The Mite
Customization and Modification of a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite

All work was performed by me in my garage, with the exception of resplining the rear axles, fabbing the driveshaft and the powdercoating of various parts.

The car is a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite with a fiberglass bugeye (frogeye) nose installed. It has an internally stock 1991 Mazda Miata 1.6 liter engine and transmission; turbocharged/intercooled utilizing an Electromotive Tec 2 standalone engine management system mated to a narrowed Mazda RX-7 rear axle with wilwood disc brakes.
The front suspension consists of fabricated upper and lower a-arms to replace the stock lever shocks and stamped lower a-arms, and a tube-shock conversion. The rear axle is a limited slip diff with anti-tramp bars, a panhard rod and tube shocks. The driveshaft is a short custom unit. The radiator is from a Volkswagen Jetta with electric fans and there is a front-mounted intercooler between the Subaru IHI turbocharger and the throttlebody.
The wiring is fresh, using an EZ wiring kit with fusebox as the basis and has an alarm, stereo and a full set of Dolphin electric gauges.

For the full details, click HERE and click "next" on the bottom of the pages.

Mite at Home This is the 1965 Austin Healey Sprite as I got it. I had originally planned on restoring it, but upon investigation and disassembly, it was determined that an engine transplant would be more economical
Mite Interior 2 The interior of the Sprite. The floors were rusted through, as were the "A" pillars
Mitey Engine 1098cc's of raw, British power. The block was cracked and the crank frozen to the rods.
Bare Shell The Sprite as a bare shell
Chassis Reinforcements New floor boards and welded chassis braces
Fabbed tranny Tunnel The old transmission tunnel was cut out and a new one fabbed and welded into the car to clear the Miata Transmission
Fabbed upper and lower a arms Fabricated Upper and Lower A-arms to replace the lever shocks and rusted/broken lower a-arm, with Tube-shock conversion
Fitting the 'glass front end Fitting the Speedwell 'glass front end
Narrowing an rx-7 rear axle Cutting and narrowing an RX-7 rear axle. Sent the axles to Moser for resplining
painting Spraying the British Racing Green with white stripes in the garage after finishing the bodywork
Reassembled Front suspension The re-assembled front suspension after paint and powdercoat
assembled rear axle The assembled and installed RX-7 rear axle with disc brakes, anti-tramp bars and panhard rod
Wilwood triple master cylinder setup Wilwood triple master cylinder setup to replace the rusted stock master cylinder
Underdash wiring The beginning of the wiring. I used an EZ wiring harness as the basis and added/expanded/modified to fit this application
interior The interior getting finished up after re-installing the custom dash with Dolphin gauges, carpet, door panels, and roll bar
Custom The Mite Badge I made up a custom hood badge that combines the Japanese flag for the Miata engine and the British flag for the Sprite
Miata engine installed The Miata engine installed and running
Finished car The finished Mite!
burnout A burnout in the Mite. The 1.6 turbo engine runs well, providing around 140hp, and runs smooth and cool.
   




Back to Main