On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 at 06:54:47PM -0700, John McEwen wrote:
> After reading Larry's response to my hopefully inflammatory comments,
> I rest my case!
What we have here is a classic religious argument, "use em or look at
em". I'm inclined to suggest that if John wants an MGBGT with perfect
bodywork that'll never get dinged up, then I've got this really nice
1:18 scale model sitting on a shelf at home, that'll do him just fine.
>
> If they were building more MGs or were going to build more then I say
> "have at it" race 'em all. But they aren't and "all raced-up and
I've actually only raced my MG once, and the car that won was a '71
MGBGT. What I mostly use it for is a daily driver with occasional
(sort of monthly when everything works out) trips to the racetrack,
where I teach performance driving. The car is arguably safer at the
track than it is commuting to work.
I've seriously cosidered performance rallying it, just like these
folks do with their MGBGT: http://www.rhybudd.com/ but it's probably a
little too risky to the bodywork. We'll see, meanwhile there is
always rallycross.
> tricked-out" MGs are just someone else's idea. They have little
I would love to take you on a ride around Thunderhill racetrack, at
speed in Jasmine, and see if you can honestly tell me that she has
little value.
> value to another - as the hot rod crowd is finding out when they go
> to sell the "prize" on which they've blown tens of thousands of
Define blown. If "blown" means spent doing something that I really
enjoy having more fun than should be legal, then yeah, I've blown a
lot of money. Do I honestly expect that I could get a quarter of my
investment back? If that is ever my primary consideration in
restoring an MG, I should be taken out back and summarily shot.
> dollars. It's pointless saying that something is a "little modified"
> and can be "put back". It won't be - and another one is gone.
Compared to the dead car, with the hubs rusted in place, that had been
sitting in my friends garage for years, that had not been driven,
restored, or appreciated by anyone since it last ran? She now has new
paint, gets driven several hundred miles a week, and brings me
pleasure on a daily basis.
> Making a 30 or 40 year old car go really fast isn't rocket science -
Feh. She doesn't go really fast. When I build a Spec Miata for racing
this spring, it'll probably turn a faster lap time. It'll definitely
handle better. But that isn't the point. The point is to make a
pretty car, that is fun to drive.
> but the only thing authentic about it is probably the MG badge on the
> boot lid and that is probably blushing with shame. "Safety Fast" was
> a commercial slogan for new cars. One questions the point so many
> years later.
I don't know, the grill badge from the South Shore Sports Car & Beer
Drinking Society is authentic, and is from the club my dad was in when
he raced MGs (TC, TD, TF & A) fifty years ago. The fun that I have
driving her is sure as hell authentic.
As to how irreplacable an MGB is, granted the BGT bodies are a little
tougher, but when I can go to BMHI, and buy a new body, and shop
around and buy darned near every part of the car and build one from
the ground up, many of them new, I don't think that MGBs have reached
the "too rare to be risked" stage. To be quite honest, by the time
that they are rare enough for that to even be a concern, there won't
be enough people around whe were alive during the heyday of the MGB to
particularly care.
>
> Mind you, I have no problem with formal vintage racing provided the
> race part doesn't destroy the vintage part and there's the rub!
This is the same argument, should race cars be raced (at the risk of
damage), or kept in a garage until they just rot away?
--
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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