The year was 1958. I was working as a radio announcer in Toronto with a station that allowed me 15-minutes weekly to talk about my favorite sport, motor racing. Quite a concession considering that CKFH was owned by Foster Hewitt, Canada's first and much-beloved play-by-play hockey announcer. It was then that the British Motor Corporation introduced the Austin-Healey Sprite, a small and inexpensive sports car powered by BMC's 948 c.c. engine from the Morris Minor, upgraded with twin 1-1/8" inch SU carburetors. I had a casual relationship with BMC Canada's late public relations director Ian Paterson, so when the Sprite landed in Canada, Ian loaned me a press car for one day. First ahead of other Canadians and first ahead of the USA, he assured me.

Since the only place to test a sports car was on a race track, I called the owner of the Edenvale circuit, a former RCAF base then used by area sports car clubs and about to revert to farmland. He offered to leave the gate open if I closed it on departing. Edenvale was some 70 miles north of Toronto and not wanting to travel alone I invited CKFH's genial chief engineer to join me, a 6'3" gentleman who must have thought I was insane when I arrived to pick him up in the tiny Sprite. Nevertheless when Gerry crawled inside (sorry, can't remember his last name) he was surprisingly comfortable, for the Sprite, like many small cars, had more interior roominess than the eye might suspect.

Top down on a warm sunny day, we both enjoyed the trip north. But once on the track my racer instincts took over and before Gerry knew what was happening we were drifting through the turns and hammering down the straights, lap after lap. Back in Toronto he never complained. What brought these memories to mind is a Hemmings newsletter item linking to a 50th Sprite Jubilee at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, May 16-20, 2008. It includes the MG-badged Midget which combined with Sprite gave us the unofficial "Spridget." This should be the biggest-ever gathering of a car that I, a lucky guy, was one of the first North Americans to test-drive. Sadly, I haven't set lead-foot in a Sprite or Midget since then.

[Photo and Car: Neal and Jackie Brewer]