[NOBBC] British car show in Woodland Calif.

Sat May 26 18:37:31 MDT 2012

Hi Don that was a very well written article.  I haven't seen Brandon for  a
couple of years and always enjoyed chatting to him.  His car always looked
good.  I wrote an article about North meets South and we also had MGs by the
Bay 
as well so I don't know if your's will make it in this edition, but Felix
never 
throws anything away and is begging for articles most months.  Computer
is is 
still with the computer guy so it's slow going on this old laptop.
Andy

________________________________
From: Don <don at napanet.net>
To:
North Bay British Car Club <nobbc at autox.team.net>
Sent: Wed, May 23, 2012
5:25:57 PM
Subject: [NOBBC] British car show in Woodland Calif.

This might
appear in the Octagon MG Club newsletter.  Haven't heard 
back from the editor
yet.

Since all my MGs are in various states of (dis)repair, I drove my '01
Miata to the Woodland British Car Show.  The 90 degree ambient 
temperatures
and the 90 mph speeds on Interstate 80 may have added to 
the appeal of
driving the Miata.  This is the same Miata that failed 
to get me to the big
MG show in Reno.  Today it performed flawlessly 
as one would expect a newer
Japanese car to do.  But the thrill of an 
MG it doesn't provide even though
it's a modern imitation of a 
classic British sports car.

I brought my camera
and notepad as usual.  As I arrived at the 
fairgrounds, the first British car
I saw was an MGTF attempting to 
enter the fairgrounds on the wrong entry
road.  I later found out why 
the driver was a bit confused as to how to get
into the display 
area.  He had left home for the car show at 4:30 that
morning and was 
on the road for four hours in that TF.

A beautiful Morgan
greeted me when I first walked into the car 
display area, and it was the
first photo of the day.  I met my friend 
Pat, and we toured the swap meet
area.  Dave Laughlin was there with 
his van of interesting parts for sale and
his dog keeping him 
company.  Selling parts next to Dave's display was a
former 
enthusiast who had abandoned the hobby five years ago, and was
liquidating some of his accumulation of parts.  I bought a NOS Lucas 
voltage
regulator still in the box for $10.  What a score!  He told 
me that after 30
years of owning and driving and working on British 
sports cars, he had
decided to change hobbies.  He said he is a 
surfer now and drives to Santa
Cruz from Sacramento in his Honda van 
to ride the waves.  He said he was glad
to have a hobby that didn't 
skin his knuckles and expose him to dangerous
chemicals.

There were very few T-series MGs at the show, and the one TF that
I 
saw driving in was the only TF at the show.  But what a TF it was.  I 
own
a TF myself and can now recognize some of the details which 
distinguish an
ordinary car from a show winner.  This TF belongs to 
Grant Ross of Carson
City.  He has not owned it that long and told me 
he bought it sight-unseen
from its prior owner in 
Pennsylvania.  Grant relied on the pedigree of the
car as it had won 
AACA contests and they have very exacting standards.  He
didn't come 
right and say it, but I think he paid around $30,000 for this
car.  Seeing its detailing, I would say he did well on this purchase. 
When it
arrived by truck, he must have been delighted when he first 
saw the car. 
Being a TF1500, it has a bit more power than the 1250 
model, and he told me
it has had a modern 5-speed installed for 
better highway cruising.  It had a
frame-off restoration in 2007. 
Even the tires are period correct Dunlop bias
ply which he said were 
old but never used.  The four-hour drive was from
Carson City, 
Nevada.  And when I left the show Grant said he was going to
drive 
home again that afternoon!  He has more courage than I have!

