I was a junior in high school when I bought my cousin's bugeye in 1967 for $350. It really was just a little bit better than a POS, with rusty rockers, holes in the floor, a bad second gear synchro and no convertible top. It did have a non-factory hardtop that went on sometime in October and stayed on until spring, except for the New Years Day ride. It was terrible in a Massachusetts winter. It just didn't want to start when it got cold, the heater wouldn't defrost the windscreen and the sidescreens would freeze shut when I was in class. Yet it had tons of cool. I "fixed it up" with some galvanized steel rockers pop-riveted on, a repaint in '68 Corvette Yellow, some new floor coverings and stretch-on seat cover and a spray-on spatter cover vinyl roof on the hardtop. Sounds hideous, but it did't look that terrible. I hated the inconveniences of that car, but there was so much more I loved: driving around the roads on Cape Cod, smelling the different smells through the open top; having a British sports car during the days when the British Invasion, Carnaby St., the Beatles and other British groups were the height of cool; and learning my Alpine Rally techniques on roads between the cranberry bogs of southeastern Mass. Finally sold it to a couple of guys that had just returned from a round trip on the AlCan highway on a Norton Commando and BSA Lightning. They must have thought they ware buying a Rolls Royce. When I finally got a real job, I bought another bugeye in 1977 that I have toay. Totally redone to mimic the '59 Sebring Sprites. Makes me feel like 16 years old every time I drive it.