I stumbled into this ad from 1961 and just had to share it with you. The continental spare mount is bad enough ($29.95), but it’s also available with a trailer hitch ($39.95) so that your 42.5 hp 948 cc powered Sprite can haul your boat or Airstream. I’d love to see it pulling the boat up the typical steep boat ramp. Do I smell a smoked clutch?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1958-61 Austin-Healey Mark I Sprite – A Sports Car For The Masses
6” clutch and a balsa wood cluster gear.
Axle shafts made of cheese
I had a couple of Sprites including a Bugeye. The trunk was next to useless, but buying a later model would fix that. But really the car was meant to be fun at the expense of practical.
A couple of months ago I rented a log splitter. I used our Tacoma because it was handy. But I had installed a 2” receiver on our Golf to use with our bike rack, and when I returned the splitter to the rental yard I considered taking the Golf just for the heck of it. But I ended up taking the Tacoma. I got to the yard just as the gates opened, and pulling in behind me was the other log splitter being returned, towed behind a 2 door Mini. Of course, it probably outweighs a Bugeye by 1000 pounds and has 3 or 4 times the horsepower.
Thankfully they must have sold very few, both from a visual and a safety standpoint.
I can see the Sprite getting dragged off the boat ramp, I wonder if they float better than James May’s sailboat converted Triumph Herald?
The pictured boat does seem a tad excessive to be pulled by a Sprite.
However, I’ve just developed a lovely mental image of hitching up a light trailer carrying a new-for-1960 fiberglass Alcort Sunfish sailboat to my Sprite, driving down to a tiny lake, and spending the day being driven by the wind.
I like that mental image.
Back in the seventies it wasn’t that unusual to see a Morris Traveller, which is mechanically very similar towing a ten to twelve foot clinker sailing dinghy. Probably not over any great distance but on the other hand our roads are quite hilly.
I assume this was so you could hook up a grocery cart? Would certainly help on shopping days.
I think I remember seeing that same scenario in MAD magazine back in the day. The car was a sort of generic Beetle/Dauphine, but the trailer was a grocery cart!
After the clutch smoke cleared the bugeye and boat where no longer visible! A closer inspection revealed both where under water!
I know folks who don’t have a pickup truck, but who rent a (very) small trailer whenever they have to do yardwork, get rid of leaves or whatever. Tow it behind their Corolla, etc. So the trailers and load aren’t heavy and are mostly used for short distances, to take things to the dump or pick up small orders of lumber, or whatever, and just around town. Probably, if you were careful, the Bugeye would be o.k. for that.
Wouldn’t the continental kit be even more vintage? Just like an MG-TD! And more trunk space!
“Not just a Continental kit, it’s a Chris-Craft Continental kit!”
There is a gardening/landscaping company in my town that uses an electric Smart with a small light trailer. Seems to work for them, and they they do avoid the highway.
“Why when Brittany rules the waves, will her cars not go through a puddle ? “.
-Nate
At least the Continental Kit appears to mount a real, full-size spare tire. So it would presumably serve a functional purpose of freeing up some trunk space at the cost of looking a bit ridiculous.
There were no limits to the ‘can do’ spirit back in 1959
(Photo courtesy of clubvw.org.au)