AUGUST 2015 ÂŁ3.50
Volume 59
Number 08
inside this month MGCC_SF_August15_Covers.indd 1
THE MARQUE OF FRIENDSHIP My 1949 MG Y Type Saloon Part 2 MGLive! 2015 Report Competition 60 at MGLive! MG2015 in Niagara Falls 24/07/2015 15:27
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CONTENTS
Frank Horsley with his 1950 MG TD on Copse Runway at Silverstone surrounded by a sea of MGBs during MGLive! 2015. Photo: Gill James
Inside
this
issue
August 2015
18 Our MGs Adam Sloman’s 1973 MGB GT
20 BTCC 2015 Report from the Croft round
23 My 1949 MG Y Type Saloon Part two of Neil Wakeman YA Restoration
30 MGLive! 2015 Report on the MG Car Club’s Premier Event MGLive!
34 Competition 60 at MGLive! Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the BMC Competitions Department
58 Action packed Silverstone grids make MGLive! a resounding racing success
Regulars 7 9
Editor’s Welcome
Martin Price reports on the Silverstone action
63 Luffield Championship
A summary from Andy Knott
From the Chair
Club Matters from Bill Silcock
10 News
Classic Central classic motor car auction company and more
12 Kimber House News 25th Anniversary of the opening of Kimber House
14 Products and Book Reviews
The latest products in the world of MG
16 Postbag
Members have their say
28 Event Report
MGCC South West Centre MGs at the Bristol Classic Car Show 2015
56 Race Torque
MGLive! roundup and looking ahead to the rest of the season
62 MGs on Track
Croft… and my addiction to Castrol R!
www.mgcc.co.uk
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Latest news from the MGCC Luffield Speed Championship
64 Events Calendar
MGCC events taking place in August and September
66 Out and About
Photos from MG events from around the world
68 Overseas Review
Safety Fast! keeps tabs on the overseas action
70 Overseas News
MG 2015 in Niagara Falls
72 Centre Updates
News from the MGCC Regional Centres
82 Register Updates
News from the MGCC Registers
92 Looking Back
A selection of snippets from the MGCC archives
Newsletters 37 Midget Newsletter Future events, Lackford Engineering Midget & Sprite Challenge – The season so far, Lake District Tour and more
42 MGB Newsletter UMD 534F – 1968 London to Sydney Marathon MGB, Fifty Years have Passed and more
47 V8 Newsletter V8 awards at MGLive!, Tour of Churches near Watlington, Repairing the gear lever dust cap on the RV8 LT77 gearbox and more
52 FWD Newsletter FWD Register at MGLive!, The BMC & Leyland Show and more
93 Classifieds
Cars and Spares offered for sale
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PLEASE NOTE: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS ARTWORK IS THE PROPERTY OF CLASSIC CARS FOR SALE MAGAZINE. Presents two sales of classic motor cars, to be held at the Bedford Autodrome on: - Sunday 6 September 2015, at 1:30pm, and OR OTHERWISE NO PART OF THIS ARTWORK MAY BE REPRODUCED, STORED - Sunday 8 November 2015, PRIOR also atPERMISSION 1:30pm USED BY ANY OTHER PUBLICATION UNLESS IS GIVEN BY THE PUBLISHERS - © MS Publications (2001) Ltd. Located within 60 miles of London, Oxford and Peterborough and equidistant to both the M1 and A1, this is your ideal opportunity to either fetch a good market price for your classic motor car, or buy into something which is fast becoming an ideal combination of both lifestyle and investment.
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reserve the right to charge for any alterationw: to this proof which e: We cars@classicscentral.co.uk http://www.classicscentral.co.uk is a departure from the original copy
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WELCOME
The official publication of The MG Car Club Incorporating ‘The M.G. Magazine’, ‘The Sports Car’ and ‘Brooklands Track and Air’, Safety Fast! Copyright MG Car Club 2015 Editor: Andy Knott 01235 849730 / 01235 555552 andyknott@mgcc.co.uk Deputy Editor: Colin Grant 01235 849733 colingrant@mgcc.co.uk Editorial Committee: William Ball, Dennis Wharf, Colin Grant, Victor Smith Regular Contributors: Alwyn Morgan
Andy Knott
Words from
Editor
PR and Communications: Lauran Gallacher 01235 849735, Adam Sloman 01235 849731 Advertising: Hine Marketing 01452 730770 Published by: Hine Marketing, Hill Farm Studios, Wainlodes Lane, Bishops Norton Glos, GL2 9LN. Tel: 01452 730770 Printed by: Precision Colour Printing. Haldane, Halesfield 1, Telford, Shropshire TF7 4QQ Tel: 01952 585585 President: John Day Vice Presidents: Ron Gammons, Don Hayter, Peter Best. Chairman: Bill Silcock Vice Chairman: Ian Quarrington. Treasurer: Richard Colston Directors: Dave Saunders, Paul Plummer, William Ball, Peter Skipper, George Wilder, Richard Martin. Company Secretary: Colin Grant Staff Members: Julian White (General Manager 01235 849732), John Hutchison (Competitions Secretary 01235 849738), Andy Knott (01235 849730), Liz Allsworth (Membership Secretary 01235 849734), John Inness (Exhibitions 01235 849737), Colin Grant (01235 849733), Lauran Gallacher (01235 849735), Adam Sloman (01235 849731) and Kim Oshea (Finance Officer 01235 849736) Honorary Members: Michael Allison, Ron Gammons, Peter Best, Don Hayter, John Quenby, Sir Stirling Moss, Paddy Hopkirk, Norman Ewing, Rob Oldaker, Steve Hanegan, Gerry McGovern, June Wallis, Ann Hawke, John Dutton, John Day. Company limited by guarantee The Club, as a corporate body established as the MG Car Club Limited, is a company limited by guarantee. Every member of the Club undertakes to contribute to the assets of the Club in the event of its being wound up while he is a member, or within one year after he ceases to be a member, for payment of the debts and liabilities of the Club contracted before he ceases to be a member, and the costs, charges and expenses of winding up, and for the adjustment of the rights of the contributors among themselves, such amount as may be required, not exceeding one pound. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information at the time of going to press, neither The Publisher (herein referred to as Hine Marketing), the Editor, nor the MG Car Club can accept any responsibility or loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in the publication. The opinions of authors are their own and Hine Marketing, the Editor and the MG Car Club are not bound to agree with opinions expressed herein. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Safety Fast! and The MG Car Club badge are protected through trademark registration in the UK and in the foreign countries where Safety Fast! circulates. Readers are warned that if they attempt any mechanical or other modifications or methods referred to herein, they do so at their own risk and no liability will attach to the MG Car Club, the Editor nor Hine Marketing. Neither shall the MG Car Club, the Editor nor Hine Marketing have any responsibility for the accuracy of the content of the editorial, neither the content of any advertisement published in Safety Fast! It should be CarCar be noted notedthat thatneither neitherHine HineMarketing, Marketing,the theEditor, Editor,nornorthetheMG MG Club make any any recommendation recommendationininrespect respectofofany anygoods goodsand/or and/orservices services advertised or to to or featured featuredininthis thisissue. issue.ItItisisthe theresponsibility responsibilityofofreaders readers satisfy themselves themselvesthat thatthe thegoods goodsororservices servicesoffered offeredororreferred referredtotoareare bona fide and Car and ininno noinstance instanceshall shallHine HineMarketing, Marketing,the theEditor EditorororthetheMG MG Club be held responsible for theforquality or suitability of anyofsuch Car Club be held responsible the quality or suitability anyitems. such items. The MG Car Club, Club, Oxon, OX14 1FF Kimber House, POThe Box MG 251,Car Abingdon, Kimber Tel: House, PO 251,Fax: Abingdon, OX14 1FF 01235 Box 555552 01235Oxon, 533755 Tel: 01235 555552 Fax: 01235 533755 E-mail: mgcc@mgcc.co.uk www.mgcc.co.uk E-mail: mgcc@mgcc.co.uk www.mgcc.co.uk If visiting The MG Car Club using Sat Nav If visiting The MGuse CarOX14 Club using please 1AS Sat Nav please use OX14 1AS
www.mgcc.co.uk
MG Safety Fast August15 03-46.indd 7
On July 15 1990 thousands of people descended on Cemetery Road for the opening of Kimber House, the permanent home of the MG Car Club. Exactly 25 years later, to the day, the MG Car Club invited a selection of the Classic Car Press to Kimber House to view just some of the artefacts on display and to sample a few of MG’s finest motorcars, ranging from the Club’s own 1953 YB to a 2015 MG6. The journalists arrived mid morning and were excited at sampling the MGs assembled before them. I must thank Great Escape Classic Car Hire (01527 893733) who kindly bought along an MGB, MGB GT and MGF, Colin Grant who provided his MG TF 160, Tanya Field with her MG Maestro 1600, Simon Bennet and his brother who allowed their MG ZT 260 and Supercharged Midget to be used, MG Motor who provided an MG3 and MG6, and finally Frontline Developments (01235 832632) who bought along one of their stunning Abingdon Edition MGs. We had a couple of routes for the journalists to try, both taking in some of the test route that the factory used to use: the smaller route following the factory route that was used up until the late 1940s and the longer, 26 mile route taking in the old factory V8 test route. The smiles as the journalists jumped in the cars said it all, with the Maestro being the first car off on the test run, closely followed by the Y Type which had a minor issue a few miles up the road; a quick adjustment of the points and it was back off and happy for the rest of the day, all part of the fun with MG ownership! It was a great day with all enjoying themselves and the cars, and not forgetting the reason why they were invited, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of Kimber House. Keep your eyes peeled as I’m sure plenty of photos and write ups will be appearing in the Classic Car Press. For all you MGF and TF owners, don’t forget the big event being held at Gaydon on August 1-2 to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the MGF, tickets are available on the gate. More information is available from www.mgf20.info Until next month, drive safely
@mgcarclub
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JUST R IGHT AUTOS Oxfordshire’s MGF/TF Specialists We are now proud to announce that we are Xpart dealers and can supply PARTS to Trade or Retail % 5 2
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27/07/2015 12:42
FROM
THE CHAIR
Bill Silcock
Club Matters from
Elsewhere in Safety Fast! you will find the notice of the Club’s Annual General Meeting on October 24; this will also be the date of the autumn MGCC Council meeting. As you know all the various elements of the Club – the Centres, Registers and Branches – meet at these twice yearly Council meetings, where there are reports from the Club Officers and from Kimber House. The Council also gives direction to the Chairman and the Executive Committee, as we are the servants of the Council in managing the overall day to day activities of this very diverse organisation. As chairman I am always happy to have a few club members along as observers to find out more about the way the Club works, so if you wish to come along just let Kimber House know and I’ll arrange an invitation. When you join the club or notify us that you have changed your location significantly your details will be passed to your local Centre: there are 12 of these covering the whole of the UK. Since some of the Centres
cover a wide geographic area, if you live close to the border between two of them it can be worth asking to change to the adjacent centre if the latter puts on more events near you. They all run pub meets and runs in their local areas, where you can join others to enjoy your MG motoring. If you tell us what car, or cars you have or update us when you acquire a new or classic, or even vintage, MG we will notify the appropriate Register for that car so you get access to all the knowledge and expertise for your particular car. The Register may contact you for further details about your car, and most Registers run national events specifically focused on your type of car. They all run websites accessible through the MGCC website in the first instance. Both Centres and Registers have their own organising committees and are always looking for enthusiastic helpers, whether experienced or not, to make things run smoothly for their members.
For the more sporting minded MG owner there are a number of branches, and some Centres also run their own sporting programmes. These range from track days with MGs on Track, through autotests and autosolos, and sprints and hill climbs in our Luffield Speed Championship, to full circuit racing – run by our own race committee – in which we have a number of seasonlong championships and series. We can do all this because we are a Motorsport Association affiliated Club and we have a dedicated team of enthusiasts who give up substantial amounts of their own time so that others may enjoy their motorsport. Every year at the AGM the Officers of the Club – that’s Chairman, Vice Chairman and Treasurer – stand down and offer themselves for re-election, as do one third of the Executive Committee by rotation. Therefore the management of the Club is always accountable to our membership, and working in the best interests of everyone.
“Well, he can’t argue with that, can he?”
www.mgcc.co.uk
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NEWS NEWSLETTER
MG Car Club Anglia Centre Notice of Annual General Meeting to be held on Saturday September 12 2015 at the Limes Hotel, Needham Market, Suffolk, IP6 8DQ starting at 14:00 Agenda: 1. Apologies for absence. 2. Approval of the minutes of the last AGM. 3. Matters arising. 4. Chairman’s report. 5. Secretary’s report. 6. Treasurer’s report and adoption of accounts for year ending December 31 2014. 7. Election of Officers. 8. Election of Committee. 9. Any other business. Michael Murkin – Anglia Centre Secretary Phone: 01702 478476 Email: secretary@mgccangliacentre.org.uk
Notice is hereby given that the 2015 Annual General Meeting of The MG Car Club Limited will be held on Saturday October 24 2015 at Sophos Ltd., The Pentagon, Abingdon Science Park. Commencing at 16:00 Agenda 1. Apologies for absence. 2. To approve the minutes of the AGM held on November 8 2014. 3. To receive the Financial Statements for the year ending December 31 2014 together with the Reports of the Directors and Auditors thereon. 4. To elect the Chairman of the Club for the coming year. 5. To elect the President of the Club for the coming year. 6. To elect the Vice-Presidents of the Club for the coming year. 7. To elect the Vice-Chairman of the Club for the coming year. 8. To elect the Treasurer of the Club for the coming year. 9. To elect other Directors of the Club. 10. To transact any other ordinary business of an AGM that may properly be considered. There will be an open forum following the close of the AGM. Every member has a statutory right to appoint another person as his proxy to exercise all of his rights to attend and to speak at a general meeting of the Club. Please note that only the elected CRB Representatives have the right to vote at such meetings on behalf of members. Issued by Colin Grant Company Secretary
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Classics Central Classics Central is a classic motor car auction company founded and run by BritishAustralian Justin Lazic, owner of the Lazic Classics sales and restoration company. Justin’s passion for classic motor cars is already well known throughout the UK and having been a regular on the auction scene for some time, he is well placed to understand the ‘magic’ required to connect motivated buyers with motivated sellers of quality and collectible motor cars. Classics Central’s first sale is on Sunday September 6 2015 at the Bedford Autodrome. Their second sale, at the same venue, is on Sunday November 8 2015
– with both sales commencing at 1.30pm sharp. Justin’s design brief for the auction company is concentrated on chrome-bumper, collectible motor cars from all makes in addition to some modern classics. Justin would love to hear from club members regarding their requirements, or any questions they may have about the auction process in general (see advertisement later in this issue). For all enquiries, please contact Central Classic Auctions: Freecall, on 0800 122 3335 (even from your mobile). email: cars@classicscentral.co.uk www.classicscentral.co.uk
David John Miller 1940 – 2015 David Miller, lifelong MG enthusiast, MGCC member for over 40 years and personal friend for 50 years, passed away on May 30 2015 after a long battle with cancer. Originally from Chichester, David started his career as an engineer in the Royal Navy and later moved to the West Country to take up employment as a Ship’s Engineer in Cable Laying ships. In 1965 he moved to Harrowbarrow. He soon became friends with the late Peter Moores and me, who were trialling Ford Populars at the time. David was quick to inform us of the success MG had enjoyed in the 1930s competing in reliability trials. His enthusiasm for the marque was so strong Peter and I were persuaded to change allegiance from Ford to MG. Through his MG connections David located an MG J2 which was for sale. Peter bought it and campaigned it successfully for many years. I purchased
an MGTC and with Colin Bird in his MGJ2 we formed The Tamar Trio Trials team. David had quite a collection of MMM cars at this time and enjoyed spending time in his workshop tinkering with them, rather than actually driving any of them. He was very knowledgeable about the quirks and intricacies of the MMM OHC engines and became known locally, affectionately, as the walking ‘Blowers Manual’. Due to failing health in recent years he and his wife Ann returned to their native Sussex. David will be missed by all that knew him, and we are sad he is no longer with us but pleased to have enjoyed his friendship, knowledge and enthusiasm for MGs. Alan Davis
Magnette Register 2015 AGM Venue: Oatlands Mount Club, Coronation Grove HG2 8BY (this will be a stopping point on the Harrogate weekend scenic run) Date: Saturday August 8 Time: 3pm Agenda 1. Apologies 2. Minutes of last AGM
3. Matters arising 4. Officers’ Reports 5. Election of officers and committee (all existing officers are willing to stand again) 6. Any other business Any apologies or nominations (with the agreement of nominees) should be given in advance to the secretary Clive Webb, tel. 01905 821115 or cdwebb@waitrose.com
SVW Register 2015 AGM Notice is hereby given of the AGM of the SVW Register to be held on August 8 at 6pm at Chichester Park Hotel, Westhampnett, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 7QL Agenda: 1. Apologies for Absence 2. Approval of the minutes of the AGM held
on August 30 2014 3. Matters arising 4. Reports 5. Elections to the Committee 6. AOB Nominations for candidates for the committee to be sent to John Dutton jwdutton@btinternet.com at least 24 hours before the AGM
www.mgcc.co.uk
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NEWS NEWSLETTER
Social News Media Kimber House Back to Abingdon
25 Years since the opening of Kimber House.
Sunday July 15 1990 must go down as one of the greatest weekends in the history of our club, as it was the day of the formal opening of Kimber House at 12 Cemetery Road, by Lord Montagu. So much happened at Abingdon in the four days from the Thursday before, when Stuart Turner, Paddy Hopkirk and Donald Morley set the scene in the Amey Hall with two hours of virtually nonstop reminiscences of their BMC Competition days, to the Sunday itself. Over the few days the weather itself could not have been better and our many friends from the New England ‘T’ Register with their 89 cars must have wondered at times about the stories they had heard of English summer weatherl The atmosphere throughout was one of excitement, pleasure, satisfaction and friendship with frequent touches of emotion, such as the moment when Norman Ewing from South Africa presented a plaque for Kimber House which in its inscription said simply ‘Welcome Home’. It is difficult to estimate how many club members and friends were present at the opening, there were well over 1,000, possibly as many as 2,000, but the organisation of the day went superbly. Despite concerns about bringing Abingdon to a standstill and getting Lord Montagu to what was then RAF Abingdon so that he could get to the Grand Prix at Silverstone later in the day, everything went like clockwork.
Round Up
Following the biggest MG event of the year, MGLive!, the social network sites were buzzing with feedback and photos. The Facebook site carried a gallery of photos from the event, with people busy tagging themselves and talking about the event. If you missed it don’t worry, we’ll do it all again next year! During July the countdown was on to the MGF Register’s event being held at Gaydon on August 1-2 to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the MGF, and also the ZR/ZS/ZT Register’s Saloon Day held mid July. The social media sites were dominated with photos of saloons, from Maestros to ZT-Ts and MGFs and TFs eager to participate in the MGF20 event. One of the more unusual photos posted on the MGCC Facebook wall that received a lot of likes and shares was that of project EXF, the specially prepared MGF that took to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1997 to record 217.4mph, an incredible achievement from a 1.4 litre, turbocharged K-Series engine developing a whopping 329bhp! In July we published a photo of the opening of Kimber House on July 15 1990, exactly 25 years after the event. It was great to see people reminiscing about the day over the various social media platforms. Here’s to the next 25 years....
