Thanks to all the distinguished Morgan mavens for the "put it in
second first" trick. It works very well indeed and saved me from the
dreaded gear noise embarrassment at Lime Rock this last weekend. There
was quite a turnout of 2 Plus 4s, 4/4s and three trikes and a group
picture of four of the above cars was vigorously orchestrated by
Admiral (ret.) Henry Giffen 3d, Morgan owner and keeper of the
competition register who was there with his daughter and his
indecently fast MG-Cooper (I think it is called. Not A Morgan.)
Mike Virr kindly showed me the correct way to drive swiftly around Big
Bend and the esses. I suspect that neither of us will ever fully
recover from the experience. Keeping up with him in his very special
4/4 with my slightly slow and High Cowl Plus 4 was only possible late
in the day,when his car was ailing a bit. Truly a treat just following
the wily Mr. Virr around. Gorgeous weather, four Bugattis and my
missus and Blanche the dog made the two days memorable. Wish you all
were there.
Visited with Robert, Linda and Larry at Morgan Spares after the two
days at Lime Rock. This was a huge mistake because now I know all the
things I should do to remediate my car (viz., reskin the doors,which
are rusting from the inside out, replace the suspension subassembly
with a neg. camber one, redo the spindles with sturdier competition
ones, not to mention the humiliating replace the valve cover gasket
because it leaks, remove and replace four-inch square lumps of bondo
and fractured sheet metal on the very tops of the fenders with nice 16
guage steel, relocate the roll bar so the bolts don't foul the
springs, replace the rear springs because they're worn out, buy the
nice mirror bracket, the sheepskin engine belt, lower the left fender,
cut off the odd bits welded on by You Know Who from Stratford, carpet
the glovebox (!) and learn how to put SU carb jets back together the
correct way) Luckily, I am no perfectionist, have no class, but am
patient and quite cheap, so there's hope yet for both car and wallet.
I must say the car runs as well now as it did when I discovered all
these things.
The above trio have three cars in various stages of restoration in
their shop. I only looked closely at Dean Meyer's 63 (??I think. It
had Strombergs on it.) and I must say Larry and Robert do wonderful
work and Linda really knows her Morgans.
Some two and one-half ours later I left the trio, mollified the missus
and said dog who were waiting patiently in the tow vehicle, and headed
back to Norwalk. (Does anyone else out there have a spouse as
understanding and forebearing as I??)
Best to all...
Chip Brown (on the plane to Rio on June 8, his b-day)
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