[Spridgets] Watkins Glen experience

Bud Osbourne abcoz at hky.com
Tue Sep 9 06:46:46 MDT 2008


Arrived home from Watkins Glen, last night.  My son and I had a
fantastic time, as expected.  This year, I decided to take our '72
Midget (in spite of a differential pinion seal leak), instead of my
Porsche 356B coupe, since the weather was forecast to be pretty nice, in
general, with only one "rain day".  While the Midget is a very tight fit
for my 6'2" son, and all of our "stuff" (except for beer & coolers,
which we bought in Watkins Glen), the car was an absolute delight all
weekend, in spite of the starter solenoid crapping-out, totally, for the
trip home, yesterday.
If you look very carefully at the photos in the upcoming Classic
Motorsports article on the Triumph celebration, you may see my Midget in
the background.....it was the only MG "authorized" to be in the Triumph
compound, near the pedestrian bridge at the entrance to the front
straight (I'm a member of one of the sponsoring Triumph clubs).  
A couple of interesting stories:
The teenage daughter of the B&B owner, where we stayed, was quite
smitten by the Midget, and totally ignored the TVR 2500M and Miata of
the other guests.
On the return trip, my Midget inspired an upcoming '67 Sprite
resurrection.  Yeah, that's right.  You see, one of our local Triumph
club guys, driving an extremely nice TR-8, was so impressed with how the
Midget ate up the back roads we were traveling on, as well as how well
it went in a straight line ("Is that engine STOCK?"  Me: "Yes"  Him:
"Man, that thing really screams") that he has made the decision to take
over the stalled restoration by and of his son's '67 Sprite, so that he
can get back in on the fun, again (he's a former Spridget guy from the
60s).
Fuel economy: between 32 & just under 36 MPG all weekend.  Like I
mentioned; stock 1275, but a Jeff Schlemmer-restored distributor ensures
that the spark occurs at the correct time, and a BMC Special Tuning LCB
header, and an Abarth muffler (for an MGB) allow exhaust gases to exit
easily.  It's a very "happy" engine and has been together for 25 years.
Crank, rods, & pistons are all original, and really required nothing
when we "freshened" the original engine 25 years ago this summer.
Even after (or should I say "especially" after) those 25 years, I would
feel very comfortable with driving that Midget "any where, any time".

Bud Osbourne


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