Coast to Coast in a Classic Car
Bugeye Sprites and other small roadsters might not seem up to the task, but collectors with some time on their hands have eagerly made the trek.
Austin-Healey’s Mark I Sprite, a little racer known as a Bugeye, is perhaps not the first car you’d consider for a cross-country drive. For one thing, there’s no trunk lid (access is from behind the seats), nor external door handles or actual glass windows — there are removable “side curtains” instead.
Under its hood is a tiny four-cylinder engine with all of 45 horsepower. Getting to 60 miles an hour takes about 20 seconds, and these British roadsters, built between early 1958 and late 1960 (48,987 were made), are not exactly known for reliability.
But their fun factor can’t be measured, and Karen and Thomas Jeffrey Larrick of Mount Vernon, Wash., were recently at the Bugeye Guy restoration shop in Branford, Conn., taking delivery of their pale yellow 1958 Sprite, nicknamed Ducky. The couple were near the start of an epic journey — they planned to drive 4,000 miles home, on a route with many stopovers along the way.
David Silberkleit, the aforementioned Bugeye Guy, had made roughly 150 nonoriginal modifications meant to keep Ducky rolling toward Washington, including a Ford-sourced five-speed gearbox for more relaxed cruising, disc brakes all around, electronic ignition, an alternator and — crucially — a beefy aluminum radiator with six-bladed fan. Mr. Silberkleit said he planned “to sleep with my cellphone under my pillow” until the
couple made it safely home.
Sure, it’s an adventure, but possibly a uniquely enjoyable one for classic car owners. For Tom Cotter, the host of the online show “Barn Find Hunter,” slow-paced cross-country trips like this are all about “going through towns bypassed by the interstate highways, where you can smell the just-mowed grass, eat in little diners and stay in hotels built 100 years ago.”
In 2017, Mr. Cotter experienced this firsthand, driving 3,700 miles in a 1926 Model T Ford — with some appropriate modifications, including electronic ignition, disc brakes and a period engine upgrade. The route followed the old Lincoln Highway, one of the first to link the East and West Coasts, when possible.
Many of Mr. Cotter’s barn finds, all over the United States, were the reward for long-distance trips in his 1939 Ford Deluxe woody, a vehicle he found “resting against a barn” when he was 15. He paid $300. Today, the Ford looks original but travels with many modern mechanical upgrades. A trip from Key West, Fla., to Fairbanks, Alaska, is on the horizon, and Mr. Cotter said he would like to do it in “some significant car.”
Jonathan Klinger, vice president for car culture at Hagerty, the classic car specialist, agrees that seeking out the blue highways is part of the challenge — especially in cars that strain to reach 70 miles an hour.
“It’s more the journey than the final destination,” he said. “You figure out what attractions are along the way and connect the dots with secondary roads. In the end, it’s a fantastic road trip, instead of ‘Gosh, I’m so glad I’m here.’”
Mr. Larrick, a semiretired vocational rehabilitation director, budgeted at least 30 days for the couple’s trip, with detours to visit attractions, friends and relatives. At home, he regularly drives his classics, which include a 1978 Citroën GS, a 1968 Saab 96 and a 2008 Smart car.
“When I insured the Sprite, I told them I planned to drive it 15,000 to 25,000 miles annually,” he said. “The Saab has been my daily driver.”
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