Despite the fact that there have been long periods that I have
actively followed the list, I think I can count as an "old timer" as I
was a SOL before the list moved to team.net.
I subscribe to both the british-cars and the mgs lists. If I post, I
try to decide whether it's of interest to British car owners in
general (e.g. a british car gathering), or just MGs (I'm looking for a
particular part, or need help with a particular problem), and try to
direct my posts appropriately.
As with any social group, a certain amount of off topic chatter is
inevitable. I consider a lot of you to be good friends that I've not
had the pleasure of meeting in person, and I actually enjoy a certain
amount of the ongoing banter. On the other hand, I'd rather the list
didn't devovle into constant chatter that has nothing to do with
British Cars, MGs or whatever the specific list is about.
On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 at 03:06:46PM -0700, John McEwen wrote:
>
> Maybe we're flogging a very dead Lucas electrical system. Maybe many
> of us are tired of hearing from the list hot rodders whose only goal
> in life is to take a perfectly decent 30 year old sports car and turn
> it into a "modern" car so it can "keep up with today's traffic" and
> all of the other nonsense which goes with this so-called improvement.
> Maybe we're tired of learning that our old dynamos should be replaced
> with alternators and that our Lucas parts should be replaced with
> junkyard Japanese bits - and while we're at it we should pitch the
> old pushrod four for a newer OHC unit from a Toyota along with the 5
> speed it's bolted to.
I'm not sure whether I should take exception to this paragraph or
not. I've spent most of my free time over the past several months
working on making my '69 MGB go faster, in large part because I'm
tired of anything faster than a kid on a Schwin blowing my doors of
down the straight at the race track. I seem to be succeeding, this
morning I saw 5400 RPM in 5th gear, which matches its previous best
top speed run, and I still don't have the blower dialed in.
On the other hand, 24 years ago, I'd take my Austin America (1300) out
on the backroads to see if the latest change I made, made it go any
faster. Making these things go faster as been the whole point of their
existance since Cecil Kimber was hired as a consultant to Morris, and
I have the BMC Special Tuning guide to prove it.
> Maybe too many of us haven't realized that making a silk purse out of
> a sow's ear really only gives us something which is neither - no
> charm and no time-machine - just a very average car with a whole lot
> of shiny bits which looks silly.
I beg to differ. I had an '83 Rx7 GSL that would blow the doors off my
MGB. I also had a beater '71 240Z that would blow the doors off either
of them. Why do I still have the MG and sold the others off long ago?
Because the MG is a lot nicer to drive. It's perfectly balanced,
responsive, and well behaved at the limit. I can make my MG dance
around racetracks better than almost any other car I've driven on the
track this side of a Formula Ford. The MG is also a "reasonably
practical" daily driver, and a joy to drive on my commute over the
Santa Cruz mountains. I could have taken the money I've spent on
adding the supercharger and bought and built a Miata that would
probably beat the MGs lap times, but I seriously doubt that I'd have
nearly the number of strangers (or is that new friends I hadn't yet
met) coming up to me out of the blue to say what a nice car I have.
And to be honest, I get more positive comments about my supercharger
than the 20/20 paintjob.
> When was the last time you saw a stock MGB at a car show? It's
> joining that other extinct species - the stock Harley-Davidson. How
> about a car which must by now be completely extinct. I refer to the
> stock Sunbeam Tiger. This generation of LBC-losers, oops I meant
> lovers, has managed to leave nothing original for future car buffs to
> discover and enjoy. Just a load of LBHRS - Little British Hot
> Rods.
At the moment, apart from the roll cage, there aren't any mods to my
MG that couldn't be unbolted and replaced with stock parts. There's a
chance that I may have to sacrifice my battery boxes for the sake of
locating my rear end, but that still wouldn't be visible without
looking underneath the car.
> Of course, on some lists if I were to make a statement like this, the
> list police would inform that it isns't my car it is their car and
> they can do whatever they want with it. Some people shouldn't be
> allowed to buy nice old cars. Let them destroy junk and leave the
> nice ones alone! Even MGAs aren't safe anymore or are TRs. How many
> stock displacement engines are left? Not many I'll bet.
Considering that you generally have to rebore the cylinders every
60-100,000 miles, I'd bet that you're right.
> One of the groups which has seemed rather successful in Canada is the
> British Saloon Cars Club. Fortunately, most of the saloon cars seem
> to have avoided the same fate as the sports cars except for Jaguar
> saloons where there is an increased number of lumps. Small block
> Chevs just don't look or sound good in Jaguar saloons. Sorry guys.
> If you want to own a Jaguar and you can't afford to fix the engine -
> sell the damn thing to someone who will or don't buy it in the first
> place.
>
> I think that at the club level in the smaller centers, a British car
> club for single marques or an exclusively British car club just won't
> fly any longer. What may be needed is a
> common-purpose/common-interest car club for Euro and Brit cars or
> even just for old import cars. I've just been involved in the
> startup of a new club in our area. The emphasis is on really small
> cars of all kinds. We're calling it the "Nothing over 999 Club for
> Weird Little Cars" The 999 refers, of course, to displacement.
> We're encouraging everyone with everything from Messerschmidts to
> Suzuki Swifts to join for activities. So far we've got Minis and a
> Fiat Abarth 850, a BMW 600, two NSU Prinz, three Panhards, a Lloyd
> Alexander, a Triumph Herald, a DKW, an early Midget, a Chevy version
> of a Suzuki, and some fellows looking. There were lots of those cars
> sold here and in North America generally over the years - especially
> from 1955 to 1970 or so. Where are they? We're hoping to find out.
Check out the Arcane Auto Society: http://www.arcaneauto.org/
> John - who would be happy to chat with anyone about anything related
> to old cars of any breed but who likes British cars (although I own
> the Panhards and the Lloyd).
There are many different facets to the "old car hobby". At one end of
the spectrum you have the Concourse crowd who argue about whether the
ashtray should be screwed down centered or 1/2" to the left of center,
with the answer being "Was it installed by John or Nigel?". At the
other end of the spectrum you have motorheads like myself who are less
interested in the "purity of the parts on the car" and more interested
in the original intent of the car. For my sake, I'll point out that
the motto of the MG car company is "Safety Fast" not "Preserve the
originality of the car for future generations". MGs come from an era
when you could drive a car to work during the week, and take it out to
the racetrack and compete with it on the weekend. That's the tradition
that I honor and if it takes the rear axle from a Ford Granada to get
me LSD and rear disk brakes at a price then I can afford, then the
purity of my rear end is in mortal danger.
--
I've found something worse than oldies station that play the music I used to
listen to. Oldies stations that play the "new" music I used to complain about.
lrc@red4est.com http://www.red4est.com/lrc
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