F: www.facebook.com/MGCarClub T: @MGCarClub I: @MGCarClub
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Untitle
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06/07/2015 18:15:3512:43 27/07/2015
PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS
Tap Socket Set from Laser Tools When cutting new threads or even chasing and cleaning existing threads, the traditional T-piece type tap holder can be awkward to manage and keep straight when working in cramped on inaccessible conditions. This tap socket set from Laser Tools (part number 6058) enables the use of standard 1/4” or 3/8” drive ratchet handles, extensions and other accessories to grip and hold the tap and greatly increase accessibility. The sockets are manufactured from chrome vanadium for strength and are magnetic to hold the taps securely. The square-section sockets are sized to fit commonly used taps: the four 1/4” drive sockets are 1mm, 2mm, 3mm and 4mm; the
ZA/ZB Disc Brake Conversion from NTG Now back in stock with improved alloy hubs; bearings and oil seals now included: ZA-ZB disc brake conversion (shown assembled but supplied as a kit for both sides) £660 inc VAT. Alloy hubs available separately for disc brake MGA: £115.50 each inc VAT. For more information contact NTG Motor Services Limited, 282-4 Bramford Road, Ipswich, IP1 4AY. Phone: 01473 406031. Email: info@ mgbits.com. Website www.mgbits.com Eurax - Scratch Repair Stick by Du Pont Eurax Ltd is now stocking the remarkable DuPont™ Pro-Fusion Color™ Scratch Repair Stick. The Scratch Repair Stick is the fast repair for scratches, nicks and dings in your car, bike and boat or other painted surfaces with a clear coat finish. The DuPont™ Pro-Fusion Color™ Scratch Repair Stick is the instant finish fixer that fills in scratches in the clear coat finish. It is easy to get a professional looking scratch repair at a fraction of the cost of a traditional car body shop repair. First ensure that the surface is clean, then gently run the pen along the scratch... and watch it disappear! The clear fluid in the pen has the same refractive index as the clear coat finish, so as it fills the scratch it reflects the colour of the base paint below and the scratch becomes almost invisible. Only a light touch is required, however if you do apply too much and get a ridge, there’s no need to worry. You only need to wait until it dries and then polish the area to blend the ridge into the surrounding surface. DuPont™ Pro-Fusion Color™ Scratch Repair Sticks retail at just £9.95 each including VAT. Order directly from Eurax Ltd, or from one of their dealers. Visit www.euraxltd.co.uk to find a dealer near you.
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four 3/8” drive sockets are 5mm, 6mm, 7mm and 8mm. Supplied with a handy socket rail to keep them secure in the tool box. The technician will find this set really useful in restricted access conditions. Terrific value and available now from your local Laser Tools supplier, the tap socket set is typically priced at £22.74 (+ VAT), but remember to check for the best prices and special offers. More details from www.lasertools.co.uk
MGs, The Mini, and Me Dudley Pike ISBN 9781508778516 Price £9.99 for the paperback edition or £1.99 for the Kindle edition from Amazon.co.uk There have been many books written about the BMC/BL Competitions Department based at Abingdon. To date these have been factual accounts of the cars or the events entered, but give little insight into what it was like to work on the shop floor or be lying on your back servicing the cars during an event. Dudley Pike has provided that insight – and more – in his autobiography ‘MGs, The Mini, and Me’. The book covers the first 65 years of his (sometimes colourful) life starting with growing up in the Abingdon area, through his school days leading to a five year apprenticeship at MG, where he experienced every department of MG including the Competitions Department. Dudley continued to work in the Competitions Department until its closure in October 1970, bringing to an end his employment with BMC and BL. After spell working for Cherwell Motors, a Rootes dealership in Oxford, and setting up a car preparation company, he moved to Eyles and Coxeter in Oxford who were a Triumph dealership, and part of a larger group handling BL products, Chilton Motor Holdings. After BL reorganised its franchises in the Oxford area, Dudley made another change of direction and joined Citroen UK at Slough, becoming the UK Fleet Manager, a position he held until he retired. A move to Spain led to other business opportunities in the Spanish property business when at its height, which culminated with brush with Spanish law. At this point the story ends in 2008 – for the moment! Although perhaps not the best written book you will ever read, it is a story full of anecdotes enriched by his travels around the world. For me though, it is the lengthy chapter devoted to BMC and BL Competitions Department in which he worked from the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally won by Timo Makinen in a Cooper S through to the Marathon de la Route with the brutish Rover P6, which is an insight I have not had from other books. If you expect a lot of detail about BMC competition cars and the events they competed on you will be a disappointed reader. However its real strength and value lies in its open and honest description of life in ‘Comps’ and the wider aspects of the motor industry. Pete Cresswell Have a New Product Are you a trader and have a product that would be of interest to our members, and would like us to incorporate it in the product pages of Safety fast! Why not contact Colin Grant at colingrant@ mgcc.co.uk and include details of the product you would like us to include, it’s free!
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S
BOOKFEATURE REVIEW
Book
Reviews Barrie’s Notes Maintaining an MGBGTV8 in the 21st Century Many MGB enthusiasts have enjoyed reading the tips and advice on maintaining an MGB in a neat A5 sized 82 page book called Barrie’s Notes written and illustrated by Barrie Jones. It sold well through the Club’s online shop. Barrie has now produced a new book of his notes for the MGBGTV8 with useful information and tips on maintaining the model. Publication has recently been launched on the V8 website and copies are available on the Online V8 Shop. Barrie Jones is very well known to V8 enthusiasts for his fascinating series of reports of a major rebuild of an MGBGTV8 he found parked behind a garden shed which featured on the V8 website a few years ago. Those reports were an eye opener for many V8 enthusiasts and in 2013 Barrie brought the car to MGLive! for display in the V8 Marquee where it attracted a great deal of interest. The book highlights useful information on the V8 engine – threads, corrosion, cylinder heads, the rocker shafts and hydraulic tappets, oil pressure and engine mounts. He touches on ethanol in motor fuel and the undesirable effects on rubber fuel hose and the absorption of water, particularly when a car is stored over winter. His coverage of ignition components and maintenance are helpful and he concludes his car
is noticeably smoother and more responsive since fitting an electronic ignition package. Ten pages of notes on the gearbox and overdrive are good although he recommends removing overdrive on third gear but recognises others feel it is an attractive feature, but one that needs to be used carefully. His coverage of electrics on a V8 ends with some suggested modifications – the popular replacement of the sealed beams with a halogen upgrade, a relay on the twin horns to overcome difficulties with the horn push mechanism, rerouting the twin cooling fan wiring to a spare terminal on the alternator and adding a blade fuse, and upgrading the single speed heater fan to the later two speed spec. There is no mention of the benefits of a single 12 volt battery conversion to replace the original twin six volt arrangement and no mention of the addition of a simple blade fuse on the overdrive circuit to the solenoid. He covers suspension and brakes well including brief comments on modifications like anti-tramp bars, castor reduction and rear anti-roll bars. The book ends with 12 pages covering some well-illustrated concerns over the structure of the car and corrosion of the chassis and body based on his experience of two major rebuilds involving cill replacements and more. The appendices including three pages with the V8 wiring colour codes and combinations and a very useful fault diagnosis checklist over two and half pages. They are both likely to be of practical use for most owners at some stage. It’s a book written in an informed but modest style with a wealth of useful information and tips – an essential book. Softback pp82 with over 22 photos.
How to give your MGB V8 power Veloce has published a softback version of the revised fourth edition they had previously released as an e-book in June 2014. This will be welcomed by many MGV8 enthusiasts as a printed version is so much easier to browse as a reference source. Roger William’s book has been regarded as the authoritative guide to V8 conversions for many years, but the revised edition incorporates useful updates and clarifications. The content covers the enhanced range of engine and suspension options that are now available and the consequent performance increases. The 224 pages are generously illustrated with good photos and diagrams throughout. It continues to be a book of real substance with an intelligent approach to thinking through the range of options and strategic issues you will need to focus on and weigh up at the outset when planning a V8 conversion of an MGB – for example what car will you use and what engine and gearbox combination do you need? But it also has a wealth of useful detail too on cooling, suspension and electrics. The Buick-Rover aluminium V8 engines are still the easiest to install in the MGB and there are few cars you can transform so easily.
The transformation on fitting a 3500cc 200bhp engine produces a 100% increase in power without an increase in weight or front-torear balance. Since the first book was first published some 20 years ago 3900, 4200 and 4600 engines have been produced offering the prospect of quite startling performance in an MGB. So an early chapter acts as a guide to the radical changes needed to transmit increased power outputs to the road and provide safe roadholding and handling. The suspension options for the MGB have undergone major development over the last 20 years, not least from the spin-off from RV8 production, but also with the availability of the popular Hoyle suspension upgrades. They are described mentioning their useful features front and back, not least the ability to fit independent rear suspension and disc brakes using readily available Ford UK parts and even a Sierra LSD. Roger Williams emphasises you need to think in terms of compatible front and rear suspension combinations. Braking capacity requirements will depend on your choice of powerplant and the wheel size may be determined by a need to accommodate larger brake callipers and discs. Supplies of 15” Minilites and recently the attractive all-alloy 15” Dunlop composite Factory V8 look-alike wheels from Clive Wheatley are convenient choices. Softback pp224 & over 500 photos £45 UK US$70 ISBN 9781-845848-33-0 Victor Smith
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POSTBAG FEATURE
Checkpoint Charlie Sprite What an amazing photo of a Mark 2 Sprite on page 68 (Overseas Review) of June issue of Safety Fast!. I was in Germany in August 1976 and spent a day in East Berlin via the famous Checkpoint Charlie. They had a small museum of escapes, which included this car. I remember the steel panel at the rear of the boot and, in particular, the colour – Riviera Blue, same as my own much loved 1966 Midget. I wonder if the Sprite survives? Nigel Pratten NSPCC at MGLive! This is a thank you to all those who came to the NSPCC bookstall in the Lifestyle Marquee at Silverstone. You bought many books which enabled us to pass on £367.57 to the NSPCC. In the 50 years that I have been raising money, the aid it gives to children who need special help has had to change. The NSPCC is dedicated to protecting children who are being abused. The NSPCC phone-line 0808 800 5000 and Childline 0800 11 11, which is now part of the NSPCC, are both manned 24 hours a day by highly skilled staff, and are very busy. In the last few years, helpers have visited preparatory schools to join staff and educate children about inappropriate behaviour. The teachers are often aware very quickly in a change in children’s behaviour. Specially trained staff can offer help by visiting the homes where a problem has been found. Again a sincere thank you for your help, your contribution does make a difference and every childhood is worth fighting for, and I hope that you enjoy the books that you bought. June Wallis President – Knowle and Dorridge Committee
The MG Y Type It pleases me to see the continued interest in the Y Type which in the past has perhaps been underrated but now gets the attention it rightly deserves. I have owned a Y Type for 13 years, use it regularly and it is most enjoyable to drive with its independent front suspension (ifs) and rack and pinion steering. The car has never let me down on the road and this is a tribute to its reliability. I enjoyed Neil Wakeman’s article on Y Types in the July edition of Safety Fast! and look forward to the next installment.. Neil mentions that Gerald Palmer ‘was responsible for the body styling’ which was based on the Morris Eight Series E Saloon but this is not entirely true. Gerald Palmer was not responsible for the body styling. In Gerald Palmer’s privately published book ‘Auto Architect’ he mentions that a myth has arisen saying that he was responsible for styling the Y Type body whereas in fact it was designed in the Nuffield Offices at Cowley. Gerald Palmer however was involved pre war with the pre production models of the Y Type (the MG 10) in designing part of the front cart sprung axle layout. As is well known, in the event the production models incorporated the independent front suspension designed by Alec Issigonis and Jack Daniels. I believe it is true that the Y Type still remains the only car that involved both Alec Issigonis and Gerald Palmer although the latter’s efforts were not incorporated in the production cars. Francis Smith and Y6658 (GJB 576) Changes to the UK driving licence Have just received my June issue of Safety Fast!. Must take issue with you about the paper counterpart to the driving licence Page 10. Do not destroy the paper counterpart, this situation only applies to the UK. I drive a lot in Europe using hire cars. Anyone going to hire a vehicle abroad, especially in Europe, would be well advised to take the counterpart with them. The smaller countries of Europe do not have the ‘Big Brother’ computerised system we have in the UK, especially where local hire companies are involved. For the next few years at least you may well be refused a vehicle if you cannot produce the counterpart. Mike Williams
The MG ZT-T 260s I read, with great interest, the article about the MG ZT 260 in the June issue of Safety Fast! and noted the listing of the first and last chassis numbers. I thought I should write, just to add to the information listed. The listing for the very first MG ZT-T 260 (VIN 000004), although being correct, this is the MG that the factory stripped and rebuilt using Land Rover Freelander 2.5 V6 4WD running gear and it never left the factory as a V8! This MG ZT-T was destined to be called ‘Countrywise’ (?) and would’ve launched sometime in 2005, if MG Rover had survived. So, by my calculations, the first MG ZT-T 260 still existing is VIN 000014 (the already mentioned Rousch MG ZT-T 385) or, if you look at straight MG ZT-T 260, then VIN 000015 which is a straightforward MG ZT-T 260 (if there is such a thing!). Lastly, just to clarify, MG ZT 260 and Rover 75 V8s were all built together and so the VINs are all mixed together! Hope that adds to the interest? John Newey
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The MG ZT-T with a 2.5 V6 and 4WD running gear.
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OUR MGS
Adam Sloman’s
1973 MGB GT Adam’s Dad bought this BGT new in 1973 – it introduced him to the world of MG. As the BGT prepares to celebrate its 50th birthday he was determined to get the car on the road and ready for MGLive!.
A
sk someone to think of an MG and the chances are they’ll immediately think of the B – as perhaps the most popular MG produced it’s easy to dismiss the B as being the common MG, the default choice. To me though, the MGB is the most
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important car MG produced, well one B in particular – my 1973 MGB GT. A little over 40 years ago my Dad walked into Pikes of Exeter, the then BL dealer (now the site of a swimming pool) and bought his first MG. It wouldn’t be his last since in the following years he would
own a B roadster, a Midget, a brace of Metro 1300s and a Metro Turbo. As a child growing up I was surrounded by MGs, but the blaze BGT remained a constant. I vividly remember my Dad showing me how to check the oil and water, to check the oil in the dashpots
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OUR MGS
– I was fascinated with the car. Summers were soundtracked by ELO or Dire Straits – the only two tapes in the car – plenty of memories were made in that car. Dad knew how much the car meant to me and as I approached driving age we would often joke about how I was going to claim the BGT as my own – amidst the jokes though he made a promise to me that one day the car would be mine. A decline in health meant that Dad found the B increasingly difficult to drive, meaning the car spent more and more time in the garage, tucked up and hidden away from the world, bar a brief run in the summer of 2012, which ended with me coming home on the back of a recovery truck. Sadly, in October last year, I lost my Dad. As 2015 dawned I came to Abingdon and joined the Car Club and I became increasingly determined to get the BGT back on the road – especially as this year marks the BGT’s 50th birthday. Rolling the B out of the garage for the first time was a pretty emotional experience – despite being laid up for over two years, the car moved freely and
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thankfully the clutch hadn’t seized. Feeling lucky, I hooked up a battery booster, poured in some fresh fuel and climbed in. Turning the key one notch I heard the all-important ‘tick tick tick tick’ of the fuel pump, pulled out the choke and turned the key. It turned and turned but refused to fire – why did it come home on a lowloader again? One of the beauties of the B is it simplicity, so I checked for a spark and sure enough there was a decent spark from each plug, but despite that, it still wouldn’t start. Wracking my brains I remember it being low on power and generally a bit miserable before it gave up the ghost back in 2012. Frustratingly, the B was still in Devon, while I was working in Abingdon, meaning that I was running short on time and any work I could do on the B would be limited to the occasional weekend when I could get to Devon. MGLive! was less than five weeks away and I had a BGT that didn’t run and had no MoT. I was going to need help. Serious help.
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BTCC FEATURE
Croft
By Paul Goodman Photos Dickon Siddall
C
roft Circuit, near Darlington, was an airfield where bombers were based in World War Two. The original circuit incorporated the main runway, but this is no longer used for racing. The current circuit is L shaped with some very fast sections along the long sides, but a very tight hairpin on to the start line straight. There is a very short run from the grid to Clervaux, the first corner, which has a large gravel trap to catch out any driver going off track. The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car championship makes an annual trip to Croft and arrived over the weekend of June 27 and 28. The three races would be the last before the long summer break. The new success ballast and second race starting grid rules had resulted in a very tight championship. Only 33 points covered the top five drivers before the start of the weekend. The race debut of Nicholas Hamilton attracted a substantial national media presence to the circuit. The two 888 MG6 drivers, Pirtek’s Andrew Jordan and Jack Goff arrived at Croft still looking for their first wins. The Honda Yuasa Team had drawn slightly ahead in the Manufacturers Championship at Oulton Park and so the young MG drivers were focussed on being ahead of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden in the Hondas. Star driver at Oulton Park had been Jason Plato driving the VW CC. As championship leader he would carry maximum success ballast for qualifying and race one. Some of the teams had been testing at other circuits before Croft, but none of them had been there since the races in 2014 and so had no experience with the new medium compound tyre and the additional weight. As usual, two free practice sessions were made
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available to the teams to fine tune their cars before official qualifying. It soon became clear that the characteristics of the circuit suited the rear wheel drive cars. Most of the teams concentrated on long runs to test the deterioration rate of the tyres rather than setting fastest times. Unlike at Oulton Park, very few times approached the previous qualifying record. The two 888 MG6s circulated consistently with times inside the top ten. The start of the qualification session was delayed and when the cars finally took to the circuit there was a yellow flag incident before significant times could be recorded. The BMWs proved to be the class of the field with three out of the first four grid slots, Sam Tordoff finishing just ahead of Andy Priaulx. The two MG6s did not have enough speed. Jack finished eighth and Andrew tenth, giving them a lot of work to do in race one, both to secure good points and a fast lap in order to grab better grid slots for race two. Jason Plato fared even worse, ending the session outside the top ten. Race one (round 13) started with drizzle in the air. Jason Plato drove his VW CC into the pit lane at the end of the green flag lap. He opted to take no points and to try for a good grid place in race two. Leaving the pit lane after the start, he secured third fastest time and the removal of the weight penalty from his car. The race was dominated by the West Surrey BMWs with Andy Priaulx passing Sam Tordoff to win the race. Rob Collard passed
Gordon Shedden resulting in an entirely BMW podium, a first for the BTCC. Andrew made progress finishing sixth with Jack, using the soft tyres, slipping back to tenth. Neither MG6 driver was able to set a lap time sufficient to secure a top ten start in race two. The 888 MG6 drivers were unable to make any progress in race two. Sam Tordoff scored another win for BMW with the VW CCs of Jason Plato and Colin Turkington making up the rest of the podium. Jack just finished in the points in tenth place, but Andrew slipped down to 14th over the last couple of laps as his soft tyres lost grip. The race three draw resulted in Rob Collard on pole position in his BMW with the 888 MG6s in tenth and 14th, the finishing places of race two. Both Jack and Andrew were using the medium tyre and were hoping to make progress as drivers with cars shod with the soft tyres lost grip. Sadly the race didn’t go well. Andrew was involved in contact with another car which damaged the suspension. The 888 Team replaced the broken component, but he wasn’t classified as a finisher. Jack fought hard amongst a pack of cars to finish a credible eighth. The race was won by Rob Collard meaning that each of the BMW drivers took a race win. Going into the mid-season break, at the halfway point of the Championship, Gordon Shedden leads Jason Plato by ten points. Andrew is in sixth place, 39 points behind with Jack in tenth. The Honda team’s lead over MG in the Manufacturers Championship has increased.
www.mgcc.co.uk
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FEATURE
My 1949 MG
Y Type Saloon Part 2
Following on from last month’s article Neil Wakeman, from Victoria in Australia, continues his restoration story of his Y Type concentrating on the engine, interior and Jackall system.
The Jackall system in operation.
Engine Rebuild The engine that came with the car is its matching number original, always a desirable attribute for a committed car restorer. The Y’s power unit was based on the 1,140cc overhead valve engine used in the Morris 10/4 Series M. This version was coded XPJM (M for Morris). The MG version (coded XPAG – G for MG) was increased to 1250cc and a single 1¼ SU carburettor was fitted to the Y Type. This engine type was used in the TB, TC, TD and early TF Midget sports models, with performance enhancements including twin carburettors and a modified camshaft for the Midgets. The same basic motor was used for the Wolseley 4/44 and was coded XPJW (W for Wolseley, of course). The motor is a conventional four
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cylinder, push rod engine with no really special features. Parts to rebuild the motor are readily available from local MG specialists or general parts suppliers. MG T series cars are still being restored in large numbers around the world, so there are still plenty of suppliers. The engine was machined locally and reassembled by the owner, a self-confessed amateur, who has managed to produce a sweet sounding and strong pulling motor. The engine went through a full rebuild – the crankshaft was crack tested and machined, the block was rebored, camshaft reground, new pistons, rings, bearings, valves, guides, seals were fitted, along with hardened valve seats to enable the use of modern fuels. XPAG engines are notorious for leaking
oil out of the rear main seal, and stopping those oil leaks is almost impossible. Some specialist machine shops have developed a ‘fix’ for this problem, but this additional work was not undertaken on Y3498’s engine. It was leak free for the first few weeks, but has now gone the way of almost every other
After assembly, the engine was painted MG red, matched to a sample of paint that was taken from an original engine component.
