Despite failing to capture the imagination of the Australian
public with the Zeta Station Sedan, Harold Lightburn pushed
ahead with plans to release the Zeta sports car.
It was back in 1959 that Lightburn had obtained the rights
to the Frisky Sprint- a low, sleek 'Michelotti' designed
sports car similar to the Goggomobil Dart.
The Frisky
Sprint's designer, Gordon Bedson, was persuaded to leave
Frisky and join Lightburn with a brief to develop the
Zeta Sports.
He bought with him the prototype Frisky Sprint as well
as a supply of fifty motors by Fichtel&Sachs, the 493cc
engine from the legendary FMR "Tiger".
The Frisky Sprint
did have doors- shallow bottom-hinged ones, but they
were deleted in the interests of strength.
The windshield was changed, the tail restyled, and the
final drive altered. The car failed to meet New South
Wales lighting regulations, so some were fitted with additional
free-standing headlamps on the hood.
It seems most Zeta Sports were built in 1961, but the
car was not introduced until the summer of 1964 for some
reason.
While Lightburn had a network of Alfa Romeo dealerships
at the ready, they were under whelmed by orders, and only
some 28 were sold.
