Another new addition to the family..

Well my VERY generous cousin GAVE me his late model MGB. My Aunt asked me a month or so ago if I wanted to buy it, I said I'd love to but i have no $ for it. With my cousin Steve knee deep in 2 MGA's he says he won't have time to take care of it, and my Aunt wants it out of the driveway, so he gave it to me! It's a late 70's model with rubber bumpers and Minilite wheels. It's in rough shape, it needs rockers, doglegs, and possibly new fenders and the engine is questionable. But it's FREE. I'm hoping to get it out of his driveway next week, and into the garage to further assess the situation. It may just end up being a parts car. Ideally I'd like to get it running over this winter, and use it next summer/spring as my daily driver. THEN perhaps go nuts on it..Sebring bumper kit, V8 engine/5speed, shaved door handles/trim. My head's swimming just thinking about it!. This pic is it's best side. I'll keep you posted as to it's progress/situation!

British Car Day @ Larz Anderson Park

Other than being a bit cluttered as to the groupings of cars the show was great! The main lawn was full, and the cars spilled over to the lower lawn as the day Progressed. Dad & I got there around 10:00, and we didn't finish our first round of walking around until noon! We got to chat with tons of people, some old friends, and some new ones. I commented that when we first started attending these shows we didn't know that many people, and this year it seemed we were chatting with someone every few feet!

Steve Mackay did really well, the TR3, MGA Deluxe, and Car "the great" Thompson's Austin Healey each won best in their respective classes. Although if your familiar with his work it shouldn't be THAT big of a suprise!

One guy pulled up in his car (also a 1974 MGB) and commented on how he loved that I didn't put the chrome overriders on my car, nor the side mirrors. It was cool to see someone pick up on those little things. As the day wound down, we were shooting the crap with so many people we didn't leave the park until 3:30!

Overall a great day.

Here's some pics from the show!

Down To The Wire

My Dad's 1970 MGB GT is pretty cool. It's a fun car, solid and for some reason it runs like a bat out of hell. It's got enough torque that I think I could give the import "drifters" a run for their money with a bit of practice (Dad's been able to pitch it sideways going UP a hill). I think all that power has a downside though, It's beaten up the splines on his wire wheels.

Back in the Day my dad mentioned that he didn't like the wire wheels, and his friends that had them also had a love/hate relationship with them. They look great and very classy, but hard to keep straight and it's hard to put faith in one big nut holding a wheel, rather than a series of lug nuts.

Dad mentioned that one day he almost didn't make it home on day this past month, as one wheel hub seemed to slip all over the place. So after pulling the hub off of his GT we took it (and it's wheel) over to MacKay's Garage. The Hub was deemed ok, the wheel however, is pretty much garbage. So we replaced the hub, and used the spare wheel (remember when you got a car with a REAL spare tire?). No problems there.

However it kind of makes a point. Dad wants this as a semi daily driver, and situations like this kind of kills some reliability points. The long term solution will be to swap the wire wheel hubs with conventional ones. Kind of a bummer, as I like the wire wheels. But thankfully it's not all a loss. We have access to 8 hubs for ro style wheels, as well as a complete set of recently painted Ro style wheels! The only think he'll need to purchase new is some tires!

Oh yeah and if anyone is in the greater Boston area this Sunday June 7th, British Car Day at Larz Anderson park!

www.mot.org

See you there!