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FEATURE
The interior, in a beige colour as per original, looks stunning and is a credit to the motor trimmer.
XPAG, and leaves a drip or two wherever it goes (or at least it did, until a little drip catcher was fitted recently). The engine was originally fitted with a disposable steel cased oil filter, now no longer available. A couple of different adapter kits are available from overseas suppliers to enable the use of a modern oil filter. Working from an article on a UK TC owners’ website, Y3498’s owner modified one of the original canisters to take a disposable filter, which when painted looks almost original. After assembly, the engine was painted MG red, matched to a sample of paint that was taken from an original engine component and a formula listed on the MGY website. Subsequently it was discovered, from the MGY ‘Bible’ (an out-of-print book called ‘Let There Be Y’s’, by David R Lawrence) that the engine in Y3498 perhaps should have been a grey-green colour, but Lawrence acknowledges that it might also have been dark red. The top of the gearbox was removed and the gears closely inspected without being dismantled – it looked to be in good condition and it was decided to ‘take a punt’ on it being OK, so it was closed up again and installed as is. MGY gearboxes are very robust and this one has proved to be quite good in service. MGY gearboxes also had an inbuilt problem. In a rather quaint letter, the MG Car Company advised a complaining customer in April 1952 that “All MG 1½ litre gearboxes are susceptible to what we call a slight rattle, more so on the overrun than the drive, particularly when the gearbox oil is warm. There is very little that can be done to
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FEATURE
eliminate this unfortunate rattle, but you have our assurance that it is due to synchromesh rattle and the gearbox is not likely to give you trouble.” The end! What would modern consumer affairs laws make of that? Interior The MGY featured a luxurious interior for a small car of the era, with leather faced seats, plush carpets and lots of real wood described as being ‘in the best British tradition’. The windscreen, sunroof and door windows are framed with solid timber of uncertain origin – different sources have described it as either walnut or mahogany. Fortunately for the owner of Y3498, all the complicated wood trim pieces came with the car and only needed sanding and revarnishing to make them like new again. The pieces that were missing were relatively easy to remanufacture. The dashboard is a very handsome component, made from ½ inch thick ply and veneered in burr walnut. Instruments are set onto one part of the panel, in front of the driver. Although the instruments are circular, they are set behind MG style octagonal openings, with chrome plated edging. Unfortunately the original dash was beyond repair. The plywood from which it was fabricated had delaminated, and the veneer was missing in many places so the owner, a keen woodworker, set about making a new one. The original panel was cobbled together with glue and body filler to make it suitable for a pattern. A new pattern was then made, on a home workshop router table, from 19mm MDF (particleboard) and that was in turn
finessed with body filler until any remaining defects were corrected. The MDF pattern was then used to cut a new dashboard from marine ply, again on a router table. The new plywood dash was veneered in burr walnut, which was then sealed with polyurethane and polished. The interior of the car was trimmed by Jim Lobb, proprietor of Abingdon Trimming, based in Marysville, Victoria. Due to the high cost of leather, the decision was made to re-upholster the seats in quality UK vinyl which looks and feels very much like leather, anyway. West of England pure wool material, also imported from UK, as fitted originally, was used for the headlining. An extra feature is a rear window blind which is controlled by a draw cord running along the roof line to a position above the driver’s door – we’re not sure of the purpose of the blind, presumably it’s there to block out the glare of headlights of a following car, or perhaps for privacy for a canoodling couple occupying the back seat. Before Jim could start work on the trim, it was necessary to make and fit wooden battens that are secured inside the all-steel body shell, to give him something to which to tack the trim. This was another challenge as the car’s owner did not have access to a car with the wooden bits exposed, so the battens needed to be cut and fitted using an excellent little ‘how to’ book published by the UK Y Type Register, and a large dose of common sense. Jackall system Another interesting feature of the Y Type is an inbuilt jacking system which lifts the car
In the car, the dash setup, with its matching veneered fascia rail, certainly looks very British – and is real wood!
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The engine was originally fitted with a disposable steel cased oil filter, now no longer available. A couple of different adapter kits are available from overseas suppliers to enable the use of a modern oil filter.
a couple of inches off the ground to enable a wheel to be changed. The system consists of a hand operated pump mounted on the firewall, and four inbuilt hydraulic rams, one adjacent to each wheel. The pump has a system of valves, to enable the two front wheels to be raised, or the two rear wheels to be raised, or all four at the same time. The Jackall system was not unique to the Y Type – it was made by an English firm, Smiths Industries, who supplied their equipment to many manufacturers of better quality British cars of the period. Unfortunately Smiths is no longer in business and spares, such as hydraulic seals, are now hard to source, making the restoration of the Jackall system another time consuming part of the restoration project. There are so many interesting features on a Y Type that it’s difficult to explore them all in a short feature article. Some of these are ‘throwbacks’ to an earlier time, whilst others are quite advanced for a car that was, in effect, designed in the late 1930s. At the top of the list is the ground breaking front suspension arrangement which gives a very comfortable ride. The rack and pinion steering is light and responsive, quite unlike other classics of the time. Other ‘dinky’ features include semaphore arms controlled by a rotating switch in the centre of the steering wheel. A clockwork motor inside the switch cancels the semaphores automatically after about 20 seconds. Restoration of this delicate apparatus was another challenge as the components are made from Bakelite which, after 65 years, is very brittle. The Y is fitted with a single Lucas FT57 driving/fog light mounted behind the front bumper, to the left of the radiator. This light is
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FEATURE
wired through the car’s lighting system and cannot be switched on unless at least the parking lights are in use. The car’s windscreen is hinged at the top and there is a winder on the dash, to open it outwards at the bottom, for ‘flow through’ ventilation. It also has a sunroof as standard equipment, a centre arm rest for the rear seat passengers and four individual ash trays, one per passenger! Y3498 is fitted with 1940s Ace Rimbellisher wheel trims, which were a popular accessory of the period, and came with the car. These particular trims are original and are a testament to the quality of a product made 65 years ago – the chrome plating is still in excellent condition, with just minor pitting that can only be observed on very close examination. Challenges Whilst an MGY is no more difficult to restore that any other car, there are still quite a few challenges for the restorer. The first of these would possibly be the range of odd (by 2013 standards) bolts and threads used throughout the car. BSF threaded bolts, which are becoming quite difficult to source, were used throughout. The engine has oddball metric bolts with Whitworth heads (said to be a hangover from the 1930s when Morris purchased engines from France, and ordered them with different heads because Morris factories already used Whitworth spanners!) A set of Whitworth tools is an essential requirement for a restorer of these, and other Nuffield vehicles of the period. The crown wheel and pinion seems to be unique to the MGY. Morris 10 components can be used but the gearing is different, with one more tooth on the crown wheel – the Morris has 37 teeth, the Y has 36. In a practical driving sense, the difference would probably be barely noticeable. The ash trays in the rear of the front seats also seem to be unique to the Y – made originally from Bakelite, most are by now cracked and broken and it’s a fortunate owner who has a pair of ashtrays in good original condition. Any that do come up for sale on the internet are snapped up quickly. The owner of
The rear blind operated by the driver via a cord.
Y3498, with the assistance of a friend, has made some exact replicas, cast from two part plastic in a silicone rubber mould, and these look like the real thing when painted dark brown to resemble Bakelite. On The Road For its age, the Y is surprisingly lively for a car weighing just under 1,000kg unladen and powered by a 1¼ litre engine. Performance figures provided in the official Nuffield maintenance manual says the Y will accelerate from 0 – 40kph (24mph) in 7.5 seconds, 0 – 80kph (49mph) in 18.8 seconds and 0 – 100kph (62mph) in 29.5 seconds. Maximum speed claimed is 115kph. Contemporary independent road tests show similar results. Fuel consumption is listed as 8.5 – 10.5 litres per 100 kilometres. Brakes are quite effective, but care needs to be taken when jousting with modern traffic. Ride is quite comfortable and the car tracks and corners nicely, albeit with some body roll. Seating position is reasonably comfortable although the back rest leans back too far for this driver’s taste. The
individual bucket seats can slide forwards and backwards but the back rest is fixed and therefore not adjustable for rake. Summary In its day, the MG Y Type was universally praised by the contemporary motoring press. The Motor, for example described it as “A well-equipped small car coupling high quality and refinement with brisk performance”, views shared by other motoring journalists of the period. The MGY still enjoys a strong following, with dedicated owners around the world. Of the total production of 8,336 Y Types made (of which 6,151 were Ys as opposed to Tourers or YBs), the International MG Y Type Register has currently traced the records of 3,193 (38%) of them (1,254 or 20% of the Series Y), including many that have been scrapped over the years. The site also has a photographic record of 289 Y(A)s, including 93 in Australia, and can be located at www.mgytypes.org. Neil Wakeman (Owner/restorer of Y3498) Jackall system, showing the pump with handle, distribution box (marked “Front”, “All”, and “Rear” to enable the operator to select which wheels are to be raised) and the fluid reservoir, with associated copper piping.
The Jackall system control knob.
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REPORT
MGCC South West Centre
MGs at the
Bristol Classic Car Show2015 O
nce again the South West Centre had four cars at the Bristol Classic Car Show held at the Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, over the weekend of June 13-14 2015. We arranged to have four cars on the stand, which was themed as the pit garages from pre-war Le Mans. This was a successful show as two of the cars were awarded trophies and as usual, lots of people were asking about our MGs. The four cars were: • 1934 MG NA Magnette Special • 1953 MG TF Midget • 1958 MGA 1500 Coupe • 1972 MG Midget ‘Road Going’ Sprint and Hillclimb Car The MG NA has been owned by Graham Finch since 1974, when he purchased it as a kit of parts and a chassis. The parts moved around the country with Graham for 30 years before embarking on the re-build as a semi-retirement project. The mechanical parts were refurbished, all worn items such as springs and bearings replaced. The engine was re-bored and new white metal bearings
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cast to fit the original but reground crankshaft. Modern lip seals have been introduced where possible and updates, including electronic ignition and fuel pump, and an electric cooling fan, to improve reliability. A modern MGB overdrive unit has also been fitted to enhance driveability in today’s traffic. The bodywork was fabricated from scratch in the style of the J2/F2 series by Steve Gilbert of Egham. As it is not the original body style it is therefore now classed as an NA special. The car is used for MG touring events, fine days out and has been to the 24hr Le Mans races in France. At the show, the car won the Best Pre-War Car Class, Runner-up Trophy. The MG TF is owned by Malcolm Reid who purchased it from the estate of the late Michael Nokes in April 2015. Michael had owned the car since 1987 and Malcolm was given an extensive folio of documentation with the car. Michael Nokes was not a ‘Concours fan’ as such, believing that the older MGs should be kept in similar condition to when they left the factory, and as original, with such main items as the
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engine, gearbox, back axle and bodywork as intact as possible; of course things do wear out, perish etc. such as hose pipes/wiper motor, water pump/fuel lines and gaskets. Michael Nokes used the car from time to time, including the Regency Run, Beaulieu, Cotswold tours, local rallies and fetes. Living on the edge of the New Forest (with its ideal 40mph speed limit) allowed him the chance to potter about in beautiful surroundings or down to the coast, with the chances of a stop off at a good hostelry for refreshment. The MGA Coupe was purchased by Dave Jacobs in August 2005 as an abandoned restoration project, with body tub loosely bolted to chassis and many of boxes of bits. The previous owner advertised the car, stating that ‘most of the hard work has been done, and it just requires finishing and painting’. This claim proved to be rather optimistic as there was much rust covered up with patches pop riveted in place, and Dave therefore decided to go for a full restoration. Extensive work and repairs to
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the body and engine mechanicals resulted in a 10 year project with the car finally on the road in April this year. The car was taken on as a project for Dave’s retirement and although he had not previously tackled such a major restoration, he tried to do as much of the work himself in a not too spacious home garage. Certain jobs, such as the final spraying, wheel refurbishment, re-chroming, carburettor refurbishment and engine parts machining were contracted out to professionals and some credit must go to them for the finished article. At the show the car won the Classic Sports or Convertible Trophy, being judged the best Sports Car at the show. The MG Midget was purchased by the second and current owner, Rob Griffiths in December 1974 after being inspired by a friend competing at an MG Car Club Autotest. The car has been used competitively ever since, always as a ‘roadgoing’ car. First events were club Autotests, Gymkhanas and Trials, then progressing
EVENTS
to 12-car Rallies, it has even competed at the Weston-super-Mare Sand Racing on a couple of occasions but salty sand is not good for cars! The Midget has also raced at Silverstone and Castle Combe a few times. More recently it has been used in the MG Car Club Luffield Speed Championship, and was first in class (road-going up to 1500cc) MGCC Luffield Speed Championship in 2014. The car has been progressively modified over the years. It had a bodywork rebuild around 30 years ago due to an incident with a herd of cows: one tried to jump over the bonnet but didn’t make it! It is currently behind schedule on a major rebuild including body refurbishment and new engine. Hopefully it will be ready for the latter part of the season and a bit faster, as it is now sporting a 1380cc race engine (Peter May) on 45DCOE Weber, large bore stainless exhaust, uprated and lowered springs, with telescopic shock absorbers and runs on 5x13 Minator alloy wheels shod with Yokohama A048 tyres.
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MGLive! 2015
Photos by Gerard Hughes, Martin Cumming, Mick Edward, Andy Knott and George Woodward
by Colin Grant
T
his year we were celebrating several anniversaries at Silverstone during MGLive! with the MGA celebrating 60 years since its introduction, the MGB GT celebrating 50 years, the MGF celebrating 20 years and the Abingdon Competitions Department celebrating 60 years. The Saturday morning of MGLive! started with light drizzle later turning to heavy rain, but that didn’t put people off with queues forming at the main gate, eager to start their MGLive! weekend. The sight before them as they entered the Silverstone circuit was of 100s of MGs filling the infield area. Many camped in the two camping areas which were presided over by Lech Zakrzewski and fellow members of the MGCC Midland Centre. Once parked, many headed to the
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Ex-Works Competition Car display with 50 historical cars to look at, consisting of Minis, Austin Healeys, Triumphs, Morris Marinas, Rover V8, Riley and of course MGs, it was quite a sight. All these cars were prepared courtesy of the Competitions Department which was formed at the MG Plant in Abingdon 60 years ago. There was also a separate display of cars in the Competitions Marquee which at 1pm on Saturday held a photo shoot with posing drivers and mechanics from the golden era. Jimmy Cox, a well-known works mechanic who
went with the successful MG record breaking team to Bonneville Salt Flats in 1959, and was also part of the MG team who went to Le Mans in 1955, said he ‘thoroughly enjoyed his day, particularly meeting old friends whom he had not seen for years’. Also on display was a replica of the Transporter that accompanied Jimmy to Le Mans in 1955, painstaking restored by MG enthusiast Doug Samuels. This was in company with a later BMC transporter owned by Paul Woolmer. After viewing the Competition car display, many people headed for the track where they were entertained by a 300 strong racing contingent who enthralled the crowds with some very close racing on the Silverstone Grand Prix Track. This year we welcomed the Porsche and Austin Healey Clubs, who ran races from their series, together with individual invitations to those who drove various makes of cars in the All Comers 50 Minute Pit Stop Race. In the paddock the XPAG Specials
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continue to impress; a display was put on, showcasing these excellent cars, some of which took to the track. There were three main Grandstands open to the public, with many vantage points around the track to view the racing. The Sprint, which was run by David Rainsbury and fellow members of the North West Centre, was held on the Stowe Circuit on Sunday morning. This was well subscribed this year with 110 entrants. Andy Walker recorded the fastest MG time of day in his MGB V8 (see separate report for more details on the racing and sprint). On Saturday morning the California Cup Autotest, which was run by Neil Lock and fellow members of the South West Centre, was held in car park 49, with 22 participants. This year the prestigious California Cup was won by the Lincolnshire Centre, with the Midget Register winning the BMC Autotest Trophy. This year we held circuit tours on both days where members were given the
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opportunity of driving their own cars on the Grand Prix circuit. A separate tour was held on Sunday to parade cars celebrating anniversaries this year. This was officiated by Noel Lindford with help from fellow members of the Tyne Tees Centre, who did a great job in signing on entrants and organising the line-up of cars before the tour commenced. Our supported charity this year was Dementia UK, with representatives on hand to answer questions and raise funds for their charity. Collection buckets were dotted around the show area with over £1,000 being collected over the weekend for this deserving cause. The arena was as popular as ever with Graham Robson compèring. Our special guests this year were Mike Brewer of Wheeler Dealer fame hosting a human Gymkhana, and Russ Swift demonstrating his spectacular driving skills. Also performing was the Savage Skills freestyle mountain bike stunt display team. As part of their Anniversary, a group of MGFs was displayed in the arena followed by a group of MGAs, with Graham giving details of the cars as they entered. Many people took time to visit the various marquees including the main Club Marquee where Registers and Centres had displays. The theme this year was a day at the races, with some very innovative displays. The Midget Register and the Caledonian Centre must get special mention as their displays were outstanding, with the Caledonian Centre
CALENDAR
winning the best Register or Centre display award and being presented a prize by Heather Read of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. The Lifestyle Marquee had a busy weekend with the 19 stands doing brisk business. June Wallis, wife of former Club President Bill Wallis, who together with helpers ran the NSPCC bookstall in the Marquee, was able to pass on a donation of £367.57 to this very worthwhile charity. The centrepiece of the Lifestyle Marquee
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REPORT
was an MGA which was restored in the last series of ‘Wheeler Dealers’. This caused great interest with people marvelling at the quality of its restoration. Trade City, which surrounded the marquees, was well supported this year with many members seeking out that elusive part. MG Motor had a display of their current range of MG3 and MG6 cars, and were actively showing people round the cars and taking bookings for test drives. A representative of MG said they were extremely pleased with the interest people had shown in the cars and were kept busy all weekend. Other attractions were the ever popular Concours and Pride of Ownership competition, run as efficiently as ever by Dave Tynan and fellow members of the Anglia Centre. Thirty-eight pre entries this year together with entries on the day meant it was well supported, with organiser Dave Tynan saying that the standards have been as high as ever making it very difficult to choose the overall winners, who were Mick Richardson with his MGC winning the Concours and John Newey with his SVR winning the Pride of Ownership. The Saturday of MGLive! was rounded off with two social events. The first was the President’s International
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Dinner, hosted by Club President John Day, and the second a Hog Roast held in the Social Marquee. The President’s Dinner, which was well attended, was a formal dinner held at the Silverstone Golf Club, with a three course meal followed by speaker Dani Ingold who kept those attending highly amused. This was followed by the presentation of the Gold Cup, which this year went to the V8 Register, and an auction was held with £365 being raised and donated to Dementia UK. The hog roast was well attended, and the live music being played in the Social Marquee by Red and Gray soon had people up on their feet dancing. During the evening the Glo Car competition was held and this was
won by Pro – Mike Dennis: MG Express, and Impro – Wayne Bates: MG Maestro. With Sunday’s weather being dry and sunny, people were able to enjoy the day’s proceedings without having to take cover from the rain. With another full programme of events taking place the weekend ended on a high with nothing but positive comments coming from people as they left the circuit for their drive home. A word of thanks must go to the band of volunteers who attend each year and make this great event possible, together with the members of the Kimber House staff, but thanks also to those of you who attended and we look forward to doing it all again next year.
