There were plenty of reasons to love the Austin-Healey Sprite. Besides being super affordable when they debuted, the Sprite was light and capable of out-handling high-dollar sports cars of the era, not to mention the plucky British styling that was unlike anything else on the road. That combination has helped make the Sprite Mk 1 a sought after collectible, but it hasn’t inspired anyone to come up with a recreation of the car. Until now. Feast your eyes on the Norster 600R.
This, um, unique creation isn’t actually billed as an automobile, slipping instead into the heavy quad classification in the European Union to beat pesky hang ups like crash test and emissions standards. Penned by designers in Finland and built in China, the Norster 600R uses a 580cc two-cylinder engine with a whopping 20 horsepower and 36.8 pound-feet of torque. You aren’t going to be taking the checkers at Le Mans with the Chery-sourced powerplant, especially considering the 1,150-pound unladen weight. Of course, the upswing of such a tiny engine is that the Norster can happily put along at around 50 mpg U.S.
