OUR BUGEYE'S COMPETITIONS
Our happy little Bugeye has competed in well over 100 competitions including autocrosses/gymkhanas, hillclimbs, funkhanas, TSD rallies, drag races, laps on race tracks, and gimmick rallies. He's always competitive in his class, often winning the class and sometimes the event outright.
Autocross/Gymkhana
Our Bugeye loves autocrosses and gymkhanas!!! This is the primary performance oriented competition that we get to do with it. We attend almost all of the national Austin Healey conclave events where they always have a gymkhana. He has won his class in every one he's attended and sometimes has the overall fastest time of day. Our local Austin Healey club also hosts several autocrosses a year where we get to compete against modern cars.
The above video is from the gymkhana at the Austin Healey club Summit in Newport RI. It was our first time to attend the great event. The below picture is the awards our Bugeye earned at the event including 1st and 2nd overall in the gymkhana with 2 different drivers.
Hill Climbs
This is probably the most competitive event our little bugeye has had the opportunity to compete in. For the last 3 years we've competed in the Bellefountain Hillclimb. It's a mix of stock street cars, modified street cars, and full race cars. We've competed in the modified street class which is us and a bunch of Minis and other Spridgets. It's usually a close competition in the class and we have come in 2nd the last 2 years.
The above video is the start from a couple of years ago when I ran the event with the 3.7 rear end I use for trips. Last year, I put in a 4.55 rear gear set and it improved the times greatly. The Video to the right is a sampling of about 1/4 of the cars that compete in the event. The first year of the event, there was the hillclimb, a rally and an autocross. Below is us receiving the award for an overall win for the weekend of combined point total across all classes.
Rallies
We've competed in many rallies at various events, like the other events, we usually do well in them. Nancy absolutely loves gimmick rallies which the car's performance doesn't really come into play except for the fact that it has to be reliable. TSD rallies do however need a good performaning car at some events. I believe the only reason we've won some TSD rallies is because we're able/capable of maintaining the required speed when the road gets twisty. For example, the rally at the Deadwood conclave in South Dakota took us out to Custer park which was beautiful, but the TSD part was getting there and back. The scoring was done with an app that could track your time and place at over 100 points in the TSD portion. Instead of trying to make up time in the straights for the slower curvy bits, we were able to maintain the required speed throughout the complete drive and won by a significant margin.
The two videos on either side are portions of the rally at the Austin Healey conclave in Deadwood, South Dakota. These portions were smartly not in the TSD portion and they encouraged us to just enjoy the scenery here. If you look closely enough, the tunnels frame Mt. Rushmore as you drive through them.
Drag Races
Although drag racing in a street Spridget may sound boring, it really is a lot of fun. While it's not the rush you would get in a sub 10 second car, when racing other Spridgets, it's fun to have time to look over and see if you're catching them or vice versa. Back when we had it at the drag strip for the Cincinnati, Ohio Austin Healey conclave, we made at least a dozen runs with it. This was still with the 3.7 rear end we used for the rest of the week long event, but we were running in the 18's. We were even faster off the line than most of the Healey 3000's with their six cylinders, but by the 1/8 mile, they're horsepower let them pass.
Funkhana
If you've never heard of a funkhana, they are, in a word...fun. They don't always, but usually involve driving your car around an odd course and performing goofy challenges with the car, drive, or navigator. Some of this is how well the people can complete the challenges, but it's usually a timed event, so a lot still has to do with the car. Our car has traditionally done very well in these fun events usually held at large Austin Healey events. The below picture is from Summit in Rhode Island where we let Jake and Joyce Jacobs also compete in our Bugeye.
Awards
Our happy little Bugeye loves all of this competing and has piles of awards from doing so.This is a small sample of the complete collection it has amassed over the years.
