Old race car classing question

I have a friend that bought a bugeye Sprite a while back and is now redoing the car. He was told it was an old race car but didn't really count on it with all the mods it has. Such as a Datsun engine/trans and suspension/brakes in it. He knew it was a frankenstein car when he bought it but the price was right and seemed decently done. Recently he started digging into the car. First was body, after removing several coats of paint he found numbers painted on it along with H/G class painted on it. Now he wants to know what H/G class means. Race in 2 classes? Does anyone here know what it means and/or can explain what H/G class means?

It may have been an old H and/or G Production car back before the heart transplant.

h prod is 948cc bmc engine, g prod was 1098cc

But why would the car have 2 classes painted on it? Can't run 2 classes at the same time can you? Or maybe grouping of classes for run groups?

I know some old cars, they used to swap motors between events to run different classes. Maybe the case here?

You're also allowed to run G with a 948 (if you want). The car may have had two driver/owners. One guy ran in G and one guy ran in H. A decent driver with a strong 948 could run mid-pack in G with no problem....at least back in the day.

We have a couple of guys that I run vintage with that can outrun my stock-ish 1275 with a 948 (far from stock 948, of course). And, as stated, swapping motors between sessions isn't really that hard.

Aeronca65t is right; the classes have/had displacement limits but everything else was pretty much the same. Weight differences are easily met by adjusting balance.

It was not/is not unusual for competitors to enter different classes with the same car - if the race schedule allows time and the budget is big enough to accommodate engine changes and chassis adjustments.

The Datsun transplant definitely takes the car way out of the Prod classes and into semi-exotic territory.

An engine swap in that car can be done in less than 2 hours so it is possible that it was raced in two classes during a race weekend.

You guys are overlooking the fact that it might have been drag raced with that engine swap[. H Gas?

Don49 wrote: You guys are overlooking the fact that it might have been drag raced with that engine swap[. H Gas?

I read the entire thread before entering a post but that's what I was going to say. I knew a guy from Asheville that ran a bugeye on drag strips in the 60s. He ran the 948 at the time though in a very low stock class IIRC.

Could it possibly be a Land Speed Record class?

Don49 wrote: You guys are overlooking the fact that it might have been drag raced with that engine swap[. H Gas?

A Bugeye Sprite? Really? No really?

Yeah it ran 8's, 8 minutes that is.

Imagine being at the strip and trying to explain that it is a "momentum car".

wlkelley3 wrote: I have a friend that bought a bugeye Sprite a while back and is now redoing the car. He was told it was an old race car but didn't really count on it with all the mods it has. Such as a Datsun engine/trans and suspension/brakes in it. He knew it was a frankenstein car when he bought it but the price was right and seemed decently done. Recently he started digging into the car. First was body, after removing several coats of paint he found numbers painted on it along with H/G class painted on it. Now he wants to know what H/G class means. Race in 2 classes? Does anyone here know what it means and/or can explain what H/G class means?

So does your friend want to race it or street it? The datsun trans swap is very desirable for a street car bugeye. not sure I ever heard anyone putting the datsun motor in though, although Im sure its been done. British car owners were the original Grassroots guys ;)

Wasn't the 1600 roadster motor an Asian copy of a BMC engine, or something?

I had a Mk3 Sprite with a Datsun engine and trans from a Datsun 1200. Had the original engine in pieces. Bought it as a project, got it running (hardest project was designing and building a voltage regulator), then got rid of it when I graduated college.

In reply to willy19592: He wants to street it. Apparently it was a street car with the Datsun drivetrain. He's even considering going back to the original front suspension on it. Although he does want to keep disk brakes on it, maybe go to later Spridget disks though. Believe the Datsun engine is something around 1200cc.

It probably has a lot to do with what club the car was raced in. Just like now you can choose between SCCA and NASA, there were multiple organizations back in the day. So unless he knows more about the history it's hard to know for sure.

My guess is like others have said, it may have been ran in both H and G production with an engine swap in between races. That was not an uncommon thing. Also, the Datsun swap may have occured after it was not run in the other classes anymore, as it would surely have put it into a mod class of some sort.

Again, you'll need to know more about the car to know for sure.

There are a few reasons for being able to run two classes.

I have run a stock class with very limited modification (in ICSCC in the Pacific Northwest) rather like a showroom stock class, and they allowed you to run the same car in improved production (the same as SCCA classes) if you wanted. A stock car actually won the championship once in awhile, by finishing every race while the improved cars would lap them, but DNF every other race.

The other one I knew of was sports racing, where a guy I knew ran in the lowest class with an 850 Fiat motor, then mounted a squirrel fan from a defroster at the intake, and called it a supercharger so he could also run with the next group, a class up from his non-blown displacement class (they always ran the lowest class with the production cars, and the ones above that together in a sports racing group). He won two classes that way a couple of times.

The bugeye would have run Hprod and GSR perhaps?

Was there a log book w/ the car? That's something most people wouldn't discard. Also, if there's a roll bar the number may help ID the car. Not sure how far back SCCA would keep records tho.