Description
Kelham Hall | Newark, Nottinghamshire Viewing: Tues 22nd September 2026 from 12pm Auction: Weds 23rd September 2026 12pm Location: Kelham Hall Main Street, Newark, Nottinghamshire NG23 5QX Registration No: 52 LPH Chassis No: AN522061 MOT: Exempt Supplied new to the rally driver Chris Williams, and just three owners from new! 1 of just 6 rebodied by Peel Coachworks in aluminium ‘Sprinzel Sebring Sprite Coupé’ configuration (in 1961) Extensively campaigned during the 1961 season at events including the Oulton Park BRSCC, Silverstone BRDC, and Aintree British GP meetings Part of the ‘Team Sebring’ entry that won the 1961 Snetterton Six-Hour Relay Race Acquired by Ronald White in November, 1962, and campaigned on the Circuit of Ireland, Scottish, and RAC rallies later that decade Subject to a previous comprehensive but sympathetic restoration, maintaining original features as much as possible Eligible for several significant historic racing events, including the Goodwood Weslake Cup The Sprite was quickly adopted for competition by both privateers and the BMC works—the latter’s first major success being the win of John Sprinzel and Willy Cave on the 1958 Alpine Rally. The somewhat convoluted story of the Sebring Sprite has been well documented in the past, from the class-winning **** of cars prepared by Donald Healey for the 1959 Sebring 12 Hours Grand Prix d’Endurance (prototype Dunlop disc brakes, wire wheels, larger SU carbs, twin-plate racing clutches and straight-cut close-ratio gearboxes), through Stirling Moss’s success in the separate four-hour race for GT cars of under one litre at Sebring in 1960, John Sprinzel’s arrival at Austin-Healey with his Frank Costin-designed Speedwell GT, and the legendary success of the five Works and two Sprinzel cars at Sebring in 1961, to the mid-’60s when over a dozen small firms were building their own streamlined bonnet, fastback versions of the Speedwell GT and Sprinzel Sebring utilising Mk. I and II Sprites (latterly the MG Midget) and marketing them as ‘Sebring Sprites.’ The model still proves handy in rallies, races, sprints, hillclimbs and autotests to this day. This outstanding, and outstandingly rare, early Sebring Sprite is one of the few fitted with aluminium bodywork by Peel Coachworks, and it is blessed with a rich period competition history. It was purchased new as a standard-bodied Sprite in Nevada Beige by Chris Williams in September, 1959. Williams was not yet 21, and his guardian refused to let him race, but he was allowed to go rallying with John Brown, a friend from his Oxford days, as co-driver. Williams’s drives in 1960 included the Cotswold-Continental Rally and, with Brian Culceth, the RAC Rally, finishing seventh in class in the latter. John Brown saw in Williams a very promising driver, so when he turned 21 in 1961, he was encouraged to tune ‘52 LPH’ up to the highest specification and equip it with a slippery Sebring body and as many Healey Speed Equipment parts as he could. He could not afford the prices quoted by Williams & Pritchard, John Sprinzel’s coachbuilder of choice, so instead he went to Peel Coachworks in Kingston-upon-Thames, which was responsible for several period Sebring Sprite conversions, and had it bodied by them, opting for a bright red paint finish. In the early part of 1961, Williams and Brown continued to rally together, including in the Welsh Rally (11th overall), the Cat’s Eyes Rally (retired due to timing problems), the Express & Star Rally (25th overall), and the Hopper Rally (12th overall). Williams’s solo racing career started with the 1961 BRSCC Oulton Park meeting (third in class), and was followed by many more impressive results that year, such as third in class in the Sears Trophy Meeting at Snetterton, first in class and seventh overall in the two-race Goodwood BARC meeting, fourth in class in the Peco Trophy at Silverstone, third overall in the London Motor Club meeting at Snetterton, third in class in the BARC Astley Trophy at Aintree, first overall (as part of Team Sebring) in the 750 Motor Club’s Silverstone Six-Hour Relay, and third overall in the Oulton Park BARC meeting. All of these achievements were accrued in a short span up to September, 1961, at which stage Chris Williams, wary of being outclassed by newer Lotus Sevens and Marcoses, offered ‘LPH’ for sale through John Sprinzel Ltd. on London’s Lancaster Mews, while he carried on racing with a Lotus 23. He would later move into single-seaters with much success, until his untimely death in a testing accident at Silverstone in 1969. The Sprite was almost immediately snapped up by Peter Johnston of Omagh, County Tyrone, and so crossed the Irish Sea. He competed at a local level with it during 1962, finishing third in class in the Night Owls Rally, but he also tackled the much bigger Scottish Rally, where he finished 38th overall and seventh in class. In November, 1962, Johnston sold the car to another Ulsterman, who remains the...
