Maybe this is a bad time to post this, since I just got back from
a British-and-Italian-car jaunt through the local mountain roads
which managed to take all day because we kept having to stop as
one car after another broke down. (Someone should post the story.
It was fun despite all the breakdowns!) Anyway, this morning's San
Jose Mercury News contained the following letter. What is this
guy's problem, anyway? Hey, Larry, maybe you should look this
guy up and see if he wants to give you a couple of parts cars!
...Akkana
EXPENSIVE, BUMPY ROAD AWAITS NEW OWNER OF '77 SPORTS CAR
I read with amusement the November 23 article about the 1977 MG Midget that
Opera San Jose sold for $1. As the owner of both a '66 and a '67 Midget,
all I can say is the opera company got off easy, and Patrick Spaulding is
in for quite a motoring experience.
These cars are sports cars in the sense that they are small (very small),
quick, and their tops come off. But perhaps the top on Spaulding's new
car is torn, and the plastic "windows" have cracked and turned a murky
brown not unlike a mildewed shower curtain. Perhaps his new car is
subject to the electrical gremlins that have befuddled MG owners since
the beginning of time.
Does Spaulding know why the British drink warm beer? Maybe Opera San Jose
should have told him that the same company that makes the electrical
systems in his MG also makes refrigerators in jolly olde England.
Spaulding might reflect on the spirit of the people of the British Isles
as he drives his new car, and how they chased the German Luftwaffe across
the English channel in the Battle of Britain. Then again, he may reflect
on the spirit of the very same people who designed a transmission that
makes funny whirring, grinding and other nasty sounds as it happily
shifts its way through life. I would be curious to see the puddle of
oil left on the floor of the opera company garage; I'm sure it would rank
right up there with the Prince William Sound.
As for the vehicle being valuable, or at least worth $1200 according to
car borker Robert Hammer, all I can say is that I paid $600 apiece for
my cars, which run to this day and sound as though they are in considerably
better shape than Spaulding's "jalopy".
If Spaulding is the adventurous type, though, he might try the do-it-yourself
route. He would no doubt start looking for parts in the appropriate
enthusiasts magazines, like Road and Track, Car and Driver, or Suicide
Prevention Monthly.
I was also the proud possesor of a 1969 Austin Healy Sprite, an identical
car except for the name. Hammer had the rosy optimism to state that only
for parts the '71 was worth $1000 minimum". I, too, thought that the
Sprite, which was a gift, was worth its weight in gold and that by
parting it out it would enable me to buy a small island and retire comfortably.
Quite the opposite was true, however. I placed an ad which ran for two weeks
and cost $26 in the Mercury News. Of the three responses, two people showed
up and I sold about $40 worth of parts, hardly the lofty sum Hammer stated.
Not only that, but the car sat in the back yard of my house for two months
and killed most of the vegetation in its proximity, turning my yard into
a miniature toxic dump. I couldn't give it away. I had to pay another $40
to tow the Sprite to vintage sports car heaven, proving there's good money
to be made in the towing business and that these little cars aren't worth
much dead or alive.
A quick check in the Auto $eller section of the Mercury News recently shows
not only one but two Midgets for sale, one for $750 and another for $2500.
I'm sure the seller of the latter is either playing a cruel joke on the
auto-buying public or is the eternal symbol of hope for snowballs in hell.
It looks like Opera San Jose knows more about cars than it would let on.
I hope Spaulding is as good a mechanic as he is a shrewd businessman,
and if he should ever want to sell his treasure, I have just the spot
for it in my back yard.
-- Scott Strayer
Santa Clara
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