On Wednesday I drove my '58 A in the welcome home parade through Sydney for
the Australian Olympic team. There were 3MGF's, 3 A's and 34 B's plus a few
Saab convertibles, 3 Mercedes and around 10 Mustangs, 64 cars in all. There
were no crowd barriers ie no security, with the 100,000 kids and others
forcing their way onto the roadway so that they were pressing against the
cars to get autographs and touch their heroes.
>
> It was kind of scarey as we were told to keep right up to the car in front
and people kept mobbing us. No one was run over but I did lightly hit the
back legs of an over-exuberent TV cameraman a couple of times when he
stopped in front of me despite the horn.
>
>One B caught fire due to ticker tape getting caught up in the exhaust and
another B had a door kicked in by a police horse. It really was a buz and I
was really thrilled to participate. I had 2 Olympians sitting on my tonneau
panel (reinforced temporarily) and some B's had an extra one in the
passenger seat.
>
>Why the preamble? Well my A with an original type V-cell radiator ran for
over an hour at 170/175F despite never getting out of first gear (and
slipping the clutch most of the time) and the denseness of the crowds. The
other cars all had the "modern" cores with plenty of horizontal fins, extra
tubes, etc. and all ran at boiling point with reduced oil pressure, etc.
Ambient temperature was around 70F with a slight wind although we didn't get
much of it!
>
>Just for interest. The cost of the new radiator has proved to be the best
investment I made in my just-finished restoration.
>
Best regards,
John.
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