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Competition 60 at MGLive! by Mike Taylor
T
he notion to combine the annual MG Car Club festival, MGLive! with a celebration of the Competitions Department first came to fruition ten years ago when some 15 or more exworks cars were put on display at the two day MGCC event in 2005. It was clearly appropriate to do it all again in 2015. Originally conceived by MG’s General Manager, John Thornley, the BMC Competitions Department grew out of the embryonic Experimental Department based at Abingdon. Under the control of Marcus Chambers a recipe of talented drivers, such as Pat Moss, the Morley twins, John Gott and many more, and talented mechanics, all supported by Engines Branch at Longbridge the department quickly flourished and by October that year they already had five cars capable of 100mph with which to campaign on international rallies. By the early 1960s, Stuart Turner was in the hot seat and the ‘Big’ Healey and the mighty Minis were the cars of the moment, the department’s reputation growing exponentially. Essentially, links between the drivers, co drivers, mechanics and all those involved with the Comps Department have continued down the years with a bi-annual dinner, which has proved invaluable for keeping everyone in touch. This year acknowledges the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the BMC Competitions Department and overtures were made to the MG Car Club to combine in creating the biggest ever event of its type, to take place at Silverstone over the
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weekend of June 20-21. Plans began being orchestrated early in the year involving the MG Car Club, ex-Comps Manager Peter Browning and Homologation expert and the Competitions Department’s own Boswell, Bill Price. “We had no fewer than 13 ex-works Minis lined up on the tarmac and seven BMC and BL comps cars, including and one of the last Austin Healey 3000s, a TR8 and the Hopkirk/Crellin 1968 Monte Mini Cooper S in a marquee,” says Bill Price proudly. “We only had one mechanical fatality when the engine on one of the Minis expired en route.” “It was great to see so many of my ex-works cars at the Show,” grinned Brian Culcheth. “There were seven of my old rally cars on display.” It was certainly enthusiasm, too, that encouraged Peter Bartram, one of the exalted ex-Abingdon mechanics, to fly over from Australia for the dinner and attend the Silverstone show. Sadly, while the best laid plans were created to structure the day, weather conditions could not be scheduled and Saturday’s rainfall resulted in a soggy celebration when a mid afternoon deluge made for interesting and demanding conditions on the race track. Around the parking areas, glistening MGs of all denominations were lined up alongside other fascinating cars from the MG/Triumph/BL lineage such as one of the London-Sydney Marathon ‘Land Crab’ 1800s and the Andrew Cowan Triumph 2.5PI
from the World Cup rally two years later. Meanwhile, back in the Comps tent drivers and co-drivers like Paddy Hopkirk, Brian Culcheth, Mike Wood and Jack Sears mingled with the crowds and obliged with their much rehearsed autographs, at one point all the luminaries gathering round the ex-works Austin Healey for that all important photo call. As contradictory as ever, Sunday’s weather conditions improved considerably for the fans, many of whom had come from mainland Europe to bathe in the aura of Abingdon. MG Car Club Assistant General Manager Adam Sloman remarked, “It’s been another brilliant weekend for the Club.” “Even the closure of the factory in October 1980 did not stop activities in the Comps Department, we remained operational until the following June when we moved to Cowley,” recalls Bill Price ruefully. Indeed, if there is a measure of the event’s success it must surely be that there were rumblings of organising a similar ex-works BMC/BL get together next year. Clearly, there is no shortage of enthusiasm.
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NEWSLETTER MIDGET
Neil Thomas Tel: 07891 684435 email: ns.tenby@hotmail.com www.midgetregister.com
Midget Newsletter
Welcome to the
David Southcott’s splendid Mk2 MG Midget
So far it’s been a great summer with plenty of dry sunny days and opportunities to get out and use our cars. My Spridgets are in constant use and I particularly enjoyed the drive up to MGLive! this year. I was there to give a hand on the BMC timeline and on the Midget Register stand and camping on the site over the weekend, which gave me a chance to meet up with old friends and meet new people. One of these was David Southcott who was parked next to me on the campsite. David had brought along his splendid red Mk2 Midget. Whilst only having owned it for two months or so he was very proud of the car and had already put 917 miles on the clock. He described it as being very original with no welding or mods and with its original engine and documented mileage of just 58,708 miles. Then whilst helping on the timeline on the Saturday morning I took a photograph of an unknown ‘Bracken’ Midget entering the Register parking area. I thought it might be a useful picture for one of my monthly notes and didn’t think any more of it until I saw it parked in the Pride of Ownership area on the Sunday morning, one car down from my own. Speaking to the owner I discovered it to be Mike Starmes and his wife from Cambridge. Mike has owned the car from new and once he retired he spent some time restoring it back to its former glory. The result is a beautiful detailed Midget,
Dave Hunt and Alistair Scobbie with their Zetec and K series powered Midgets
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so much so, that it won the Pride of Ownership. Congratulations Mike. Well deserved and a pleasure meeting you. Indeed the PoO this year was well supported with eight Midgets taking part in the competition and demonstrating very high standards. This made it very difficult for the judge, Mike Authers, to decide on the overall winner. Thank you to those who entered. The cars drew a great deal of attention. Participants took it very seriously.
Last minute cleaning for the MGLive! Pride of Ownership competition
The Midget Register stand in the main marquee MGLive!
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Neil Thomas Tel: 07891 684435 email: ns.tenby@hotmail.com www.midgetregister.com
MIDGET NEWSLETTER
Midget Register parking area at MGLive!
Register Chairman Mike Parker with the BMH Midget. I particularly like his racing boots.
Mike Starmes heading to the Midget Register Parking at MGLive!
Working on the stand in the marquee is always a pleasure as it provides an opportunity to meet fellow enthusiasts and the stand this year was very well done I thought, courtesy of Dave Storer. The theme for the Register stands in the Marquee this year was racing and so Dave had obtained a photograph of a Midget
Silverstone Sprint
race at Silverstone in years gone by and had printed this on to a very large screen. To add reality he had acquired some armco barrier and other racing items which he placed in the foreground and this was complemented by the British Heritage racing Midget kindly brought along One car in the Register Parking by Dave Savidge. It made a area even growing hair on its bonnet! Who can guess what’s great display. going on here? The Midget Register parking area was well supported with a variety of different years displayed. Of course, in the background was the sound of Midgets racing around the track. Conditions on the Saturday were very difficult with heavy rain but provided exciting racing. The Sunday saw a great battle in the Lackford Engineering M&S Challenge between Paul Sibley and James Dunkley in their class A Midgets. James Dunkley won the race in the final moments with a lead of just 0.097s. A very well done to the Midget Register team that entered the California Cup this year and won the BMC Challenge Trophy team prize. This was a fantastic effort and well done to the team consisting of Ken Waylett, Dave Storer and Barry Goodban.
For some Midget owners at MGLive!, getting on track is one of the major draws of the event and if you don’t have the time to prepare a race car, then sprinting is the next best thing. Using the Stowe circuit at the far end of the Silverstone complex, the MGCC Silverstone Sprint attracted a good spread of Midgets, from standard road going 1500s to K and Zetec engine Midgets. Although the 1500 engine has always had a bad press for motorsports and might not sound as sweet as a standard 1275 at high revs, it does offer bags of torque to make it really competitive in the standard road going class where the only mods allowed are a change of air filter and exhaust manifold. In this Sprint, the group one standard Midgets were all 1500cc cars. This may be partly due to their plentiful supply at more modest prices than the chrome bumper A series cars. After some fast runs, the Midget Register’s champion from 2014, Ian Beningfield, came out on top. Other Midget classes were class two modified road going Midgets, class three where major modifications to car and engines are allowed and class four where nearly anything goes, including engine swaps to more modern engines. If you want to see what the Stowe circuit looks like from the hot seat of a fast Midget, search on YouTube for David Hunt and see a lap in his Zetec powered car. The winning Midget Register Autotest team
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NEWSLETTER MIDGET
Neil Thomas Tel: 07891 684435 email: ns.tenby@hotmail.com www.midgetregister.com
Wheel bearings
Lackford Engineering Midget & Sprite Challenge – The season so far
After one of the closest finishes ever seen in the Lackford Engineering Midget and Sprite Challenge at Silverstone the championship is still wide open. Andy Southcott has a slender lead overall, not helped by his retirement two laps from the finish with a broken drive shaft. James Dunkley and Paul Sibley crossed the line as one, the result going to Dunkley by a few hundredths of a second. It was even closer in class D with Richard Wildman and Chris Southcott separated by thousands of a second. Great racing was seen all through the field and during the entire race no paint was exchanged, though no prisoners were taken during the course of the battles. In the classes Paul Sibley leads class A, Andy Southcott Class B and overall, Richard Perry class E and John Bridge class D. The support for class C has tailed off during the last couple of years, as I think drivers are looking for more speed for their money. With the advent of GoPro on board cameras, there are some fantastic onboard films available on You Tube, in particular Pippa Cow and Richard Perry and others battling to the line at Donington Park, and Pippa’s first class win at Silverstone after a race long fight with Richard Perry only ending when Richard had fuel supply problems. (He ran out of fuel!) Next meeting is at the Croft Historic Festival with HSCC on the August 8-9, the first time we have raced with the HSCC. Thanks to our championship sponsor Robin Lackford for his hard work organising this. This should raise the profile of the championship to the level we all want. Tim Storrar, Championship Co-ordinator
Register Chairman’s notes
The Register send their congratulations to Midget racer James Dunkley and Karen Smith on their engagement after his first victory on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit during MGLive! in the Lackford Engineering MGCC Midget and Sprite Challenge. This act stole the headlines in the motoring magazines and the classic weekly papers the following week. As I understand it, the wedding date is fixed for September 26 2015, so well done to you both. As you can see from other reports on MGLive!, the Midget Register had a good weekend at Silverstone winning a cup in the Autotest, enjoying the Stowe Circuit during the Sprint, and having more cars than normal participating in the Pride of Ownership and Concours. Also, I must thank the Midget Register Committee who helped in various ways on both days. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Next year we must sort the rota out for the Register Stand in the main marquee so Peter and Rob do not spend so long on the stand without a break!
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If you are about to change your front wheel bearings, then take a look at the articles on the Midget Register website forum. There is an in depth description of how the bearings stack up and the importance of the bearing spacer. In the past, the correct clearance bearings have not been available, with the consequence that modifications to the spacer have been made to get the free play on the wheel to an acceptable MOT level. If then fitting the correct spec bearings, this can result in the new bearings having too much end float. Also some of the currently available bearings do not have the correct inner radius, some do, so look carefully and check before completing the assembly. If the radius is not correct, the bearing can be held away from the backplate by the stub axle radius. Why MG did not use tapered roller bearings like the majority of the car industry around this time is another story! Steve Clark
Future events
The Midget Register September Run takes place on Sunday September 6, so if you haven’t booked yet, hurry to get your entry form in. It will be a great day out. You can enter using the entry form that has previously appeared in Safety Fast! in the June and July editions or enter online from the Midget Register website. It’s a visit to Eastnor Castle and a run through the Forest of Dean. If you’ve been there before, don’t let that put you off. Come and support the Midget Register, it’s our sole fund raising event of the year and we need you. We have no objection to non MG classics entering and you don’t need to be a MGCC member to enter. Everyone is welcome. Hope to see you there. Kop Hill, September 19-20 is again to be supported by the Midget Register and is also open to all other MG Registers to display in one area. If you are not familiar with the event, then take a look at the event website www.kophillclimb.org.uk. We will be having a display area inside the main paddock in conjunction with the Magnette Register, which can take any pre 1990 MG. Runs on the hill for post-war cars are full now, but if you have a pre-war car, it’s worth checking with the organisers. If you want to join us in the display area with your MG, book on the Kop Hill website and identify MGCC when it comes to car club affiliation, then you will be sent the appropriate parking ticket. If anyone wants more information, then contact steveinoxford@ntlworld.com.
The Register also helped with the Competition Cars Timeline which was put together by ex Abingdon Competition employees Bill Price and Peter Browning. It made a spectacular feature down Copse Runway, and to everyone who bought the cars over, some of whom had travelled a very long way, a big thank you. The season of events is not over just because MGLive! has passed, there are many events being put on by all Register and Centres up and down the country; a list is on the MG Car Club website and in Safety Fast!. Don’t forget to enter the Midget Register Road Run on September 6 2015 which starts at Eastnor Castle and goes on a tour around the Forest of Dean, which sounds great. Please can you let me have your points for the Car of the Year award for 2015; we have had a good entry this year but there is still room for more. The form to enter is on the Register website www. midgetregister.com. Remember, you can keep up to date with all the Register news on our website as well. Mike Parker
www.mgcc.co.uk
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NEWSLETTER MIDGET
Neil Thomas Tel: 07891 684435 email: ns.tenby@hotmail.com www.midgetregister.com
Lake District Tour
Keen MG Car Club members John Austerfield and his wife Debbie from Yorkshire put considerable effort into organising our fourth K Series Midget weekend in the Lake District over the weekend of April 24-26 this year. John knows the Lake District like the back of his hand and was the ideal person to lead us bunch of reprobates around this beautiful landscape. Living in Wales I can best describe the Lake District as Wales on steroids. It is an immense vista. The last time I had visited the area was in 1984 whilst Sharon and I were on our honeymoon and just passing through on our way back from John O’Groats, and the only room available was a twin! Uhm. Well we didn’t have that problem this time as John had booked the Bridge Hotel in Grasmere for us for the weekend which was just a perfect base from which to tour. Joining us for the weekend were Rob Armstrong and his partner Jenny, Arie and Rianne de Best from Holland and Anthony and Lesley Cutler. Dinner in the hotel on the Friday evening provided the perfect chance to catch up and chat about our weekend. Saturday morning and we were away by 9.30am. We headed off to Lowther Castle via Kirkstone Pass and the road known as ‘The Struggle’. Gradient of 1 in 4 might help explain the term! We were straight into the scenery and at 1,489 feet it provided spectacular views. From here it was off to Hawkeshead via the small ferry across Windermere and whilst described as a tourist honeypot, it really is very nice. It had an unusual car park too where a camera read your number plate as you entered and then upon departure told you how much you owed. The camera however did not read black and white number plates and so honesty kicked in and we made a fair payment instead. Next we were heading for Broughton in Furness and on up to Ulpha fell. This is very remote countryside. Ant decided he needed to check his front suspension/brakes and so we all pulled over to watch him tinker. As you can imagine the rest of us just watched and gave advice, not all of it helpful. A pebble down the back of his trousers gives an indication of the seriousness we were taking it with. Issue dealt with, we headed off for Santon Bridge where apparently the pub there is the venue for the world’s biggest liar competition. Honest! Coffee and cake had to be taken at the Woodlands Cafe. John and Debbie are experts with cake.
Midgets surrounded by stunning scenery at 1,489 feet
Participants of the K series Midget Lake District Tour
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The end of a successful 2015 K Series Weekend
Boarding the ferry to cross Windermere
The next stage was Hardknott Pass. Now, there’s a road. Sharing the title with Rosedale Chimney Bank in Yorkshire of the steepest road in England, it has gradients of 1 in 3 and rises to 1,281ft at the top, and passes a Roman fort at a mere 660ft. The views from the top are outstanding and the Isle of Man was clearly visible in its entirety. A few calculations soon revealed that this was some 37 miles away from the Cumbria coast. The road down to Duddon Valley was equally steep, although some of the cyclists we met didn’t seem to worry. From here we headed back to Grasmere and a well earned evening meal. This had been a wonderful touring day with an extra 117 miles on the clock. Following dinner, the blokes in the group headed for a local pub which provided some great entertainment. I won’t say what! Sunday dawned sunny and we were off again, hoods down. First stop was the Old Smithy at Caldbeck for coffee, and then on the Uldale, Bassenthwaite Lake and up the Newlands Pass. Honister Pass was next at 1,167 ft, and with its gradient of one in four in places was also challenging. When we pulled in to the slate mine car park at the top, it began to snow. Arie and Rianne spent all their holiday money in the shop there. Following a stop for lunch we all said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways back home. John and Debbie had done us proud this weekend and we are all very grateful for their hard work in organising it. We all had a fantastic time and are looking forward to the next K Series weekend. I hear tell this will be a visit to the Nurburgring, courtesy of Arie and Rianne. It’s in print now so it has to happen.
Anthony Cutler checking his brakes, whilst onlookers offer advice!
18. With scenery like this, roll on the 2016 K Series Weekend!
Absolutely spectacular views from the Newlands Pass.
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end!
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NEWSLETTER MGB
Roger Boys 01635-253699 newsletter-editor@mgb-registor.org www.mgb-register.org
MGB Newsletter
Welcome to the
So here we go again with another four pages. This month we have a main contribution from John Watson, our Chairman, who will bring you all up to speed with the progress being made with the Jean Denton MGB Marathon car, and explain how you can get involved in this exciting project. David Askew has told us about his 50 years with MG and then we look at the apparent growth of cars! We have elsewhere in this copy of Safety Fast! the advert for the MGB Lecture, which features this year the SS Great Britain, our very first iron ship built by Isambard Brunel. This will be the last lecture that I am involved with and it’s a great subject with a fascinating story, so make a date to attend on Thursday October 15. Many of you will remember the articles that I wrote about Three Men and a Dog in a Garage when we changed my gearbox to a five speed version, and then replaced the fuel tank on the Boneshaker (1964 MGB). Well the adventure goes on at least for one of us and it’s an interesting MG tale so here goes. It was decided at a meeting of the Newbury MG Club in the middle of winter that two of the older cars would travel to Sicily to take part in the fantastic MG event organized by Piero Fusaroli in July 2015. Malcolm and Linda were old hands, having completed many of these super events, Mike and Carol were new to it but very keen. The journey down went well, meeting up in the port of Genoa with numerous other MGs who had travelled from all over Europe to catch the ferry to Palermo in Sicily. On arrival at the hotel in Sicily, Malcolm heard that a couple of MGs were not performing as well as they should so he offered to help out, this is a typical gesture from this generous, skilled man. He was quickly seen fettling under bonnets and making adjustments while the rest of his party relaxed by the pool. The following morning while on the first trip of the weekend Malcolm was sailing along in his 1949 MG TC when a very loud bang was heard from the rear. “We have a problem, Houston,” was the cry. After a few seconds a further intrusive noise was heard and the problem was bad! Not being far from the stopping point they coasted into the parking area. Quickly the support of the MG family in Italy swung into action and arrangements were made to get the car returned to the hotel via a pickup truck. Here Malcolm discovered that the rear differential had failed, big time! What to do? After a drink by the pool it was decided that a spare diff, which was lurking in his garage in Newbury, was required. So a phone call was made to son Ed who was told where to locate it. There were in fact two, so both were photographed and emailed to Sicily. Here Malcolm was able to identify which was required and DHL were pressed into action. A parcel to Sicily falls outside DHL’s 24 hour delivery system to mainland Europe, so it travelled via Heathrow, Leipzig Germany, Rome Italy
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and Catania Sicily then couriered to the hotel. While this was going on Malcolm had rented a small car to continue to enjoy the event as it moved 200 miles to the second hotel. The first hotel where the MG was left, advised when the diff was received some five days after Ed had found it. So Malcolm and Linda drove back, ready to tackle the replacement. Imagine changing a diff lying on your back in a hotel car park with your precious car on blocks and the temperature showing 40C. Malcolm, with help from stoical Linda passing spanners, eventually completed the task. The following day they drove to Palermo to meet the others and take the ferry back to mainland Italy. The 800 mile trip back to Dunkirk was without problem, just a few extra stops to check that the oil level was acceptable. However, to rub salt into the wound, when trying to catch the ferry at Dunkirk they were caught up in the chaos created by the strikes in this part of France, with thousands of trucks parked up everywhere. A bit of skilled navigating by Linda was required to enable them to eventually catch the ferry, problems over. Oh no, because in England on the hottest day recorded in the south, 37.5C, there were major difficulties caused again by the backlog of trucks waiting to get to France. In the ensuing traffic jams the TC for the first time ever overheated, causing more frustration and delays. When I spoke to Malcolm a few days later he was very philosophical, saying that they had had a great holiday and enjoyed tremendous help and support from the Italian MG family, proving once again the value of the Marque of Friendship, MG. It is Malcolm along with Tony and me, not forgetting Paddy the Westie who make up the notorious group ‘Three Men in a Garage’ and we are the team who has offered to rebuild the Jean Denton Marathon MGB’s engine, wish us luck! So more adventures to report on, watch this space. Enjoy your car! – Roger.
