Last week I took a trek to look at a '69 B roadster. I have narrowed
my search to a steel-dash car, but this one was intriguiging enough
to look at even with the safety dash and other features that I'd
rather avoid. In talking with the owner on the phone, I was told
that she had owned the car since the mid-'70s, and it was more than a
car; it was her baby. Now the car lives (sleeps) in the corner of an
old industrial building in an old industrial neighborhood. It
sounded like a possible "barn-find," but I knew that the chances of
it being that were quite slim.
Just finding the right door to the old warehouse building was an
adventure. Once inside, I found two young men that were working
there and they directed me to the owner's office upstairs. She
explained that she could not leave her desk as the business was
short-handed, and that she would have the young guys help me. They
were quite cooperative, but neither of them knew how to drive a
standard transmission. One of them asked if it was a German car, but
the other fellow knew such cars once existed because he had seen
Austin Powers movies. They removed the canvas tarp on the car, and
pushed it out to daylight where I could look at it better. It was a
complete car and I could see no rust on it, but body panels were not
aligned well. The interior was on the shabby side. The car's
condition was such that repairs and some TLC would not quite do the
trick; it would require restoration. It ran, but poorly. It was a
rather sad old car, but probably better than many its age.
I decided to keep looking.
What was a shock to me was that the young guys working there not only
could not drive a standard transmission, but had no clue as to what
MGs were! When I was their age, I knew what a Hupmobile or an Auburn
was. I knew about Model T Fords. I think the younger generation are
never going to be into British sports cars, especially if they can't
even shift gears!
Don Scott
Calistoga, CA
1962 MGA Mk II
1973 MGB GT (selling)
2001 Miata SE BRG
63-67 MGB (searching)
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