Also in 1959, an odd-looking British import landed on stateside shores. It was over seven feet shorter and two feet narrower than the Series 62 Caddy—and scarcely more than a quarter of its weight.

In May of 1996, while attending an imported car show in Pennsylvania, Don Smith spotted for sale a 1959 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite, which at 37 years of age at that time, was also about Smith's own ...