I'm a bit late into this discussion (been away) but I'd like to cast my
vote for a T series
MG. In particular a TD (as seen on Speedvision at Mt. Washington hill
climb, he says, patting own back).
When I first started vintage racing I went through the same agony of
decision making. I settled on the TD based on availability, simplicity
and price (also it's eligible in every historic/vintage group that I know
of). I figured that once I got into the swing of things I could always
'trade up'. Well seven years later I'm still flogging the old beast and
have no plans to change.
The car was bone stock when I first got it although it had been raced
some by the previous owner. For the first year the only change I made was
to fit a roll bar. Even kept the white wall tires. Had a great time and
started to learn how to race. Then I joined the MG Vintage Racers group
and learned a lot more about handling, suspension changes etc. along with
meeting a neat group a similar minded folk. The significant changes made
were all to the suspension and some weight reduction (the cars, not me..
probably no net gain or loss). Oh, and when the white wall bias plys wore
out I finally went to radials. Over this period of time (4 years) my LRP
lap times went from 1:45 to 1:22, still running a bone stock engine. The
engine finally gave up the ghost after about 35 events and I rebuilt it
with some modifications. Now on a good day I get down to 1:17 and change
but this 5 sec. improvement came with a pretty hefty price tag in engine
improvements. Not sure I would do it again as I'm still not the fastest
TD and don't have any more fun running in the top 1/3 of the pack as I
did in the middle 1/3.
What else? I've run a total of 45 to 50 events now with 1 DNF (well 2 if
you count the time I had a fuel delivery problem...I forgot to deliver
the fuel to the tank). The car is very strong, safe and dependable. On
nice days in the summer my wife sometimes drives it to work complete with
roll bar and big numbers on the side. I do put a quiet exhaust on it
however.
Bottom line. A wonderful car that is cheap to race, more fun than you can
imagine and dual purpose to boot.
Dick Waite
#580
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
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