Malcolm changing a diff lying in a hotel car park in temperatures showing 40C.
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Roger Boys 01635-253699 newsletter-editor@mgb-registor.org www.mgb-register.org
Wide Boys (good name coming from me) Roger Boys I recently saw a question asked in Advanced Driving Magazine, which has intrigued me for some years as I also had noticed, the question read: Why do car manufactures insist constantly on increasing the width of every new model they introduce? This increase in size particularly intrigues me as my wife owns a ‘new style’ MINI, registration number H15 MGB, and recently it was parked next to an original Mini, which it towered over! The Head of Technical Policy at the IAM, Tim Shallcross, wrote this reply. I found it to be interesting. I hope you do. With their permission I reprint it for your interest. If you have not completed the IAM Advanced Driving course make it your birthday present for this year. You will not regret it, as it’s great fun and may save your life! Cars have certainly become wider over the years; the modern Mini is more than 18 inches wider than the original and that difference is fairly typical. At a tad over 79 inches today’s Ford Focus outspans the 62 inch Mk 1 Escort of 1972 by about 18 inches as well, and even the Escort was a sturdy grandson of the 58 inch wide Ford Prefect of the 1950s. Door mirrors increase the width of the modern car by around six inches. Until the 1970s cars didn’t have door mirrors: external mirrors would be fitted to the front wings instead. Nevertheless car bodies have expanded by about 12 inches and there are several reasons for this The first is that seats are getting wider. Years ago, when seats were flat, drivers would slide around on bends and sporty cars had bucket seats with raised sides to hold you in when cornering at speed. Ever-advancing body, suspension and engine design means today’s Focus can corner at speeds that would have seen a Ford Prefect flip over, so all seats are designed to fit around our bodies to hold us in place. These seats are inevitably wider, so the cabin has to be wider to accommodate them. Sadly, our bodies are getting wider on average too, so the standard model of a person that manufacturers use when designing cars has also increased in girth. These days, we also want to fit three adults in the back – or so the designers assume. Squashing three full-sized adults into the back of a Mini was the sort of thing that made for humorous photos a few years ago, but now it’s expected – as is the ability to fit three child seats or restraints. David and his MGA pictured at the Communications Training School at HMS Mercury, 1965
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MGB NEWSLETTER
Talking of children, those of us who are grandparents are amazed at the amount of stuff that seems essential when today’s tots go on even the shortest of car trips. I cannot be the only grandfather to think, ‘You’d never have got that lot into our 1100,’ as my son loads in bag after bag of equipment. We want wider family cars so that they hold more of this stuff. Another car-broadening factor is the widespread adoption of frontwheel drive. Mini designer Alec Issigonis created an amazing amount of room in the Mini body by keeping all the oily bits under the bonnet – no gearbox or transmission tunnel taking up space. His genius was designing a compact front-wheel-drive power unit by putting the gearbox and differential underneath the engine, in the oil sump, then turning the whole thing sideways to create an engine bay the size of an overnight bag. This worked well for the Mini – and the sleek 1100 and not so sleek Allegro – but by the 1980s, as engines increased in power and transmissions became more stressed, using dirty engine oil to lubricate the gears was no longer an option. Many car-makers switched to front-wheel-drive, but with the engine and gearbox mounted in line, albeit still sideways. Accommodating the full width of an engine and gearbox led to wider designs and, as cars became faster, wider bodies meant more stable corners. In the 1990s, the introduction of Euro NCAP crash testing focused attention on safety, and we also wanted more luxury. Doors got thicker and stronger for side impact protection and to house speakers, electric window motors and lots of storage space. A thicker door means a wider car, because we do not want to lose any of the cabin space. Add an infotainment centre in the middle, armrests and yet more storage between the seats and you soon arrive at today’s dimensions. This explanation has not been without problems though. More than one owner has parked the new car in the garage of the 1950s house, only to discover they can no longer open the doors wide enough to get out. And car parks designed a few decades ago prove to be another challenge for modern vehicles. However, we have probably reached the limit. The 2007 Ford Mondeo attracted criticism because it was so wide – and with many residential width limits set at seven foot or less, the 6’10” Mondeo has to drive through carefully with folded mirrors. Significantly, the new model (still awaiting UK launch) is 1.3 inches narrower. Perhaps cars are also on a drive to become less obese.
Fifty Years have Passed
Fifty years ago, in 1965, I joined the Royal Navy as a Radio Operator and was drafted to the Communications Training School at HMS Mercury, high on the South Downs near East Meon in Hampshire. After passing many exams which included learning to read and send Morse code, touch type, operate all kinds of radio equipment, cryptography, and visual signalling, I was allowed to bring my car onto the base. I owned a 1956 MGA 1500 which was my fourth MG, having previously owned two TCs and a 1940 MG VA. I believe there were only two sports cars on the camp, the other being a TR3 owned by a Lieutenant. I used the car to travel back and forth on weekend leave and exploring the Hampshire countryside. Not being allowed ‘civvies’ whilst under training I had my ‘civvies’ locked away in a suitcase in the MGA’s boot. The black and white photo is of me in my MGA back in 1965. The car had a four speed overdrive and several extra gauges including a boost gauge. You had to remember to switch out of overdrive before reversing. In 1966 I was drafted to a Daring class destroyer destined to deploy to the Far East, so I decided to sell the car rather than let it fester away in some garage. I have checked on the DVLA website and MGA 1500 JJL 757 is still alive and well somewhere, contact me please if you own it.
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NEWSLETTER MGB
Roger Boys 01635-253699 newsletter-editor@mgb-registor.org www.mgb-register.org
A programme of Blue Plaques was recently instigated to mark the important role HMS Mercury played in training many thousands of radio operators between 1941 and 1993 when the Communications school moved to HMS Collingwood in Fareham. Some of these plaques are sited outside local pubs but the most recent one was unveiled on March 14 at the Sustainability Centre located in the former Sick Bay of the camp. To mark the 50th anniversary of my training at HMS Mercury I decided to take my 1972 MGB GT along to the event, and to recreate the photo, this time with my BGT. Unfortunately the exact spot in the earlier photo no longer exists but I managed to park my MGB as close as possible. I persuaded one of my former colleagues to take the ‘me’ shots. There will be another blue plaque unveiled soon at the White Lion at Soberton which is next to Soberton Towers where the Wren radio operators lived. I hope to take the MGB or maybe the MGF along to see if there are any former Wrens who remember my MGA! David Askew
UMD 534F – 1968 London to Sydney Marathon MGB Following the purchase of the MGB we have discovered many various interesting items about the event, drive and co-driver and the car. The Daily Express London to Sydney Marathon was the idea of Tommy Sopwith and Sir Max Atkin, Tommy a racing driver and Sir Max the Chairman of Beaverbrook Newspapers and a powerboat racer. They called in Jack Sears, the racing and rally driver, to help with the organisation of the event. The idea for the event was to cover 10,000 miles in 10 days with the first prize being £10,000. 98 cars left Crystal Palace at 23:00hrs on November 24 to
Jack Sear with Jean Denton’s MGB, MGLive! 2015
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David in his 1972 MGB GT, recreating the MGA photo 50 years later
tackle the first leg of 7,000 miles to Bombay. 72 cars arrived in Bombay on December 1. They then boarded the SS Chusan and cruised across to Perth in Australia to arrive on December 15. The final leg continued for the last 2,500 miles to Sydney arriving by December 18. Details of the route and various photographs of the car on the event and now are available to view on our website www. mgb-register.org The MGB was crewed by Jean Denton and Tom Boyce. Sadly Jean, latterly the Lady Denton of Wakefield, passed away aged 65 in 2001. Tom Boyce was a Professor of Engineering at Imperial College in London. He now lives in Guildford where Roger Boys and I recently had a very interesting two hours with him, when he told us his story of how he built the car. A new MGB shell in British Racing Green was delivered to the London mews garage where Tom lived, it had come via Abingdon Special Tuning where we believe it had been seam welded. The engine, built by Tom, was balanced with a lower compression ratio than normal with standard pistons and a semi race cam because they were uncertain as to the quality of fuel they would be using. The MGB had a total fuel capacity of nearly 30 gallons with the extra tank in the boot and three jerry cans on the back. To assist with the extra weight on the back of the car, to the standard springs were fitted extra telescopic springs with rubber top mounts developed by John Moulton for Tom, which fixed in mounts in the floor of the boot. The lever arm shock absorbers were upgraded to adjustable models. As they would be driving up to 1,000 miles a day it was decided to replace the passenger seat with a reclining bed. This was designed by the London Orthopaedic College and was tilted at six degrees. The driver’s seat was a bucket racing seat with a high back. Tom took great delight in telling us of their secret weapon. Around the corner from the garage was the Ladbrook Grove Police station. The coppers would walk round most evening to see what work had been done. On the day before the event they made Tom and Jean honorary policemen and fixed a special police federation badge on the windscreen. At MGLive! this year where the car was displayed, the MGB Register were asking MGCC members how they would like this
www.mgcc.co.uk
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Roger Boys 01635-253699 newsletter-editor@mgb-registor.org www.mgb-register.org
MGB NEWSLETTER
1968 London to Sydney Marathon Route
special MGB to be restored. One person who signed was Paddy Hopkirk, who was on the event in a BMC 1800 Landcrab; he finished in second place to the winning Hillman Hunter. As a result it has been decided that we should ideally make the car structurally safe and roadworthy so it can be driven to MGCC events in Tom Boyce, who crewed the 1968 London the summer months to Sydney Marathon MGB with it maybe being displayed at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and the British Motor Heritage at Gaydon during the winter months. We have formed a project team to oversee the rebuilding and work that will be carried out on the car over the next few months. A project plan and budget has been prepared to control and monitor the costs. A special new bank account has been opened for the restoration accounts. The MGB Register has been very fortunate that various trade companies have offered us support and products that will be required. Initially we must thank British Motor Heritage for allowing us to store the MGB at Witney where we will be able to carry out the first part of the rebuild, and Moss Europe for their support with parts for the project. Some items have been donated, including a Works hard top in white, also some Cibie lamps.
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We are asking for donations to help restore the car. A donation of at least £25 will have your name displayed under the bonnet or boot. If you would like to contribute to the car’s restoration please fill in the bank transfer and donation form that will be on the MGB Register website shortly. If you have any knowledge of the car or would like to get involved in its rebuild please contact John Watson on 07770 575236 or email chairman@mgb-register.org
Paddy Hopkirk donates to the restoration
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Victor Smith 0208 392 9434 victorsmith@v8register.net www.v8register.net
V8 NEWSLETTER
V8 Newsletter
Welcome to the
Nuffield Cup award
Track day RV8 display at MGLive! Nic Houslip’s RV8 was on display on the V8 Register stand in the Club’s Main Marquee at MGLive! 2015 in front of a large photo of the car on the circuit at an MGOT track day at Castle Combe earlier this year. The car was previously owned by the late Bill Wallis, a V8 enthusiast and former President of the Club. When Bill sold the car he was pleased it had gone to Nic as he knew the car would enjoy an active life! The initial owner was part of the electronics group Philips and when Nic first had the car he found they had installed a number of sound system items which he has since removed, particularly those in the door panels. The theme for the Main Marquee displays this year was MGs involved in competition and the Caledonian Centre won the competition for the best stand with a snow covered rally scene with a ‘works look-alike MGB Roadster’ with the registration number 7 DBL parked up with a light dusting of snow on the bonnet and wings. How they managed to stop their ‘snow’ melting was a mystery.
V8 AGM at MGLive!
The AGM was held at MGLive! on Sunday June 21 to enable as many members as possible to attend – the V8 Marquee was packed. Tony Lake was temporary chairman for the election of a new V8 Committee. Roger Aldridge was elected, and volunteered to take on the role of V8 Regalia, together with the re-election of Debbie Brading (Secretary), Ian Quarrington, Nic Houslip, Steve
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At a well-attended President’s International Dinner at MGLive! an extraordinary and entertaining charity auction was a surprise event. Auctioneer Dani Ingold from Switzerland marched into the room wearing a military uniform with a row of gongs and flashing lights on his chest and ran the auction in a way that could easily have been from a John Cleese sketch. His puzzlement that repeated urging of members on the Caledonian Centre table to bid for an enormous 5kg chocolate bar of the legendary Swiss Toblerone had brought no response was clear! Whilst recovering from that session, V8 members had a surprise when the Club Chairman announced the presentation of the Club’s Nuffield Cup to the V8 Register for providing excellent support and services for V8 enthusiasts, recruiting many new members and assisting other Registers over many years. Debbie Brading and Victor Smith received the trophy known as the ‘Gold Cup’ – a very valuable item normally held in a bank vault! The trophy was warmly welcomed by V8 members in the V8 Marquee on Sunday.
Autumn dinner at Chiselhampton
Usually our end of season event is a curry night which this year had been planned for a popular curryhouse near Marlow, some 15 miles to the south east of the churches tour. For 2015 we have moved that dinner so it will be held in the evening on Saturday October 3 2015 at the end of the churches tour at the Coach & Horses. Further details and booking arrangements are available on our ‘more’ webpage at: www.v8register.net/more.htm . Newton, Victor Smith (Chairman) and Clive Wheatley. Tony Arnold and Bob Owen (Treasurer) both retired, but as there is a vacancy for the post of Treasurer Bob has offered to stay on until the end of the year, during which time we hope a fellow member of the V8 Register will volunteer to take on the role. All offers will be very welcome, please contact our V8 Secretary
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NEWSLETTER V8
Victor Smith 0208 392 9434 victorsmith@v8register.net www.v8register.net
Popular events before MGLive!
V8 awards at MGLive! The four annual V8 Register awards were presented over the weekend with the Chris Dodds Award going to Howard Gosling, a founding member of the V8 Register, for his work as Club Vice Chairman and regular support for the Club’s race meetings for many years, the Ian Lloyd Cup to Darren Allsworth for his very generous volunteer work over many years, driving a lorry from Club Office to MGLive! to bring all the supplies needed by the Club and then working throughout the weekend as part of the event team, the Geoff Allen Cup went to Robert MacGillivray as one of the hardworking members of the Caledonian Centre team that arranged the very successful European Event of the Year at Aviemore in 2013, and the John Targett Cup went to Mike Breedon (photo above) for his hard work running the BCV8 Championship for many years and racing V8s.
In the week running up to MGLive! three visits were arranged: the first to Nuffield Place, north of Henley-on-Thames, revealed the surprisingly down-to-earth lives of Lord Nuffield, founder of the Morris Motor Company, and his wife. Their home and personal possessions seem just as they left them – the decor and furnishings intact, from the comfortable sitting room with a small black and white TV to Lord Nuffield’s humble bedroom with a secret built-in workshop in a cupboard. In an outbuilding is an iron lung he built and then generously supplied some 800 to hospitals around the UK. Over his lifetime his donations expressed in today’s money were enormous. It’s certainly a place MG enthusiasts will enjoy visiting. A group of hardworking enthusiasts saved the house and its contents and it is now run by the National Trust. The second visit was to Bletchley Park, for so many years Britain’s best-kept secret but now a unique heritage site and a popular tourist attraction following the recent release of the film, the Imitation Game. Over recent years the buildings have been maintained well and the displays in each room of the ‘huts’ are both atmospheric and informative. Our visit included a one-hour guided tour around the park with its Victorian house, visiting many of the huts with their displays describing the work carried out there by the codebreaking team. The high point for many visitors was seeing the new reconstructed Turing Bombe machine with a live running demonstration. On the Friday: a tour of the seven storey Hook Norton Brewery, with a guide explaining each stage of the brewing process. Although the ancient building has the feel of a museum it is very much alive and productive making some of the finest real ales. What sets the Hook Norton Brewery apart is the way the beer is made. No automated systems leap into action here – instead, someone will be there to climb the stairs in order to rouse the beer by hand, using a paddle, 365 days of the year. The tour followed the ten stage process as the brew rises and falls through the brewery building. The steam engine that had provided all the motive power in the brewery for over 100 years is still there but has now been replaced by electric power – but it is still run once a month for visitors. During lunch at the nearby pub, the brewery’s horse drawn delivery wagon went by with a brief pause for the refreshment of all involved – it was a warm day after all.
V8 concours win at MGLive! Howard Guiney from Northumberland came first in class F in the concours at MGLive! with his Factory V8 in Teal Blue. It’s an early car, number 0528, built shortly after the launch of the model in August 1973 and originally dispatched from the MG Plant to Westover Garage in September 1973 but it was not registered until April 1974 – not unusual with the oil crisis in the Middle East at the time. Howard says, “Apparently we were eight points behind the MGC that won car of the show!” Roger Glover won a Pride of Ownership award with second place in the V8 category with his RV8.
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Victor Smith 0208 392 9434 victorsmith@v8register.net www.v8register.net
V8 NEWSLETTER
Tour of Churches near Watlington
A tour of six churches in the Oxfordshire countryside around Watlington on Saturday October 3 2015 will start with tea and coffee from 9.30am at the Coach & Horses in Chiselhampton. The first church we will visit is St Katherine’s, just a short walk from the pub, which was built by a distant ancestor of the tour organiser, local farmer and RV8 member Charles Peers. There will be a lunch break at the Chequers Inn at Fingest (above) and tea at Ewelme church (below) with an organ recital provided by Tudur Jones and Ian Quarrington. A detailed 24 page guidebook has been prepared with route maps to Chiselhampton from the A34 and M40, route maps from church to church, and descriptions of each church and of many features seen on the tour, like Watlington Hill on the Chilterns’ ridge near the lofty village of Christmas Common and the ancient Ridgeway path. Bookings for this event can be made directly with the organiser Charles Peers using an online booking form. Copies of the guidebook covering the 44 mile route are on sale on the online V8 Shop via the ‘more’ webpage. The event is open to all members of the MG Car
Two useful books published recently Veloce have published a print version the fourth edition of ‘How to Give your MGB V8 Power’ by Roger Williams which will be welcomed by enthusiasts as a much more convenient reference source for readers than the previous e-book version released in 2013. Following the success of his Barrie’s Notes for the MGB, Barrie Jones has produced a new book of his notes for the V8 model with tips and advice on maintaining a V8 in a neat A5 sized 82-page book. It’s a book written in an informed but modest style with a wealth of useful information and tips which will an essential book
www.mgcc.co.uk
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 49
Club and their friends with MGV8s or other MGs. Overnight B&B accommodation is available at the Coach & Horses. Further details and a booking form are available via our ‘more’ webpage at: www. v8register.net/more.htm
for V8 enthusiasts. Publication has recently been launched on the V8 website and copies are available on the Online V8 Shop. See our ‘more’ webpage at: www.v8register.net/more.htm . Reviews of both books are featured in this issue of Safety Fast!.
CHPnTRAC fitting guide note
Our guide to installing the GPS tracker is not published online for obvious reasons but is available to members. For a copy see our ‘more’ webpage.
