Sunday 24th April dawns, dry and windy - I shake off remnants of hangover
from daughters birthday party and fill the flask with coffee before setting
off for the M.G. Car Club South West Centre Gymkhana @ Charmy Down.
Charmy Down is the site of old WW2 airfield on top of a hill some 6 miles
from Bath (which is about 100m left of London)
A gymkhana in this context, for those who don't know, is a competitive
outing for cars involving speed and judgement tests, largely on grass.
There's good turn out for the first event of the season. About 30 cars
including a J2 TA TC TD 2TF MGA midgets B roadsters & GTs and a 1300 fwd
saloon.
The tests comprise one long test (ave. 90 secs); a shorter one (ave 55 secs)
a Maltese cross test (no time to explain!) two judgement tests involving
approaching and reversing to < 3" of a pole.
The RAC Motor Sport Assoc. insists on judgement tests so that the results
are not solely determined by speed. This allows the Club to run the event
without us all having to get special licences and crash hats!
So all pretty straight forward so long as it doesn't rain -:)
The format is two rounds before lunch - then off to the 'local' for a
British Sunday pub lunch of Roast Beef. The pub is in a village called
Pennsylvania and happens to serve M.G. beer - Yep its a beer called Speckled
Hen brewed by the Morlands Brewery in Abingdon and named after a famous old
M.G. - can't remember which - whose paint finish resembled the aforesaid
hen. It even has an octagon logo. Too many pints could blow your head off as
its about twice the strength of ordinary bitter.
Well after lunch we do two more runs - seems like somehow the cones are
closer together - wonder why! I confirm my belief that it would not be
sensible for me to spend a fortune lightening flywheels and boring out
engines to improve performance by about 1 second when I can 10 secs
penalties off by simply avoiding the cones -:)
Well its all over by mid afternoon and we await the results - the best 3 of
the 4 rounds count. I amaze myself by getting 3rd in Class (T & MMM) behind
the other TF - well it has A suspension a 1350 engine and a very good driver
- and the J2 - just a better driver! A fst midget wins overall.
The TF held together OK, thankfully the motor ran well as it was only 700
miles ago that the bottom end got sorted out after it ran a big-end last
summer.
Just time now to blow of the dust and fill up with petrol for this week ends
Kimber Classic Trial - about 50 miles, 10 hills and a water splash in
deepest Wiltshire & Dorset. Most of the hills were used for Trials in the
'thirties and the TF will be amongst the more modern M.G.s running.
The TF, btw, was built on 17 Sep 1953 - the first day of TF production and
the 38th made . It is red and LHD and was exported to the US. It has had one
respray along the line but no real restoration apart from brakes clutch &
motor overhaul.
It turned up in Natrona Heights Pennsylvania in 1963, purchased from a Ford
garage in Washington PA as a seventh wedding anniversary present for Mrs not
Mr Macurdy. It then moved with them to the Boulder CO area in 1980. It came
back to the UK via a dealer about 4 years ago but I can't discover it's
earliest history 'cos the PA Driver Licensing people in Harrisburg couldn't
retrieve any earlier data.
It's a long shot but it would be great if any SOL guys knows of any way of
tracing it's early owners the VIN is HDC 43 538 Unlike earlier M.G.s and
the RV8 TF chassis no's started at 501 not 251 - the old Abingdon phone
number for M.G.
Sorry not to be able to fully emulate the American writing style on the
List, 'cos I find it very readable & entertaining - we Brits need more
practice I guess.
John - Octagonally advantaged - Thomas of Bath
j.s.thomas@bath.ac.uk Bath University Computing Services
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