Took my Midget 1500 in today for a retorque after 500 miles
on my rebuilt engine. When the valve cover was removed, I almost
leapt over the mechanic to point out that a valve spring was
broken. (He probably would have noticed on his own later...)
Turned out lucky, because I noticed the day before my car
started making an airy engine noise. I had blamed it on my
cracked exhaust manifold finally letting go, and wasn't too
concerned. It worked out well that I was having the engine
opened or I would have driven it probably the rest of the
season on half a valve spring. Eeeks.
(Maybe I don't fit in with some of the crowd on this
list, but I don't lift my valve cover just to look around
every couple of weeks. ;> )
At any rate, worked out great all around. And I did get to
drive the shop's race-prepped 1965 Midget. Incredible difference
between driving that beast and driving my near-stock 1975. But
I don't think the girlfriend would understand that giving up
a working top, an interior, padded seats, and the ability to
drive under 2500 rpms is worth that extra horsepower. ;>
Incredible what a difference it is in attitude as well though. In
my car, when I'm in it I get all happy and quiet and just feel
like cruising around and waving at people. In the seat of this
thing though, it just has to be driven as hard as possible and
as fast as possible.
Somewhere between these two cars, there is probably an
excellent medium.
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Trevor Boicey 1992 Celica GT (95% of the driving I do)
Computer Engineer 1975 MG Midget (95% of the repairs I do)
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