AUGUST 2015
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NEWSLETTER V8
Victor Smith 0208 392 9434 victorsmith@v8register.net www.v8register.net
Repairing the gear lever dust cap on the RV8 LT77 gearbox
The gearbox dust cap on the LT77 and R380 gearboxes fitted to RV8s and many other Rover products is a little weak in its design, relying on a single screw to hold it in place. Often you will see that the small bracket on the side has broken or the spot-welds holding the bracket on to the cup have detached. Here Nic Houslip explains how he repaired his dust cap. The LT77 on my BV8 Roadster conversion had suffered badly so I fabricated a small right angle bracket from a small steel disposable spanner that I think came with a flat pack bed. I never throw this sort of thing away, even though they are pretty much useless as tools, because they can provide a useful supply of what a Texan friend of mine calls ‘Makins’ as in “I’ve got the makings of a bracket here”. You’ll need to remove the cap from the gear lever assembly first. To hold the bracket in place while I silver soldered it in position I wrapped it around with stainless steel locking wire, a little tricky but it avoided drilling a hole through the cap. For those not familiar with silver soldering, sometimes called hard soldering, brazing or bronze welding, the process is similar to regular (soft) soldering where a joining metal called solder is melted onto heated parts of the parent material. The solder forms an intermetallic bond with the atomic structure of the parent metal(s) and holds the part in place. Soft soldering uses an eutectic alloy (as that gives the lowest melting point) of Tin, Silver and Copper with a melting point close that of the original Tin Lead solder now obsoleted by RoHS (Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances) rules. The melting point is low, typically around 200 deg C, but the bond is not mechanically strong under vibration and stress. Silver solder, or hard soldering (or brazing) uses an alloy that contains silver, copper and other metals (there are many variants) but the melting point is very much higher at 800 deg C to 1000 deg C, and so produces a much stronger joint. Metals to be joined should be cleaned well with a wire brush, file, etc and coated with the appropriate flux, usually in the form of a white powder that is mixed with water to a creamy consistency applied to the joint before heating. The temperature of the metal required to get a good intermetallic bond is such that a gas fired torch must be used. If it is a small item, a good (Rothenberger) torch, perhaps two, might be sufficient. Otherwise an industrial propane torch with a greater heat output will be needed. Typically the metal will be heated until it glows dull red and the filler rod applied to the fluxed area, and it will melt and flow. This is very satisfying and the capillary action
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will carry molten metal into the spaces between the parts to be joined. Almost all motorcycle and bicycle frames used brazed joints, a similar process to silver soldering, using a bronze alloy to join the tubes to the head lugs and fork brackets because the process did not stress or cause the steel tube to lose its temper. Soldering or brazing differs significantly from welding. When welding two pieces of metal, the skill of the welder is called upon to form a molten puddle of the parent metals and add a filler rod of similar composition, so effectively the weld is a small area of cast metal at the join interface. You will hear of many techniques – Oxyacetylene, TIG and MIG are the most popular; the latter two rely on the heat from an electric arc to melt the metal. Since soldering or brazing uses (usually) a joining metal that is different to the parent metals and does not require the parent metals to be melted, it is necessary to raise the temperature to a sufficiently high level to enable the atomic structure of the parent and joining metal to interact at the atomic bond level. A word or two on cleanliness and flux. In all soldering it is vital that the metals to be joined are clean and free from grease, paint, oil or anything else. The flux is applied – there are of two kinds, inactive and active, the latter being the most common – and when heated they actively reduce (remove oxidation) from the metal and allow the solder to ‘wet’ the metal to be joined. If you are joining wires for example, the flux is usually of the rosin type, often inside the solder wire and is primarily a shield to prevent oxidation of the metal when it is heated, but does have some active properties, but these are not corrosive after soldering. Active fluxes, such as those used in silver soldering and brazing, are quite aggressive and remove oxidation and shield the surfaces while the soldering is in process. The residue looks like a glassy coating and should be chipped off or mechanically removed after soldering. Aluminium and stainless steel present great problems to the amateur for the reason that they don’t corrode because they develop a cathodic film of a protective nature that prevents further corrosion. To solder, weld or braze these materials requires an aggressive flux and in the case of aluminium often mechanical stimulation. These are best taken to an expert, particularly if you are repairing an irreplaceable part – imagine trying to weld your cylinder head and having it melt into a big pool of molten metal where it wasn’t as thick as you thought it was. Last tip, if you remove the gearbox with the engine, the screw holding the cap is not easy to get at, just file a small indent into the transmission tunnel above it to enable you to get a small socket ¼" drive on to it, then replace it with a socket head screw (Allen head) and put a little grease on the end of the key when refitting the screw.
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:20
H1 - CLIVE WHEATLEY_H7 - CLIVE WHEATLEY 26/03/2015 11:29 Page 1
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MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 51
MG OWNERS’ CLUB
MEMBER RECOMMENDED SUPPLIER
AUGUST 2015
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NEWSLETTER FWD
Tanya Field tanyafield123@sky.com 07929 868284
FWD Newsletter
Welcome to the
The past month has been a busy one with more members getting in touch and the FWD Register having a successful presence at both MGLive! and at the BMC & Leyland Show at Gaydon. I thoroughly enjoy emails from members keeping me informed about restoration progress or more generally what they have been up to with their MGs, however, I am here to help with other matters too, if needs be. I may not know the answer to your questions or solution to your MG problems, but I am likely to know people who can help. This month I have been contacted by a member who very sadly had his MG Metro stolen and burnt out last November and has still not been able to reach a satisfactory settlement with his insurer. I have been in touch with the Kimber House team who are now assisting both the member and me in trying to resolve this
Martin McFeely’s MG Metro and James Barnes’ MG Metro Turbo. Photo: Martin McFeely
case to the satisfaction of the member who is only asking for a fair and reasonable settlement. While helping the member with this matter, he told me that he still had not replaced his MG Metro but would like to. He would like a Mk2 MG Metro (his last one was a 1989 model) in good condition. If you happen to know of one which you think might fit the bill, please do get in touch with me. Sadly there seem to have been a number of Metros stolen recently – as we all know they are very easy to steal. For security, a cheap and reasonably good method of preventing the opportunist thief is using a Disklok. While they won’t stop a determined thief and are cumbersome, they are effective and portable between cars. Please also consider obtaining an agreed valuation for your car as this will eliminate this risk of struggling to get a fair settlement from your insurer in sensible length of time should the worst happen. I have also been contacted by another member who has two MG 1100s which require restoration. He has had the cars for some time and has previously had one on the road. He would rather the cars are sold to an enthusiast, so please do get in touch with me if you are interested. During MGLive! Peter Arnell, the son of the former owner of JOT 386X, an MG Metro now owned by Martin McFeely, approached me to let me know that he had seen the MG Metro featured in my notes in Safety Fast! earlier this year and that his mother had bought the car new in 1982, shortly after the MG Metro had been announced. I passed on his contact details to Martin and they have been in touch. I know that Peter and his family are very pleased to know that JOT is still on the road and in the hands of an enthusiast and Martin is delighted to have some background on JOT, including an explanation for a couple of JOT’s dents, one going back to the great storm of October 1987!
FWD Register at MGLive! MGLive! was a particularly good event for the FWD Register in many ways. We had a good display of FWD Register cars on both days, although sadly lacking in MG 1300s and MG 1100s, but I know that a number are currently being restored so I am hopefully for next year. We had FWD Register cars on the track, lots of comments about the cars and considerable interest in the Register as a whole. I had asked members to help man the table in the Register tent which they did enthusiastically. Thank you to everyone who helped man the table, although during the heavy rain on the Saturday, it was one of the best places to be! It was lovely to meet some of the other Registers, Branches and Centres, all of whom have been supportive of the relatively newly resurrected FWD Register. It was also great to see many of those who bought FWD cars to MGLive! also wanting to be involved with helping the Register. A big thank you must go to Colin Corke who displayed his beautiful and unrestored MG Metro next to the Register’s table.
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Pride of Ownership entrants Wayne Bates with his MG Maestro EFi, Ian Kimpton with his MG Maestro EFi and Alan Webb-Moore with his MG Metro.
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:20
Tanya Field tanyafield123@sky.com 07929 868284
FWD NEWSLETTER
Line up of FWD Cars at Silverstone on the Saturday.
His Metro looked wonderful and was a real draw – absolutely the right car for the job. In return for leaving his MG Metro there for the weekend, he got the experience of driving my 1983 1.3L Maestro to and from MGLive! She doesn’t quite have the street cred of an MG Metro (ok, she has no street cred at all!), but Colin was very kind about her and even saying that there may be such a thing as a Miracle Maestro after all! Colin Corke’s lovely MG Metro on the Register stand at MGLive!
The track presence for the FWD Register cars is important and it was great to see Derek Porter and his MG 1100 and Steve Tyler and his MG Maestro, with Derek in the MGCC Sprint and Steve in the Peter Best Insurance MG Cup. Very kindly, a Car Club member who used to have FWD cars donated a few of his old spare parts, including a radiator for a 2.0L Maestro, to the Register to give away to members. I’m sorry that I didn’t catch this member’s name, but he was from Bicester in Oxfordshire and I am particularly pleased to say that Steve’s MG Maestro needed a new radiator and the one donated was perfect for the job, so has helped to keep another Maestro racing.
Derek Porter enjoying the Silverstone Sprint in his MG1100. Photo Colin Murrell www.mgcc.co.uk
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 53
Despite the rain on the Saturday, this was the day which we had the best turn out of FWD Register cars. I was very pleased Wayne Bates’ winning entry to the ImproGlo. that we had not one Photo: Wayne Bates but two Montego Turbos as this year we’re celebrating 30 years of the Montego. We also had a good number of MG Maestros covering the 1600, EFi and Turbo and a couple of MG Metros. Saturday night saw the ImproGlo competition in which Wayne Bates entered his MG Maestro EFi and won! His efforts really were impressive and a great way to get the FWD Register in lights! Thank you Wayne – I can’t imagine how many glow sticks you used and how long it took you, but it was all very worthwhile and brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people’s faces. On Sunday we were joined by a few different cars, although the majority were the same as the Saturday. We had three cars enter the Pride of Ownership, albeit a bit late! I would like to thank Dave Tynan for listening to my plea (we were ignorant about what to do, and while ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law, thankfully Dave was more understanding!) and allowed our three cars in late. Had he not been so understanding, the category in the Pride of Ownership for the FWD Register cars would not have had any entries, our members wouldn’t had the fun of being able to show their cars and the cars wouldn’t have had the visibility that that need. Ian Kimpton’s newly acquired gorgeous MG Maestro EFi came first, Alan Webb-Moore with his beautiful MG Metro came second and Wayne in his lovely MG Maestro EFi came third. More importantly, these cars were all up in the Pride of Ownership area where they could be seen and visibility is important for the FWD Register cars. Roll on next year’s MGLive!
The Pride of Ownership winning MG Maestro EFi of Ian Kimpton
MG Maestro of Steve Tyler in the Peter Best Insurance MG Cup. Photo Colin Murrell AUGUST 2015
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NEWSLETTER FWD
Tanya Field tanyafield123@sky.com 07929 868284
The BMC & Leyland Show The BMC & Leyland Show in its third year and is now an established and popular event in the show calendar for enthusiasts of these cars. The show replaced the Mini show which had been held there for a number of years but had become stale and declined in attendance and popularity. When the BMC & Leyland show first started in 2013, it retained the Mini concours from the former Mini show, but introduced a free to join convoy from Cowley. Despite the name, the show welcomes all vehicles produced at Cowley or Longbridge up to this very day (so MINI, MG3 and MG6 are included) and all vehicles produced in the BMC, BL, Austin Rover Group and Rover Group era, so covers a comprehensive range of vehicles. This year was the first year that a convoy started from Longbridge, and with over 20 cars on each convoy, they made quite a presence coming into the show. It was great to see FWD Register cars were represented on both convoys. This year was also a first for a general concours and it was lovely to see an MG Montego and an MG 1100 entered. While concours might not be for everyone and is hard work, it is helpful for the FWD Register cars to be showcased in this way, just as it is important for them to be seen out on the track. Therefore, I am very grateful to those who spend hours polishing and picking stones out of their tyres. The show saw a good turnout of our cars with all five models represented. For the Montego, Maestro and Metro, along with the standard MG models, Turbos for each were also presented. Other than the Pride of Longbridge and possibly BL Day at Peterborough, I think this will be the one of the best shows to see a comprehensive display of our models. Most people who are interested in FWD Register cars are also interested in other models produced around the same time or from the same factories. For those of you who have been to the Pride of
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Longbridge, from the vehicle perspective this felt like a small Pride of Longbridge, minus the pre-war Austins. There was a good showing of later MGs, mainly Zeds, but also an MG3 and MG6, the MG3 taking part in the Cowley Convoy. There was a pleasant but not overpowering number of Minis, with the heritage side of Mini well represented by 1959 Mini Register, Mini Traveller and Countryman Register and the 500 Cooper Sport Register, all of whom are regular supporters of the show. Consequently there were interesting Minis including an electric Mini dating back to 1965. As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Leyland Princess, Gaydon had out on display the 1975 Vanden Plas Princess 2200 prototype and 1978 Princess Ogle Triplex 1020 Glassback, both were good to see. Gaydon comes into its own when the weather is less than car show friendly, and when the inevitable downpour came we all made dash for the motor museum. Of course, at the same time as taking refuge, it also provided an excellent opportunity to view the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust’s quite amazing collection of British built vehicles. Another joy of this show is that it is very affordable to display your car at. Clubs are allocated eight free club passes which allow two people in per pass. Providing individuals book in advance, their ticket to display a car costs £7 and that includes entry for two people. The concours is free to join as are both convoys. With everything the show has to offer and the vehicles to see both as part of the show and as part of Gaydon’s collection, this really is an excellent and affordable day out.
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:21
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MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 55
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RACE TORQUE
W
Race Torque
ell the Club’s premier meeting, MGLive! took place in June on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. We had some mixed weather which certainly sorted out who could drive in wet and slippery conditions on the Saturday, but Sunday was fair and dry. Our own Championships were all present bar the Metros and there were some good grids and close racing. Among our guest events, the Porsches put on two stirring races on the Saturday, Equipe GTS had one of the larger grids for their two events, and some entertaining close racing, although that man Tom Smith excelled yet again! The Healey race on the Sunday had attracted a quality field and some great racing resulted. I won’t steal Martin’s thunder too much though since I am sure that all this and more will be covered in his comprehensive report elsewhere in this issue. In general the driving standards were very good, however we had been specifically requested by Lee Howkins, the Silverstone circuit manager, to pay attention to ‘track limits’ (corner cutting!) in an effort to protect the grass for the British GP due in two weeks’ time after our visit. Accordingly everybody had been warned prior to arrival of the emphasis and one has to say that the number of reports we received and acted upon were to be honest a bit of a disappointment. One driver even lost a hard fought race win because of the number of reports relating to his car. To be clear, it’s now a six part procedure with each report counting for an increase in the penalty, each infringement being advised to the driver by a black and white flag together with the car number at the start/finish line on each lap. The first report is merely taken as a warning to the driver, thereafter the penalties start to ratchet up. It was good to see during the GP qualifying a couple of weeks later that offending drivers there lost their times on each offence, good because it indicated a more level playing field than has been obvious in the past. BTCC are also being constrained but it will be interesting to see how strongly the rule is applied at Knockhill where the chicane is normally taken by the saloons basically airborne over the kerbs. Perhaps the latitude hitherto was because in many instances the wheels did not touch the ground?? The Club’s race programme now has a summer recess with the next event for our Club not until September 12 at Oulton Park in Cheshire. As this is being typed we already have some 67 entries and that’s not counting the Porsches who join us for their last event with us this season and the ever popular Morgans for whom it’s their first, but are with us again for the
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By Ron Gammons
Photos: Dickon Siddall
Club’s finale at Snetterton on October 10-11. Of course at Snetterton we have as the Club’s final event of the year the ever popular British Motor Heritage Classic Four Hour Relay race. Entry forms for this are already out so if you plan to be part of one of the 26 teams we run, now is the moment to start ringing round to assemble a team. Performance is controlled and we seek teams of cars which lap the 200 circuit at Snetterton no quicker than 1 minute 24 seconds. This is to ensure that the performance spread is not excessive and the limit on 26 teams should give room on the circuit for all. That’s not to say there won’t be close racing, far from it, it’s an opportunity to race against all comers, many saying its one of the best races of the year. Results are on scratch and handicap so everybody gets a chance. The winners are generally the ones who have shown consistent pace with minimal pit stops and overall reliability. Remember only 26 teams of up to six cars each, better get the entry moving now!
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:21
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MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 57
www.mggarage.co.uk Unit 2, 70 Bell Lane, Bellbrook Industrial Estate, Uckfield, East Sussex TN22 1QL Mob: 07703 646798 graham@mggarage.co.uk AUGUST 2015
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COMPETITIONS
Bob Lines (24) leading a group of classics in the Thoroughbred Sportscar Championship Race
Action packed
Silverstone grids make
T
he racing action moved to Silverstone in late June, as we enjoyed our annual MGLive! extravaganza. This packed weekend has something for everyone interested in MGs, but the racing takes pride of place with a fantastic 14 races on the 3.64 mile Historic Grand Prix circuit, featuring most of the Club’s championships, together with invited guest events, this year for Porsches and Austin Healeys. Indeed, when the sometimes damp Saturday qualifying was completed, it was the Fuel Protect Porsche Club Championship which kicked off the competition, with the first of their two races. Gary Duckman took pole position, in his Boxster S, by 0.65sec from Craig Wilkins, driving a 996. Regular front runners Mark McAleer and Peter Morris occupied row two, both in 996 C2s. When the lights went out, it was Wilkins who made the best start, just heading Duckman, McAleer, Morris, Harrison and Johnson into Copse for the first time. As they began their second lap, there was already a gap between the front runners and the pole man had dropped down to seventh, but soon McAleer began to reel in Wilkins, reducing the deficit to 0.7sec after three tours. However, Morris also wanted a piece of the action and he had caught McAleer and was beginning to scrap for second place, but contact caused McAleer to fall back down the field. Harrison now put the leader under extreme pressure, but he was not able to snatch the win from Wilkins. Johnson was
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MGLive! a resounding racing success By Martin Price Photos Dickon Siddall
third, ahead of Morris, Duckman and Dyer. Jonathan Evans took the Class two victory by a clear margin over Andrew Toon and Richard Higgins. Their second encounter was held on a drying track, but there were still several wet patches waiting to catch out the unwary. One such driver was the winner of the opening race, Craig Wilkins, who immediately spun himself down the order. However, Peter Morris took the early lead and he dominated proceedings ahead of Harrison, Winter, Duckman and Johnson. On their second lap, Winter managed to get in front of Harrison for second spot, but was unable to really trouble Morris for the lead. There was a brief safety car period, which bunched them back up together, but even this did little to disturb the leader, eventually taking the flag by over three seconds from Winter, followed by Duckman, Johnson and Dyer. Class two saw a second class win of the day for Jonathan Evans, this time from Tim Speed and Andrew Toon. The first race after lunch was the opening battle in the MGCC Finishline MG Trophy Championship and the track was damp. Cody Hill had taken pole from Colin Robertson, with the 170 of Paul Luti on the second row, with
Graham Ross alongside him. When the lights went out, Hill took the early lead, but soon spun himself down the order, leaving Luti and Robertson to scrap for the lead. Robertson’s 190 soon got the better of the 170 and surged ahead. To make it worse for Luti, Makar and Cole powered ahead on their second lap and, next time round, Ross promoted himself to fourth place. The pace at the front was furious, but Robertson was managing to hold off the challenge from Makar. However, on the penultimate tour, Ross put himself into second place, but was unable to catch Robertson for the victory, crossing the line just 0.85sec adrift in second place. However, there was a twist in the tale, as Robertson was given two time penalties for exceeding track limits, plunging him right down the order to seventh place. This gifted the win to Ross, with Makar in second place and Cole in third. Hill pulled himself back to fourth, ahead of the Class C winner, Luti, in fifth. Andrew Ashton had a great race to finish second in Class C, ahead of Daniel Molloy. John Gil beat Paul Bryson and Martin Webber for the Class D spoils. Their second race, held on the sunny Sunday morning, was equally eventful; Robertson again took the early lead
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from Ross, Hill, Cole, Fraser-Burns and Burgess. Hill pulled off a great move on lap two to claim second spot and then he and the leader put on a brilliant display, as they battled it out for the lead. This was destined to go to the wire, as the scrap went into the final lap, door handle to door handle. However, as they hammered down the Wellington Straight, Hill somehow managed to seize the inside line for Brooklands and Luffield, snatching victory in the dying moments. Yet again, Robertson seems to have been denied a win, but there was to be yet another drama, as Hill was declared to be underweight and he was disqualified from the results. This gave victory to Robertson, with Ross in second place, ahead of Burgess, Makar and Fraser-Burns. Daniel Molloy narrowly beat Andrew Ashton for the Class C win, with Paul Luti in third. It was two in a row for John Gil, as he took another Class D victory, ahead of Bryson, Martin and Webber. The MGCC Avalanche Motorsport BCV8 Championship always provides great entertainment and today was no exception. Russell McCarthy took pole position by over 3.6 seconds from Ian Prior as the drizzle fell yet again. Neil Fowler was on row two with Simon Cripps; Jonnie Wheeler and Rob Spencer shared the third row. It had been raining heavily before the race began and this caused a delay. Simon Cripps, who immediately proved to be the rain master, steadily pulled away from Wheeler, Spencer and the rest. On lap three, Jordan Spencer passed Wheeler for second place and a couple of tours later, Prior snatched third place away from Wheeler. Reduced to just six laps, Cripps took the flag seven seconds clear of Spencer, who had Prior, Wheeler and Fowler in line astern. The three podium drivers took care of the classes B, C and D victories and Simon Tinkler brought his MGB GT home in a creditable 12th overall to win Class AB, from John Weight.
