Oodly, my introduction to old sports cars came as a result of leaving my job
at Lotus. Yes, I was an engineer at the company making some of the most
fantastic sports cars in the world, and I drove... a Proton. Well, Proton
own Lotus, and they let me have a new car VERY cheap, but when I left they
took it back.
To celebrate my new job and 20% more pay (why else would I leave Lotus??!)
my then girlfriend (now wife) and I decided to replace the Proton with
something more fun. We couldn't afford a modern (ie. <10 years) coupe, and
I'd always like classics, so it had to be a Triumph or MG. After test
driving a Spit we concluded that our dog wouldn't fit in the space behind
the seats (and we wanted to use this as our main car, including driving
holidays with the dog), so ended up buying an MG BGT, with a rear seat
perfectly sized for a Border Collie (but no good for humans!). She was
named Sammy.
That car we loved, it took us on honeymoon, my wife enjoyed it as much as I
did, it was surprisingly reliable and cheap to run, until... just over a
year later a Pizza delivery van hit it in the rear, and the damage, while
not visibly huge, was enough to bend the body beyond economical repair.
So... time for a replacement. And I thought again about a Spitfire. I went
for another drive, and convinced myself that our dog could be levered into
the space behind the seats (with the aid of a specially constructed cushion,
to give a level floor above the transmission tunnel hump, I was right). I
got the Spit. She was named Daffy. 3 1/2 years later she is still with me
and running strong.
It's been both better and worse. I know there are those who feel that MG
are somehow 'the enemy', but I have to say the MG was more comfortable, a
little more spacious, quieter at speed, felt more solid (probably both due
to being a coupe, and being monocoque), and was more reliable. For these
reasons my wife doesn't really like Daffy, plus the fact that Daffy is just
too low for her to get in and out of comfortably, while the MG was just OK
(a perception enhanced by the fact that she became pregnant shortly after
Daffy's acquisition!).
On the other hand Daffy has even better, more nimble handling (I wouldn't
have beleived it until I tried it, the MG was such a revelation after dull
modern cars), looks better, and I LOVE driving with the top down. They are
more rare (I would see another MG at least once a week, not so with the
Triumph), but still have the parts availability benefits of a common
classic.
Of course, I now want to get another BGT so we can have the best of both
worlds. Somehow finances don't really run to that!
Richard & Daffy
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