Yeah, I even upgraded the rear tires to 6:50 x 13 tires to get some more bite out of the car and even with that the axles would take quite a bit of abuse before they would snap. I got to the point where I painted a white line about 4 inches long on the splined end of both axles and every so often I would pull them out to see how far the end was twisting. When they got to where the twist was pretty severe I would pull the axle and just change it. Much easier than fishing the broken end out of the pumpkin.

The car that inspired me to do that build was a similar Sprite out of California that was running a small block Chevy. I saw it in one of the hot rod magazines and the fate of my Sprite was sealed. The new 289 Fords were just starting to show up in junkyards and I found a low milage one and automatic for something like $ 175.00 as I remember. (Ah, the good old days ) I figured if the Chevy fit so would the Ford as it was narrower.

The stock Sprite frame rails were 12 inches apart in front and we widened them to 20 inches from the trans mount forward. I had a local bodyshop do the welding and also build the new firewall which took up a lot of the cockpit. The heater area went, and so did my gas pedal. I converted the clutch portion of the master cylinder to be the new brake master cylinder, and converted the old brake master cylinder to run an Ansen (I think) hydraulic throttle control. That way my clutch pedal was my new brake pedal and the old brake pedal was the new gas pedal. Only way my feet would fit up there.

The driveshaft ended up being very short, I think something like 9 inches long, because the Cruisematic tranny was pretty long. I had a radiator shop build me a Ford crossflow radiator that went clear across the front and actually kept it cool.

I eventually sold the car to a friend of mine, and lost touch with it. Years later I walked into a garage where a guy was selling a Pontiac Tripower setup I needed, and there was my old Sprite sitting there. Someone has swapped in a narrowed Chevy rear end and it had slicks on it sticking out of radiused wheelwells. They were doing a paint job on it at the time. I often wonder if it is still around.

Don