Alistair Pugh (65) in the Le Mans Spitfire leading the MGB of John Yea.
A superb grid of 43 cars started the first of the Equipe GTS races, still in damp conditions. Qualifying had seen Tom Smith, in his familiar red MGB Roadster, claim pole position from James Cottingham, by nearly two and a half seconds; with Andrew Bentley and David Beresford on row two. The quickest non B Roadster qualifier was Rod Begbie, driving his TVR Grantura, who was found on row three with the B Roadster of Craig Taylor. From the moment the lights went out, Smith’s name was on the winner’s trophy, as he put on a dazzling display of how to race in damp conditions, often very sideways, to pull off a brilliant lights to flag victory. He pulled away from Cottingham, who appeared powerless to keep up. Wood briefly held third place before Spencer moved up the order, but even this was short lived. On lap three, we were treated to the beginning of a fantastic scrap for third place between the TR4 of Pete Foster and the MGB of David Beresford. These two swapped places several times, before Foster finally managed to stay ahead at the flag. Smith had already finished by this time, some 23.5 seconds clear of Cottingham. Nigel Winchester brought his Ginetta G4 home to win Class 1, ahead of the Lotus Elite of Brian Arculus.
Their second race was held in bright, dry conditions before lunch on the Sunday morning and this time we saw the Ginetta of Nigel Winchester take control from the start, with Tom Smith in second place for the opening couple of laps. However, Smith’s pressure paid off as he swept into the lead on lap three; but Winchester was not giving in easily as he regained the lead next time round. Smith was after that second victory of the weekend and powered back to the front on lap six and held onto the place until the untimely end of the race, when first the safety car was deployed, then the red flag was shown. By now, Winchester’s Ginetta looked decidedly secondhand, as an engine problem had caused it to smoke itself into retirement. Foster had been enjoying another close battle for third place, this time with the Lotus Elite of Brian Arculus and they traded places a number of times, Arculus getting the better of Foster for much of the race, but Foster moved ahead on lap eight. He looked good to hold second place to the flag, but uncharacteristically rolled, bringing out the safety car and then the premature race end. Second place went to Rod Begbie, who had started in 34th place on row 17. He had steadily carved his way
Cody Hill (22) gets out of shape at the start of the MG Trophy race
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Martin Morris (6) leading the Lackford Engineering Midget & Sprite Challenge
up through the field and, by the end of lap eight, he was lying in fifth; but the demise of Foster, Winchester and Arculus from the leading group promoted him to a fantastic second. Martin Richardson finished in third place, ahead of David Beresford, Rob Cull and Robin Ellis. Ellis also took the Class 1 spoils from Brian Arculus. Tony Wilson-Spratt brought the WMS MGB home in a superb ninth overall to win the Class 4 battle from John Yea and Richard McKoen. Ian Hulett won Class 2 in the WMS Sprite and Stephen Bolderson took Class 5 in an MGB. The MGCC Peter Best Insurance MG Cup has been running for over 20 years and is the only MG Car Club championship which will accommodate any model of MG. The MGCC Cockshoot Cup is another long standing championship, which has enjoyed good support over recent years. These two series were put together this weekend and an amazing 55 cars went out to qualify on a damp track. Gary Wetton took pole position in his ZR190 with a best lap 1.6secs faster than the ZS of Paul Clackett. Two more ZS examples were on row two, these were driven by Ashley Woodward and Simon Lowery. Row three found the ZR190 of Ian Winstanley and the TF LE 500 of Philip Standish. Although appearing to be one race, the Cockshoot brigade started first, in the wet, and Wetton put the ZR into the immediate lead from Woodward, Standish Lowery and Winstanley. This order remained for much of the race, but on the final tour, Standish pulled off a great move to pass Woodward for second spot. Wetton took the flag over eight seconds clear of Standish, followed by Woodward, Lowery
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and Hunt. Winstanley was next to cross the line, winning Class B from Ray Collier. The Peter Best division saw Oliver Coles dominate throughout, taking the flag over ten seconds ahead of Iain Dowler. Ed Davies was third, ahead of fellow Class B driver, David Brown. Paul Eales was fifth overall and won Class A from Clive Jones and Steve Tyler; Shaun Holmes took the Class C honours. Their second encounter was on the Sunday afternoon on a dry track, with even some sunshine. Wetton again shot off the line to take the immediate lead and the rest could do little to match his pace as, lap after lap he put even more distance between himself and second placed Jonathan Harker and third place Simon Lowery. On lap two, Howard Hunt snatched third place and began to haul in Harker. On lap four, Hunt took second spot, but could do nothing to catch Wetton, who eventually took the flag over 23 seconds ahead of Hunt. Harker spun himself out of contention with only a couple of tours to go. Lowery hung onto third place ahead of Michael Ashcroft and Class B winner, David Morrison. The Peter Best race saw Ed Davies leap into the lead, ahead of Coles, Cross, Brown and Dowler. On lap two, Eales took second place, but Coles had other ideas and claimed the place next time round. Dowler moved up to fourth spot and held it to the end. Davies was victorious, finishing over 13 seconds in front of Coles who, in turn was 17 seconds clear of Class A winner Eales. The MGCC Motoring Classics Thoroughbred Sports Car Championship qualified in the dry and Rob Spencer took pole from Russell
McCarthy by 3.66 seconds. Spencer McCarthy was on row two with Neil Fowler for company; Ian Prior and Jordan Spencer were on row three. However, when the lights went out, it was Jordan Spencer who took the early lead, ahead of his dad Rob, Russell McCarthy and Ian Prior and Simon Cripps. On lap two, Rob Spencer overtook his son to take the lead and both Russell McCarthy and Ian Prior passed Jordan Spencer, dropping him to fourth. McCarthy now was putting Spencer under extreme pressure and soon took the lead. Cripps was in fifth place after four of the five laps, but moved up to third when Prior retired and Jordan Spencer fell down the order a few places. Finishing in a brilliant fourth place was Class D winner, Ken Deamer. Peter Samuels was fifth, head of Jordan Spencer, Keith Files, Max Cawthorn and Babak Farsian. Jon Ellison won Class E and Kathy Sherry brought the Morgan Plus 8 home to win Class C. Next on the programme was a round of the Lackford Engineering MGCC Midget and Sprite Challenge and it was that man Paul Sibley who took pole position from Andy Southcott. His son, Chris, was on row two with Richard Perry alongside and row three found Richard Wildman and Sam Healey. Clearly most of the quick Class A machines were finding it hard to get the power down in the rather miserable drizzle. However, the race was on a dry track and a fantastic start saw Andy Southcott take the immediate lead, as Sibley often needs a few yards to get into his stride. However, it was not long before he slipped past into the lead, but James Dunkley was not going to give in without a fight. Soon he was up to second spot and beginning to challenge Sibley for the lead. There was a very interesting fight for third place between Ed Reeve and Sam Healey, as they traded places on a number of occasions, until Healey retook third and held it to the end. Martin Morris took fifth place and we unfortunately lost Andy Southcott with transmission failure rounding Luffield on lap seven. Meanwhile, back at the front, Sibley appeared to be struggling with his tyres and Dunkley
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Shaun Holmes’ (93) MGC GT pushing on in the wet during the Peter Best Insurance Challenge
saw his opportunity, slipping past on lap seven and, despite a last lap effort from Sibley, which saw him nose in front briefly, Dunkley stamped his authority on proceedings at Luffield and took the flag by less than a tenth of a second and with it, his first win in the championship. Despite a five second penalty for exceeding track limits, Chris Southcott finished in an excellent sixth place, winning Class B from Richard Wildman, who received a similar penalty. Pippa Cow was a superb eighth overall and won Class E from Will Corry, having enjoyed a brilliant battle with Richard Perry for several laps, Perry cruelly was forced to retire on the last lap. Nigel Lackford upheld the family honour by winning Class D in his Sprite from J ohn Bridge. One of our invited clubs staged a superb race next, as the Healey Driver International Invitation Challenge put 25 beautiful cars out to qualify. This race series is a branch of the Austin Healey Club and is exclusively for ‘Big Healeys’ and Special Sprites build to FIA specification and running on Dunlop race tyres. Jeremy Welch took pole in his superb Healey 3000 from the double drive of David Grace and Anders Schildt. Row two found Chiles Junior and Senior, with David Smithies alongside. This was a 50 minute race with a compulsory pit stop, to allow driver changes. As the lights went out, Jeremy Welch took the lead, with the Grace/Schildt car a shade behind. The Chiles car was holding third, ahead of Clarkson, Smithies and Corfield. On lap two, Clarkson took third place away from Chiles, who soon began an exciting scrap with Smithies for fourth spot. The pit stops began on lap eight and finished on lap 12, making it hard to work out the real running order. However, it soon became Ian Prior in his MGB GT V8
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apparent that Welch’s lead had been stolen by the Grace/Schildt car. These two were pulling clear of the Chathams, who were in third place, until we lost Clarkson and the appearance of the safety car, whilst Clarkson’s Healey was removed. This caused everyone to close up and we were treated to a final two lap dash to the flag. Welch got mighty close to snatching victory in the dying stages, but the Grace/ Schildt Healey 3000 hung on and took the flag by a mere 0.35sec. The Jack and Oliver Chatham car took third place, ahead of Smithies and Corfield. The penultimate action of the weekend was a round of the Iconic 50s Sports Cars and FISCAR series and a magnificent 28 cars went out to qualify. Sadly, Tim Patchett rolled his lovely red TA; fortunately Tim was unhurt, but the T Type will need a little TLC. Mark Ellis took pole position in his MGA Twin Cam, with a best lap nearly four seconds faster than Rod Begbie’s Elva Climax MkIV. Robin Ellis’s Lotus Elite was on row two with Martyn Corfield, driving his Austin Healey 100/4. The Lotus Elite of Jonathan Smare and the Lotus MkIX of Brian Arculus were on row three. As the lights went out, Martyn Corfield went into the immediate lead, followed by Rod Begbie, Robin Ellis, Brian Arculus and Rae Davis. As the laps were ticked off, it looked as if Corfield was going to have victory by a huge margin, but Ellis, who had taken second place on lap three, was reeling him in at quite a rate, these two leaving the rest in their wake. They continued to fight all the way to the flag, Corfield seizing victory by just half a second. Begbie held onto third place, ahead of Arculus, the MGA Coupe of Graham Coles and 1959 Le Mans MGA of Rae Davis. Howard Maguire finished next in the Playford MG, followed by the beautiful Dick Jacobs Special of Stuart Dean. In the T Type battle, John Bussy beat Jeff Mardsen and Jonathan Harmer. The final action of the weekend was the MGCC Invitation All Comers 50 Minute Pit Stop Race, which attracted a superb 43 to qualifying. Pole position was taken by former MG Midget champion, William Smallridge, driving with his father, David, in their 5 litre Sunbeam Tiger. Nigel Jenkins was also on the front row, with his Ferrari 355 and the second row found Mark Halstead and Stuart McPherson’s Ginetta G4 and Graham Booth, driving a Caterham 7 Superlight. The start was delayed because the red flag was shown
following an incident as the lights went out, when a Caterham failed to get away and was unfortunately collected by a ZR. When the race finally got underway, the Jenkins’ Ferrari went straight into the lead, with the Ian Prior and Tom Smith MGB GTV8 in second place and the Halstead/ McPherson Ginetta in third. This order remained for the opening four laps, but on lap five, Myles Castaldini moved his Davrian into third place. There was then a great battle for third place, as the Halstead/McPherson car fought back. The leader pitted at the end of lap nine, but never managed to get close to the top group again. The Prior/Smith V8 briefly took the lead but the Halstead/McPherson machine pushed them out, but only for a lap before taking control again. On lap 16, the Smallridge’s Tiger loomed large in the mirrors of the Prior/Smith V8 and flew past, building a half minute lead by the flag. Ian Prior and Tom Smith were second, ahead of Mark Halstead and Stuart McPherson. The Williams’ AC Cobra took fourth place and Jenkins was fifth, winning Class DS. Ian Fletcher and Ian Smythe brought the Fletcher Hornet home in sixth place and they took the Class C honours. Other class wins included Dan Ludlow in a Honda Civic Type R, Jim Gathercole in his Lotus Elan +2 and the two Andrews, Speight and Wolf, in their Midget. This ended another great MGLive! event which thrilled the crowds and proved, yet again, what a superbly run race meeting looks like. Admittedly, the weather on Saturday could have been better, but our drivers are getting used to the rain this season! Let’s hope for a dry meeting when we visit Oulton Park in Cheshire, in September.
Lights ablaze during the BCV8 Race Paul Savage heading the MG ZR170 Class in the MG Trophy
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MGs ON TRACK
Sponsored by
MGs track on
It was a little over a month ago we were all enjoying the camaraderie of MGLive!. It is a time when all MG owners have the opportunity to get together, show off their wares and exchange stories. Some were also lucky enough to get the chance to drive
the famous Silverstone track on a parade lap. It was and usually is, after the Parade laps, that MGs on Track has an influx of enquiries about “how you can take your car on track?” We also get asked, “When are you (MGoT) coming up North?”To address both of those
Croft… and my addiction to Castrol R! Words by Julian Hepburn
Back in the 1970s, little did I guess when a school friend invited me to ride our bicycles out to Croft race circuit, just how much that day would affect my life. He had been there before to spectate at a few meetings with his father, and was enthusing about
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motor racing which, to be honest, I didn’t know anything about, but I enjoyed cycling, so off we headed one Saturday. We were only 11 years old, so the eight miles from home to the track was quickly covered, but we immediately encountered a problem: the
questions, we have the perfect answers for you! Although, it has to be said, many of the circuits are located in the southern half of the UK, there are a few that are consistently asked for and in our calendar, Croft in Yorkshire (read Julian Hepburn’s report below), Oulton Park in Cheshire and Donington Park in the Midlands. Donington has an added bonus attached. For the last few years our visit to Donington has been an overwhelming success as a day dedicated for newcomers to Track days. It is our second largest event of the year (next to Silverstone) and we really do cater for first timers and novices. We have a full off the track mentoring service by experienced tracksters to help you through the day, first class instructors to offer guidance on the track and of course that famous MG camaraderie all around. Donington Park, October 5, is now open for booking to All MG owners at www.mgson-track.com. It is one not to be missed!
combined contents of our pockets didn’t cover the cost of two entry tickets! We must have looked pretty crestfallen though, as an older gent with a kindly face and a flat cap stepped across. “Let them in for what they’ve got, Bob,” he said, and generously gave us a race programme too. Well, I was hooked. The sounds, the smells (I think I’m still addicted to Castrol R!) and close racing did it for me, and over the next years, regular cycle trips to Croft were a feature of my growing up. My family was less than enthusiastic about my wishing to drive competition cars, and so I needed to wait until I had finished my studies and gathered sufficient cash of my own to start any kind of motorsport activity, beyond funfair
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MG MG Steve Brand track track steveb@mgs-on-track.co.uk onon www.mgs-on-track.com •To book places you need to be registered with MGoT on our website www.mgs-on-track.com •All registered members will receive an email about a week prior to the event opening for sale. •If an event says ‘Status: Provisional’ it is not open for booking yet. •If all places are ‘Sold Out’ contact the Event Manager highlighted on the booking page of our website for a reserve place. •‘Experienced only’ means you will have done at least one Track day with MGoT. ** New circuits for 2015
August 13 – Brands Hatch – GP (single LoT session)
LUFFIELD
Luffield Luffield Championship Championship John Wilman, Beechfield, Fern Bank, Chapel-en-le-Frith, High Peak. SK23 0JJ. Tel: 07778 165186 • www.mgspeed.net John Wilman, Beechfield, Fern Bank, Chapel-en-le-Frith, High Peak. SK23 OJJ. Tel: 07778 165186
September 14 – Castle Combe (Half day Open Pit Lane!) October 5 – Donington (Ideal for First timers and Novices!) October 26 – Goodwood December 7 – Brands Hatch Indy
go-karts! However, driving competition cars (not to be confused with driving competitively, which is a very different thing!) has now been an almost constant part of my life for around 30 years, and I’ve been lucky to drive many different marques and types, not only in the UK but also in other countries, including many of the ‘all-time great’ tracks, Spa, the Nordschliefe as well as some far-away places such as Suzuka and Laguna Seca. Motorsport has introduced me to many interesting people and friends, as well as experiences few get the opportunity to enjoy. However, Croft remained one of two UK circuits I’d never driven. So when I saw that MGoT were sharing a day there with Lotus on Track in July this year, and that it was a 105db day (my MG is a rather loud old dame!) it just had to be done! “you’re seriously missing a trick!” The opportunity to drive Croft has prompted this rambling reminisce. Sadly, I couldn’t understand why there were very few MGs there. Apparently Croft is considered ‘a bit far away’ by many of the MGoT members. Well guys, you’re seriously missing a trick! It’s fabulous. An enormously enjoyable driver’s track. Yes, the paddock is small, well tiny might be a better word, and facilities are somewhat limited, but don’t let any of these things put you off. Once you’re in the car you’ll forget all of that, and be grinning until your face aches. I’m not going to make a track analysis, sufficient to say that the variety of corners, for example the series of high speed curves from the Jim Clark Esses through Barcroft leading into Sunny In and Sunny Out, (precision needed, they make a fast and testing sequence), right down to a second gear Hairpin, and the ‘is it just flat or not?’ chicane, will give you enough challenges and enjoyment to keep you coming back. I certainly will be. And not on my bike! If I knew who the kindly faced old gent was at Croft circuit back in the 1970s, I’d buy him a drink!
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Chris Cadman in MG Montlhery Midget pushing hard on the Stowe Circuit. Photo: Paul Hipkiss
It is now almost half way through the season and the Championship has been well supported by our registered entrants. The end of May and the whole of June were incredibly busy with an event on nearly every weekend. Even one with two events at different ends of the country. We started with Prescott in late May, then Harewood and Abingdon on the following weekend. Then the highlight of the year for many MG enthusiasts was the MGLive! weekend, with everything we have come to expect from the largest one-make gathering in the world. The Saturday was unfortunately very wet which produced some exciting racing, but was less comfortable for the stall holders and exhibitors. The North West Centre were the organising group for the Sunday sprint and were hoping that the weather was going to clear as we had a record entry of 110 cars to process. A daunting task at the best of times, but in bad weather much more problematic. However luck was with us, the day dawned bright but breezy and it was to stay that way for the rest of the day. About half the entry were MGCC members which was gratifying to see. We were also ably supported by the Healey challenge and TVRs along with other championships like the Nottingham SCC. At the event we achieved two practice and three timed runs, which spoke volumes for the organisers, particularly our Chairman Paul Rodman who operated the release button from his position in the crows’ nest. The judgement needed to carry out this task requires a huge amount of concentration to avoid baulking by slower cars. All in all we can declare the event an outstanding success made all the more easy by the co-operation of the competitors in being available for their runs at the right time. The Saturday following was our visit to the Aintree club circuit. The day was blessed by good weather and again we achieved a very respectable entry from our members. July will see our usual visit to the historic Shelsley Walsh hillclimb followed by our two day event at Loton Park. Being Midlands-based, these two events attract a large entry from the MG entrants and we will bring you reports of one or both these events in next month’s column.
