Very occasionally you might come across an MG Midget or Austin-Healey Sprite with Lenham bodywork. Such a cart is pretty rare. We estimate that there are around five to six in the Netherlands? The Lenham is named after the British town of Lenham in Kent. The place where it all started in the fifties still exists. A small wooden shed where ordinary cars, but also sports cars, were screwed.
The initiators Julian Booty and David Miall-Smith saw increasing potential in their garage business, changed the name of the company to Vintage & Sports Car Garage in 1962 and moved almost immediately to larger premises in the center of Lenham. About twelve months later, one of their customers came forward with a request to provide his Austin-Healey Sprite 'Kikkeroog' with a new bodywork. They designed and manufactured a new coupe roof from aluminum that flowed smoothly into the rear of the Sprite. Passers-by saw the car slowly but surely change into a beautifully lined specimen and wanted that too. Making all those roofs out of aluminum was not an option. So a mold was made of the aluminum roof and thus the roofs could now be made of polyester. Julian Booty soon realized that the front also needed to be adjusted and, looking closely at the bonnets of the Sebring Sprite, among others, designed the after market parts from, among others, Ashley, a beautifully lined nose that fits nicely with the roof. Additional benefit; it only benefited aerodynamics. It goes without saying that the new Midget and Sprite, the Mk2 and Mk3 with turn windows could not escape the modification to make it a beautifully lined GT. All in all a very interesting subject that we will come back to extensively in the near future, because after the total collapse of that market, people have been working hard again since the mid-nineties and many Midgets and Sprites are still being modified. However, we were pleasantly surprised that the building where everything originated still exists, even in excellent condition and is still a thriving village garage ...
Photo above: It all started here, in this garage in Lenham!