big Healey would be nice but look at the price of them.

Barry Robinson

Reprinted from Sprite Torque - June 1998