Bruce
Blair must be the ultimate Morris Minor enthusiast.  He also 
drove down from
Carson City.  With help from his family, he was 
displaying three Morris
Minors and a Minor Junior pedal car.  Bruce, 
wearing a factory-authorized BMC
white shop coat, appears in the 
photograph beside his Minor 1,000,000.  These
little lavender Minor 
saloons were the special commemorative cars that marked
the milestone 
1,000,000 of Morris Minor production.  BMC made a total of 350
of 
these unusual coloured cars, and Bruce's car is one of only 21 that 
were
exported to North America.  Bruce told me that his Morris 
collection consists
of 12 1000s, 1 1000000, 1 MM (the split-window 
model), two Minor trailers,
and two pedal cars.  I told Bruce that I 
gave up on Minors after I nearly
died in one.  I once was very 
enthusiastic about Minors myself, and had just
purchased a '67 Minor 
sedan that had been sitting for some time in western
Marin 
County.  With a new battery and a bit of work, I had it running and
thought I could drive it home.  As I was going down a very steep, 
winding,
and long hill that descends into the Napa Valley, the brakes 
failed, the
transmission failed, and the emergency brake cables 
broke.  I was able to
drive it into the hillsides on curves to scrub 
off speed.  Closest I have
come to dying as I am sure I was going 
about 60 mph by the time I reached the
last curve at the bottom of 
the hill.  But those cars do handle well and I
survived without 
killing myself.  However, I did sell that car and my other
Minors and 
have not considered buying a Minor again.

I saw few Mk 1 MGBs at
the show, but Brandon Augustine's Mk 1 was a 
standout among all the MGBs. 
Brandon told me that he has owned his 
red B roadster since 1986, and that he
and his dad restored it over a 
five year period ending in 2005.  This red '67
roadster was very 
pretty with silver wire wheels and detailed engine
compartment.  Brandon told me that the car was sold originally in 
Walnut
Creek, but was stored in a container from 1972 to 1986 prior 
to his
purchasing it.  I commented that there were few enthusiasts 
his age involved
with this hobby, and he said that none of his 
friends had old British cars. 
Brandon, who is 41, lives in Napa, and 
I had seen the car parked in St.
Helena where he works but I didn't 
know its owner until now.

The '51 Allard
of David Rossiter's was a standout at the show.  Red 
and outrageous, sporting
a Cadillac 331 OHV V8, an Allard like this 
must have really been the ultimate
blend of hot rod and sports car in 
its day.  David said that an original
Allard only weighed 2,300 
pounds, and had a top speed of about 140 mph.  His
car was purchased 
from a museum collection.  I liked it a lot.

Having owned
four MGB GTs, I was captivated by Carl Biagi's '72 B 
GT.  It was located in
the Winner's Circle as it won Best of Class 
last year.  Carl told me he had
purchased his GT in 1974, and had 
used it originally as a daily driver.  The
restoration was lengthy; 
taking the better part of a decade, it was at a
paint shop for seven 
years.  Being a mechanic, Carl did all the other work
himself.  This 
car was outstanding.  I have seen few B GTs that were this
well 
detailed.  He even retained all the smog equipment, so that it looks
like a car in an MG showroom in 1972.  About the only modification to 
the car
I could see was wheels that were period alloys.  But on the 
wheels were
correct 20-year old Michelin XZX tires.  We shared MGB GT 
stories, as I had
just sold my '73 which I had owned for 25 years.

Unfortunately, an MG show
took place on the same Sunday in Danville, 
and this did have an effect on the
numbers of MGs at this 
show.  There were only four MGAs here.  The last photo
I took as I 
left the show was an MGA Twin Cam coupe which must be one of the
rarest of MGAs.  According to the book Original MGA, only 323 MGAs of 
this
configuration were manufactured.

Out in the parking lot was another red Mk 1
MGB roadster that should 
have been displayed inside and I snapped a photo of
it.  Parked in 
what little shade there was my Miata  and next to it was a
fibreglas 
Austin Healey replica that was also leaving.  I asked the Healey
replica owner why he didn't display his car, and he said he didn't even ask.
Last photo is of a 1950 Ford convertible barn find that I checked out 
on the
way home in the foothills of Napa.  This car needs a lot of love.
https://picasaweb.google.com/104973305347633073496/Woodland2012 
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