OK Folks,
If this car WERE legitimate, it would have been built by hand, possibly the
hands of some Healeys. Since there were only a handful built (if any), they
would have obviously been prototypes and it is highly unlikely that they
would have been stamped. Do you really think that the British car industry
in the early sixties was going to set up for stamping "a handful" of
anything? I really doubt that.
So, I do not thing that anyone will be able to tell the origins of this
vehicle by visual inspection. Donald or Geoff Healey could have said, or it
might be properly documented somewhere; barring that, it is merely
conjecture. Obviously, the current owner has a vested interest in
maintaining that it is a factory boot. Even to the extent of not being able
to find lower case letters ;-) Since it was a bit of a dead end, any
historical significance is rather minimal. At most, one could contend that
this is what might have happened if MG had not been involved in the
re-design of the Sprite as a box. I would rather have the 58 that Frank is
resurrecting.
David Lieb
Noted non-expert on all things Bugeye
|