"MY first car was a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite Mk1, purchased second hand in 1965 for £155. I used this car for nearly four years before selling it for £150 early in 1969.

The car, registration 151HBB, was originally Fern Green, but was resprayed British Racing Green. The car was reliable, economical to run and great fun to drive.

The car ‘s maximum speed was only 72mph, but even at 50mph with the top down and the wind in your hair it felt as though you were really flying along. The drum brakes were not very efficient and especially in wet weather took quite an effort to stop.

The Northern Echo:

Chris pictured in his Sprite.

It only ever broke down once more when returning from Darlington one Saturday afternoon it rolled to a halt with no drive to the wheels. I feared the worst but after a friend towed me home and a quick examination we discovered a broken half shaft which was an easy job to replace with a good second hand one taken from a scrap Austin A35.

Thereafter we had no further problems.

The car was fitted with twin SU carburettors which were sometime tricky to synchronise and on one occasion when going on holiday to Sherwood Forest I stopped at an AA patrol as the engine was not running quite so smoothly.

The patrol man took one look and said he couldn’t tune twin carbs and sent us on our way.

On another excursion to the Norfolk Broads we stopped off to collect a new hard top for the car which until then had only a canvas soft top, ideal for Summer months but the hard top was better in Winter.

The Sprite was regularly serviced and any routine parts such as spark plugs, oil and filters, tyres, exhaust and brake linings replaced when required. It was used throughout the year, safely negotiating the notorious Newton Cap Bank on my way to work every day in Bishop Auckland - before the new bypass was built - even in the depths of Winter it never let me down.

I still owned the car when we were married in 1968 then following our marriage and the prospect of a family we decided to change it for one with more space as the Sprite was only a two-seater with very limited luggage capacity. We had enjoyed nearly four years of motoring in the sports car but the time had come when we needed to move on to something more practical.

After advertising the car locally in The Northern Echo, a man and his son travelled from Hartlepool for a test run.

The car was perfect in every way and they had no hesitation in buying it for the asking price of £150, only £5 less than I had paid for it.

That was the last time I saw it and regretted parting with it almost immediately. 

I have often wondered what eventually happened to the Sprite, probably scrapped long since, but it would be great if 151 HBB was still around somewhere, worth a small fortune now.

I have driven many different vehicles over the years however, now at 70 years of age I no longer drive but have many happy memories of exciting times spent with the little green Frogeye."