In a fitting finale to 2009, Keith and Juliet organised another Sprite Car Club run down the south coast of NSW to the beautiful village of Kiama on 30 December.

Fitting because for most of us on the second last day of the year it was the final opportunity in 2009 to take the Sprites and Midgets out for a run but also because it was to be the first outing for Keith Smith's latest project - a bugeye.

Unfortunately ABP 102 only got a few kilometres before an intermittant engine missfire became permanent two thirds of the way up the last big hill on the quick dash to get back home. On a blind bend on Mona Vale Road's Tumbeldown Dick Hill (at the top of which is the Baha'i Temple) on a perfect beach day with everyone in Sydney heading for the beaches and a big kerb keeping the car on the roadway, we quickly became a road block. Just before directing the traffic to stop further down the road so that I could reverse the car through a gap in the kerb a friendly guy in a Sydney Helicopters ute stopped and had a thin strap just strong enough to tow us up to the Baha'i Temple from where we were able to locate the daughter's boyfriend who towed us home.

It turned out the problem was a leaking water pump which deposited water on the distributor replicating the symptoms of a failed condensor described here. Since fixed and the Midget ran faultlessly during January's fish and chip run.

Luckily we had started in plenty of time and were able to transfer to the 'towcar' and joined the run in Bulli. The trip replicated much of the route followed in the previous run to this area described here except that it didn't traverse Saddleback Mountain following instead a winding route from Albion Park to the village of Jamberoo just a short distance from Kiama. Ideal for Sprites and Midgets!

Having put this Sprite together including much work on the body (getting the fibreglass front to match the contours of the scuttle and other panels required much ingenuity and patience), Keith should be proud of the final product. Its bright blue paintwork certainly made it stand out from the crowd on this, its first run!

Neil Blaney's bugeye always looks good. We were admiring in particular the works hardtop with air extraction vents above the rear window. Here is a modern reproduction.

Two MG Midgets - Graham Hately's daily driver 'facelift' Mk3 and Neil Scott's Mk1 'Prudence' (see restoration story here) with fellow supersprint competitor Ray Fahey's neat bugeye in the photo on the right.