The technical definition of a Sebring Sprite is a complex one, which can be very broadly summarised as a Mk I Austin Healey Sprite built by or with parts supplied by John Sprinzel Limited which fits the relevant FIA homologation requirements (these are set out in great detail by Tom Coulthard of the Sebring Sprite Register in his book co-authored with John Sprinzel, "Spritely Years"). This technical defintion applied to the mechanical spec and "innards" of the car, but did not cover the bodywork, and because of their complex technical specification almost all were competition cars.

These cars were bodied in several different styles, including most famously, the very pretty W&P Sebring Coupe bodywork which appeared on John Sprinzel's PMO 200 and in the Healey brochure issued for Sebring Sprite homologation purposes. Six of the original Sprinzel Sebring Sprites were bodied by Williams & Pritchard. John Sprinzel comments:

"Len and Charlie were just superb at making stuff from sketches. I know they had a great relationship with Frank Costin, for whom they made fifteen or sixteen designs. The Speedwell GT, was, of course, to his drawings, as was the Speedwell record breaker streamliner. The Sebring front was to my sketch, which I made after Donald [Healey] showed me the [Sprite] Mark two front, and I thought this would sell like crazy, which it did. Sometime later we did the top together, me sitting in the Sprite, and showing how I needed hand space for the wheel and headroom, which the Speedwell GT didn't ever get, otherwise the top was entirely theirs.  They were such fun guys to deal with, and as I said, we were all as poor as church mice (including Chapman) so they never became body builders for the rich!"

This "co-operation" between Williams & Pritchard and John Sprinzel on the Sebring Sprite Coupe bodywork perhaps has not always been widely recognised in spridget circles, and the bodywork was launched simultaneously by both businesses at the 1961 Racing Car Show. On the W&P stand, along with a composite Lotus 19 bodyshell and a Formula Junior alloy body, the show guidebook states: "the latest Healey Sprite front in fibreglass is shown, which was designed and developed in conjunction with John Sprinzel", and PMO200 itself was exhibited on the Sprinzel stand. As set out in their brochure above and in subsequent promotional material into the 70's, W&P always viewed the Sebring bodywork very much as "their" product. They produced fibreglass fronts, alloy doors, alloy coupe roofs, and alloy rear shrouds in the Sebring Coupe style over a period of time, selling directly to the public and carrying out bodywork conversions completely independently of Sprinzel to cars that were unmodified mechanically by Sprinzel's works. W&P also produced a GRP Sebring hardtop launched at the 1962 Racing Car Show, similar in style to the frogeye works hardtop but without the front clips.

This resulted in period converted W&P Sebring bodied Sprites, being road cars or partly enhanced cars for local competition, looking largely like what most of us currently visualise as a Sebring Sprite, but that technically were not so. At the same time there were mechanically correct fully homologated cars that were Sebring Sprites, but some of which looked to the untrained eye like standard frogeyes. Given this confusing situation, it is highly likely that some surviving fibreglass Sebring fronts on Mk I Sprites, which some might assume to be modern "replicas" because they were not on one of the six recognised W&P bodied Sprinzel cars, are actually quite original period W&P products straight from the First Avenue works and indeed came from exactly the same moulds in the same way as those on fibreglass fronted homolgated cars.

Click on the link on the left for the Sebring bodied Sprite 4204 MV to see the story along with pictures provided by the Pritchard family of one such period conversion, and we hope to have further material made available from their archives in due course to tell the story of the Sebring Mk I bodywork from the W&P perspective.

W&P's experience gained in making their original Sebring range of bodywork for the Mk I Sprite later spawned the Sebring GT range of products for the spridget.

The Sprinzel cars are the subject of a wealth of material online and a detailed analysis is outside of the scope of this website, although photos of three of the surviving cars are shown below, along with a link to Martin Ingall's excellent website which is the main online resource on Sebring Sprites.

Many thanks to John Sprinzel and to Martin Ingall for permission to use the quote above.