Press

Bugeyeguys in Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine

Bugeyeguys world headquarters before the bugs and the guy. Glass blowing studio before renovation, 2015.

In the Summer of 2015, our passion-based Spritely business reached a major fork in the road, when our landlord needed his space back and our Bugeyes became homeless. The Quonset Hut across the street from our shop was for sale though, and while it seemed entirely appropriate to put curvey little cars into a curved building, once the ink dried and the building was mine, I now had a lot of broken cars to restore and a broken 1951 building to restore as well. See photo above… this was a rough hut. 

The Bugeye-hut 2021, fully restored and the star of a stunning centerfold in the Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine article, just out this month. The white fiberglass insulation (seen in first “before” photo) has been removed to expose the metal ribs. External insulation and a new standing seam roof cover the entire structure. Glass rear wall leads to workshop addition at ground level.

The home of a glass blowing studio when I came along, 59 North Harbor Street was originally a storage building for the wooden forms for the iron foundry across the street. The metal roof leaked badly. But the foundation was bulletproof and the vibe was right, (or one day would be right, I prayed) so off we went on a massive building rehab project that left Bugeyes and building materials scattered everywhere.

Fast forward to today… our restored Q-hut has now launched 324 Bugeye adventures, for wonderful clients all around the world. We are making a lot of people very happy, drivers and spectators alike. Each one of our cars is an evangelist for a different way to interact with conveyance. Our drivers arrive with a smile, and they are making a lot of other people smile along the way. It has now become quite routine, for example, to be rolling along in the right lane in a Bugeye, while a spectator in the left lane is leaning out the passenger shooting a video to share with friends.

“Look what I saw on the highway today!"

These cars touch people’s lives, and we are honored to have the opportunity to make them work better than they did when new. We are currently building a Bugeye for the daughter of a dad who lost his Bugeye in the Paradise fire a few years back. We recently put a Bugeye in the hands of a client whose health challenges accelerated his need to fulfill his bucket list NOW. And we look forward to the next 324 people we have yet to meet whose lives will be similarly transformed.

The Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine piece that just came out (featured here) is an acknowledgment of what we have created, fueled by passion for a wonderful little sportscar that was last manufactured in 1960. We are honored to arrive at this moment in our journey, and we look forward to supporting you on yours.

Thank you for helping us to arrive at this very special moment. And we have a lot more fun and excitement to come!

Barn find Quonset hut 2015, “easy restoration!” Only the bilco doors (now gray in the photo below) remain. Everything else has since been demolished, modified, re-skinned and/or restored.

If you haven’t already seen it, you can read all seven pages of the Hagerty article in the reader below.