Hi - I'm an eccentric old fart of 56 who loves LBC's with a
passion and have a personal collection of about 30 of them.
We have a family of four kids who, for some reason, seem to
have inherited the old man's love for these cars.
Oldest son, now 28, started out at 16 with a Camaro 350 w/ 4
speed, then moved on to a 1970 split bumper MGB with a very
tired 215 c.i. aluminum V8. This had to be the rustiest,
beat up, MGB in Saskatchewan, and dad gave him hell for his
purchase which we had to trailer five days later when we moved
to Kelowna, B.C. He persevered on his own, got all the rust
out, put in new panels and rails, rebuilt the engine, replaced
the MG gearbos with a T50 Borg Warner and the MGB rear end with
a narrowed 8" Ford with 273 gears. He still has the car and
it's all sorted out handling and performance wise and looks
beautiful. Goes kind of well, too, with 70 mph at 1700 rpm's
and still lots off the mark. He has turned out to be an
excellent mechanic for all things British.
Daughter, now 24, started with a TR6 at age 17. It took about
a year to humble the car both mechanically and body wise and
she now drives a 4 x 4 Blazer.
Son, now 22, started with an X11 Citation and then to a 75 MGB.
The car was tired when he bought it, but it hung on for a couple
of years until he parted it out (for more than he paid for the
car originally). He now has a very nice 71 TR6 with LAT wheels
that he enjoys and shows successfully.
Son now 20, bought a tired 79 TR7 convert when he was 15 and
started to redo the car mechanically. He has also gone the
215 V8 route with a T5 Borg Warner, and on a limited budget
has a very quick car. No accidents and he has learned his
way around anything mechanical.
Our club has regular slaloms and the family usually does quite
well at them. The old man drives his Marcos GT with the three
litre Volvo and triple 45 Webers, and tries to fend off the
family - usually unsuccessfully.
The experience with LBC's has been nothing but rewarding for
all of us. Perhaps I was lucky in having kids that had enough
maturity at 16 to handle the pitfalls of owning British cars,
but I am happy that my love of these cars has been instilled
in my kids.
Cheers,
Len Drake
|