While I was on my manly hunt today in search for the Octane mag. that this
list has been raving about (sold out of course) I did find the "Classic" mag,
so I decided to have a sit and a good read, I thought.
Who writes this stuff? The author states that the later MGB( rubber bumper
type) was a very low sitting car and hard to get into. He had to back into
the seat and pull his legs way up and swing them around in order to get in.
Now anyone the least bit familiar with the later MGB knows that the raised
ride height to accommodate the new "bumper height requirements" was one of the
main negative adjustments that was made to these cars and added greatly to
pour handling of the later models. This was not by any means a low car
especially compared to the low ride that this list deals with on our Healeys.
Also the fact that he backed into the seat made me aware that this guy knew
nothing about what he was writing. Everyone knows that you "step into" these
cars , "foot - then butt- then last foot".
Further into the mag. another author is comparing a Marcos GT to a Triumph
GT6 of which he continues to refer to as a Spitfire. I realized that the
car looks like a Spitfire with a hard top but the performance and mechanical
makeup is not the same at all. Six cylinder vs. four cylinder. I can
honestly say that I can never remember the GT6 being referred to as a Spitfire
in any advertisements, books or manuals.
This lack of British car knowledge in these books and mags has really started
me to second guess what I read about our British cars . Not to keep harping
on the MGB and BGTs but another instance came up while reading a complete
book on the MGB and MGC. In it the author states that their were no "rubber
bumper MGB-GTs " imported to North America. As I look up from the book, out
the back window of my house , I am staring at my "rubber bumper MGB-GT"
waiting for restoration. It is a left hand drive North American car. This
book is suppose to be written by a knowledgeable MG guy but he obviously
didn't do his home work very well.
I guess my point here is that we should consider ourselves fortunate to have
very knowledgeable people on this list, like Gary Anderson, Roger Moment, the
Nock family , Mike Salter, Chris Dimmock and a host of others that give us
tried and proven information to use towards our restoration projects, and to
solve our problems and , IT'S FREE. I feel that they are not just shooting
from the hip. We can pretty much trust what they say.
So thanks to you all.
And I'm sure ( I know) with all the changes throughout the years on our
Healeys there's a lot of "Fluff" out there that shouldn't be taken as the
gospel truth. So readers beware of what seems to be the truth about our cars
just maybe someone's simple observation or opinion.
This will be my last editorial of the year, I promise.
Mark
|