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CALENDAR
AUGUST Saturday 1 – Sunday 2 MGCC MGF Register MGF20 Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon Main Show Day on the Saturday with evening entertainment included. Sunday will incorporate a road run from Gaydon to the MG factory at Longbridge. For discounted tickets book via the MGF Register online shop – http://www.mgfregister.org/shop/www.mgf20.info Sunday 2 MGCC MGA Register MGA day starting at Motor Heritage Centre, Gaydon. Full details available from www.mgcc.co.uk/mga-register Sunday 2 MGCC Midland Centre Curborough Summer Sprint A round of the Luffield Speed Championship. National B Speed event. Free to spectators. Contact: Simon Morris 07788 168488 (Marshalling) Sunday 2 MGCC Abingdon Works Centre Wyevale Bicester MG open day Contact: Mike Gething 01295 254498 Sunday 2 MGCC Anglia Centre Helmingham Hall Festival of Classic & Sports Cars Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, IP14 6EF Contact: John Cumming 01359 259717 or Mike Petting 01366 386944 Tuesday 4 MGCC Anglia Centre Longham Natter Pride of Ownership The White Horse, Longham, Norfolk, NR19 2RD Contact: William Ball 01508 471506 Friday 7 – Sunday 9 MGCC SVW Register Register weekend away Chichester Park Hotel, West Sussex Contact: paulandsharman@gmail.com Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 MGCC Magnette Register Harrogate Northern National & AGM Road Run and AGM Contact: Alan Cleobury a.j.cleobury@btinternet.com Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 MGCC Tyne Tees Centre Croft Motor Racing Circuit Croft Nostalgia Weekend (Pre-1974 cars only) Contact: Noel Lindford 0191 587 0753 noel.lindford@ btinternet.com or Dennis Hope 0191 517 2804 denhope@hotmail.co.uk Sunday 9 – Sunday 16 MGCC Caledonian Centre Orkney Tour (FULL) Contact: Douglas Arthur 01360 550535
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Thursday 13 MGCC MGs on Track Brands Hatch Circuit Contact: NigelS@mgs-on-track.co.uk Sunday 16 MGCC Lincolnshire Centre Doddington Hall Lincolnshire Poachers Concours Show Contact: Geoff & Vicki 01205 871973 www.mgcclincolnshire.co.uk Sunday 16 MGCC MGB Register MGB GT 50th Anniversary Shelsley Walsh Contact: Richard Horner 01785 811722 www.mgb-register.org Sunday 16 MGCC Anglia Centre Anglia Mid-Summer Run A run in Suffolk Contact: Margaret Beresford 01394 382096 or Barbara Pratley 01384 385135 Tuesday 18 – Friday 21 MGCC Triple M Register Annual Touring event Lincolnshire Wolds Contact: Elizabeth Taylor 01628 665055 e.taylor@oakend.net
SEPTEMBER Sunday 6 MGCC Midget Register September Road Run Eastnor Castle and the Forest of Dean Contact: Neil Thomas ns.tenby@hotmail.com
Saturday 12 MGCC Midlands Centre Autumn Weekender Cosgrove Park, Milton Keynes Contact: Richard Stone 07528 055011 mail@southmidssportsters.org Saturday 12 MGCC Anglia Centre AGM The Limes, Needham Market, Suffolk Contact: Dave Tynan 01795 535776 or Michael Murkin 01702 478476 Sunday 13 MGCC Anglia Centre The Crown Natter Day Out Location TBA Contact: Steve & Alison Kemp 01553 840245 Sunday 13 MGCC Lincolnshire Centre Autumn Autotest East Kirkby Contact: David 01790 754774 davidstonehouse1@btinternet.com www.mgcclincolnshire.co.uk Monday 14 MGs on Track Castle Combe Circuit Contact: Nigel.S@mgs-on-track.co.uk
Monday 7 – Thursday 17 MGCC MGA Register MGA 60th Anniversary Lands End to John O’Groats road run. www.mgcc.co.uk/mga-register/events-2015/
Friday 18 – Monday 21 MGA Register Return to Dundrod Contact: Mervyn Gillespie, mgmga@o2.co.uk 0780 800 8700 www.mgcc.co.uk/mga-register/events-2015/
Friday 11 – Monday 14 MGCC T Register Register Autumn Tour Cotswolds Wotton Under Edge Contact: Gill and Edwin Haywood 01452 740393
Saturday 19 MGCC Midget Register Kop Hill Speed Hillclimb Kop Hill, Nr Princes Risborough Contact: David Halliday DavidH@egopharm.com
Saturday 12 MG Car Club Race Meeting at Oulton Park Full race programme is published on www.mgcc.co.uk Contact: John Hutchinson (Comps Sec) 01235 849738
Friday 25 – Monday 28 MGCC MGB Register Register Weekend in Wales Based Metropole Hotel, LLandrindod Wells. Contact: Geoff Edwards treasurer@mgb-register.org www.mgb-register.org
Saturday 12 MGCC Southwest Centre Wiscombe Park Wiscombe Hillclimb www.mgccsw.com/2015-events/wiscombe-hillclimb-2015/
Saturday 26 – Sunday 27 MGCC Midget Register Sywell Piston and Props Event www.sywellclassic.co.uk/ Sunday 27 MGCC Abingdon Works Centre Chairman’s Event Road Run to Chavenage House, Tetbury Contact: Marcus Smith 01235 201174
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MG CAR CLUB DEVON AND CORNWALL CORNISH RIVIERA RUN FOR ALL M.G. VINTAGE AND CLASSIC CARS Sunday September 13 2015
The MG Car Club Ltd., Devon & Cornwall Centre have great pleasure in announcing that the Cornish Riviera Run for 2015 will take place on Sunday 13th September 2015. The run this year will again start from the Tamar Science Park and cross by the Tamar Bridge, Looe, St. Austell to Heligan for lunch. After lunch to Polmassick, Tregony, Truro for the finish at Healeys Cyder Farm. The route will be approx. 90 miles. The event ends at Healeys Cyder Farm, Penhallow, where the Healey Historic Cars will be on display. The £27 entry fee offers terrific value as it includes cream teas for two and a self guide tour of their new manufacturing facilities and a taste of cider blending. There are a number of awards which will be presented at the end. The event is open to all MG cars (regardless of age) and other makes of Vintage and Classic 1980 vehicles, so book early to avoid disappointment. A non-refundable administration fee of £10 is included in the entry fee. No refunds will be made after the closing date. Completed entry forms and declaration form to be returned together with total entry fee to: Mrs Jean Quartley, 43 Old Exeter Road, Tavistock, DEVON. PL19 OJE – e.mail – jquartley28@hotmail.com
26th & 27th September
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OUT & ABOUT FEATURE
Out & About Three V8s photographed in front of Nuffield Place, Lord Nuffield’s home, during a recent V8 Register visit. Photo: Andrew Collins
These two YBs followed each other down the Abingdon production line in February 1952, chassis numbers 321 and 322. They meet again 63 years later at the 2015 MGCC Y Register Spring Run. KAX belongs to Keith Herkes of Bedford; LRM belongs to Neil Cairns of Leighton Buzzard. Photo: Neil Cairns
MG6 BTCC driver Jack Goff reacquainting himself with his old MG ZR 190 Trophy Race Car. Photo: Pete Macwaters
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The Team SAIC MG3 competing in the MGLive! Sprint on the Stowe Circuit. Photo: Pete Opie
Nieck Jan Boschman from the Netherlands arriving at MGLive! in his MGA. Photo: www.motorsportinfocus.co.uk
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OUTFEATURE & ABOUT
1960 MGA 1600 photographed in the O2 Elvis exhibition. Elvis drove the car in the film Blue Hawaii and liked it so much he purchased it from the film company for his own personal use. Photo: Brian Starkey
Kelvin Fagan’s MG ZT-T photographed at Cofton Park, the site used for the Pride of Longbridge event. Photo: Kelvin Fagan
Matt Haines (15) and his ‘new Metro’, which is currently undergoing a restoration by Matt and his dad. Photo: Steve Haines
Tom Haines (18) making his debut with MGs on track at Castle Combe in his dad’s MGF!
On the way back from a classic run to France in May, this T Type was parked in the Ibis hotel in Albert, no sign of owners but it looked well used and proper. The Crayford Cortina in the background belongs to the photographer. Photo: Ron Vickers
MGB and MGB GT stopped for a photo opportunity during a Yorkshire Centre Drive It Day sortie. Photo: Ken Cothliff
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OVERSEAS
REVIEW 1966 MGB of Charlie Anderson from Wichita, Kansas outside the Americana hotel
John Twist expounding the theory of MG
MG 2015 in
Niagara Falls By Brian Woodhams
Herr Mittler mit bullhorn organising the departure for Showday
NAMBR Executive – L to R Tony Burgess, Alan Magnuson, Richard Liddick, Bruce Wyckoff, Connie Wyckoff, Bob Gloyd and the American Nuffield Trophy
The Showfield at Balls Falls before the rain
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T
he 24th North American MGB Register (NAMGBR) meeting was hosted by the MG Car Club of Toronto in Niagara Falls, Canada from June 8–12. This Centre are celebrating their 60th Anniversary this year, and the event was organised under the leadership of the ebullient, effervescent Herr (Peter) Mittler. I was met at L B Pearson International Airport in Toronto by the President of the host club, John Burrows, and taken for a BBQ at the home of Jim Sweeney, who is the Club Magazine Editor and Webmaster and who lives 20 minutes from Niagara. The base for the event was the Americana Hotel, and the staff made us very welcome. My sincere thanks go to Oscar and Diana Gonzales of the Chicagoland MGCC for transporting the Americas Nuffield Trophy through the Border to the event where it was on display at all the functions.
On Tuesday morning I attended the NAMGBR executive breakfast. John Twist started his Rolling Tech session, and the silent Auction, Photo, Model and Craft competitions got under way. In the evening the First Timers meeting was hosted by Alan Magnuson, Chairman of NAMGBR, followed by a Natter and Noggin evening. An interesting visitor to this gathering was Andrew Cieszkowski, who is the nephew of Peter Thornley and who co owns Cattail Creek vineyard nearby. Wednesday was Car Show day and the day the gremlins decided to intervene to make sure all should not run smoothly. Jim Sweeney had lent me his 1973 MGB for the event, but before we could set off on the run to Balls Falls where Showday was to take place, it started to pour petrol from the HIF carbs which had just been rebuilt. Jim was using his white 1995 MGF, but the windscreen wiper linkage broke. The MGF was still driveable so off to Showday we go. The weather, which had been very mixed in the area, decided to throw in a couple of heavy downpours once the cars had arrived and been positioned. This made photography and Concours judging, under chief judge Robert Gloyd, very difficult, but in true British tradition we carried on regardless! The evening was a British themed buffet dinner which was well received by all. Thursday was an optional drive day and a group of us opted to go to Fort Erie, which featured heavily in the AmericanBritish War from 1812-14, and lies across Lake Erie from Buffalo in New York State, USA. We were treated to a cannon and
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REVIEW
OVERSEAS
Concours judging after the rain and the eventual winner
musket firing, and some banter ensued between the British/Canadian party and the Americans over who won! Thursday evening was the Gala Banquet and Magic Show at the Greg Frewin Theatre in Niagara Falls. We were all transported there by red London Routemaster buses. Greg is a world renowned Canadian magician who uses real tigers and a trio of pretty ladies to perform his illusions. His final act was to produce Alan Magnuson out of an empty box so he could compere the awards part of the evening. I did a presentation to John Burrows for the 60th Anniversary of the ‘Tronto’ MGCC (that is the way they pronounce it) and the annual award of the John Thornley Spirit of MG print went to Roger and Shirley Goebbert from Huntley,
Illinois. The overall winner of the Concours was the MGC GT of Dana Rindge from Connecticut, USA. I do sense a softening of the Registers towards a more open all MG family, and it was good to see the wider range of MGs including models such as MGF, RV8, 1100, MGA, Midget, MGC, ZB, YT, TD and TF present. Also it was pleasing to see MGs from as far afield as British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Quebec, Alberta, and of course Ontario in Canada present. The USA was represented by 26 of the 50 states including as far away as California, Oregon, Florida, and Colorado. After breakfast on Friday morning the entrants set off on their various routes home, or for a small band of us we started off on the next stage of our MG adventure to get to Frankenmuth, Michigan for the North American MGA Register (NAMGAR) event – more on that next month. MG 2016 is an All Register event in Louisville, Kentucky – start saving your pennies!
John Burrows, President of the Toronto MGCC, receiving their 60th Anniversary award
Overseas Manager doing presentation at Greg Frewin theatre Photos above and below show concours judging underway whilst owners mop up after the deluge
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OVERSEAS
REVIEW
A monthly look through a few of the overseas magazines we receive at Kimber House. Reviewed by Peter Stevens.
Overseas Review
Several issues show hosted by ‘Click & Clack – the Tappet of OCTAGRAM from Brothers’, one of whom owned a 1952 TD. It the West Michigan Old sounds like great fun and I’d love to hear an Speckled Hen MG Club episode. They also inform members of an MG are reviewed this month Service business which is having a parts stock and I was amused by clear-out. Not to be missed! the ‘Britspeak’ feature Forever Young, the magazine of the MG which looks as though Car Club South Cape Centre, South Africa, it might run for some features a reflection of their very successful time. In essence, it’s a Eastern Cape Tour which visited a wind farm, translation of the odd game-park, mohair workshop, agricultural words and phrases museum, churches, air training school, motor we ‘Brits’ sometimes museum and finally a cricket bat factory. use. It begins with the Something to appeal to all tastes and interests greeting “All Right?” in one great trip. and includes “Pants” MG Talk. The Southeastern MG T Y Type with wire wheels, front cover picture of The Octagon magazine (not the wearable kind), Register magazine includes a list of widely “Flog” and “Gander” along with many others. varying events, including the four day Southeast he major problem for an ‘Overseas It’s intriguing how same-language words can British Car Festival in Georgia. They sound like Reviewer’, is deciding what not to have different meanings in other countries, and I a very enthusiastic bunch, but my heart went include, as the magazines are all recall a conversation with a out to the owner of an MGA 1600 Coupe interesting. However, I hope I can capture at colleague (from Michigan) which was offered for sale with the least a flavour, to share with you. about the meaning of comment “Owned for 38 years; it’s I continue to be delighted and impressed “wrench”. He maintained time for a new owner to pamper the with the strong spirit of camaraderie, friendship that it was the proper car for another 38!” Now that’s what and support which infuses this club of ours and name for a “spanner” and I’d call a wrench! is so strongly evidenced in our magazines. I argued that a “wrench” is DYNAMO from the Rocky The Octagon from Western Australia the feeling induced by Mountain Centre tells how a has articles on past and future social parting with someone member is encouraging a young MGB events, with a lot of detail about the food or something you feel owner and helping him to keep it going enjoyed. Their mid-week runs include strongly about, not a and gradually restore it. Something Austin-Healey and Triumph owners; a clear tool for tightening nuts! we should all do when and if we can. indication of just how open minded and We agreed to disagree! Notes on various social events and tolerant MG owners can be! Also featured The item on how runs suggest happy times, but a TF is the intriguingly named ‘Moondyne Joe’ simple jobs expand, windscreen being shattered by the hoof Festival, which encompasses all kinds of struck a chord, but Octogram, the official publication of a deer as it leapt over the car, really jollity and merriment. ‘Moondyne Joe’ was of the West Michigan Old the planned Technical Speckled Hen MG Club made me think! a Bushranger, which my dictionary defines Seminars by John Finally, HERITAGE from the as ‘an outlaw, living in the wilds’, so it could Twist of University Motors should help to limit that MG Car Club of France has a picture of a be an excuse for some pretty outrageous to all but extreme cases. wooden bodied 1974 Midget which captured behaviour! Photographs of a Show and ‘Specklies’, as members are known, enjoy my attention. I’ve seen photographs of 1920s Shine demonstrate that members take a vibrant social scene and many events are exotica with such bodies but never a more looking after their cars very seriously, which detailed. The hen in a T type is included again, modern car. Keeping it clean must be hard work! was possibly what prompted one to request but I’m concerned that it seems to need a SatNav It’s always a pleasure to read the overseas MGBs for use as his wedding cars. I also to find its way around! The obvious warmth magazines and to learn of the fun everyone is noted the photograph of a Y type saloon of contributors is evident in the ‘Wounded having, even if their shiny cars make me feel with wire wheels and wondered what other Wings’ section, in which unwell members are just a little guilty. But remember, as a wise (?) modifications it has. remembered and good wishes offered. I admired man once said, “Dust is just mud with the juice the admission by the Vice President that her car squeezed out!” Now there’s a thought! had a name. Do we all name our MGs? Perhaps we need a feature in Safety Fast!, so we can own up. As Linda, the Specklies President, says in her sign-off line: “it’s all about fun, friends and the cars”. Can’t argue with that! The Hoosier MG’s Newsletter Cars participating in the Western Australia The wooden bodied Midget featured in the from Indiana includes a plea for topical 2015 Concours d’Elegance and Show & Shine Heritage magazine contributions and refers to a car-talk radio
T
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CENTRES
ABINGDON WORKS Sarah Davies sfscribe@mgabingdon.org.uk www.mgabingdon.co.uk
With the fine weather now semi established, you might feel that it is an ideal opportunity to cruise the highways and byways with the canvas stowed. But have you come across that very rare saying – it’s too blooming hot? It happened to us a couple of years back in the US Golden State when we had to put the roof up to cool down. At the time of penning this, it’s getting that way over here... well at least for a couple of days. With the AWC covering the spiritual home of MG, we tend to find that there appear to be more events organised on our ‘patch’ than around other Centres. It does cause concern about attendance
at events. But still we keep busy and by the time this is in print we will have had our Summer Day Out at the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum down in Wiltshire. Silverstone Once again Silverstone was upon us with a full weekend of MG enthusiasts from far and wide congregating for a full weekend of racing, displays and treasure hunting (car parts). AWC’s merry band of volunteers were there manning the stand, and we certainly did greet MG enthusiasts from far and wide. Below photographed was an MG contingency who had travelled all the way from Germany for a UK tour taking in Abingdon and Silverstone as part of the tour before trekking down to Padstow for the Cornish experience. But not before a post-MGLive! dinner at The Boundary House in Abingdon with AWC Committee members. Burford Collectors Club – June 6-7 The 5th Annual Rally and Country Fayre in the beautiful, small market town of Lechlade-onThames, situated in the Cotswolds This turned out to be a clash with the MG Owners’ MGs in the Park six miles up the road. So, although amongst all the other classics we
ANGLIA Rob Muir 01206 862619 Rob.Muir@hotmail.co.uk www.mgcc.co.uk/anglia
Anglia Summer Picnic Despite a heavy band of rain moving over this year’s venue of Blickling Hall, the annual picnic proved to be a great success thanks to the hard work of Roger Latham and the co-operation of The National Trust, the custodians of the hall and its fine grounds. We were allocated a special parking area in the orchard which gave a stunning backdrop to members’ cars, of which there were many models, ranging from T types through Midgets, Bs and Fs to the latest model of MG, the MG3. The rain did not spoil the day as when the sun shone through we could enjoy the magnificent grounds and when it was wet we could retreat into the hall itself. Helmingham Classic & Sports Car Show August 2 Always a popular event; for those of you who did not put this in your diary, you should have just about received Safety Fast! in time to remind you to go. The club will again have a stand and show area and with hundreds of classic cars on display plus the chance to see many of the exhibiting cars driven along the driveway of the hall, it is a must do event. The postcode of Helmingham Hall for those who do not know the area is IP14 6EF.
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Longham Natter Pride of Ownership The White Horse Natter at Longham will again be holding their Pride of Ownership competition on the evening of Tuesday August 4. Contact William Ball on 01508 471506 if you would like more details or just turn up on the night and enjoy the display.
CENTRE only had five MGs in attendance, consisting of two Midgets, a TC, a BGT and a TF, all parked up behind the rather large contingency of MX5s, what a great day it turned out to be. Lovely to see such an assortment of classic cars, motor bikes, tractors, steam engines, fire engines, displays of items from the Wild West and so much more. And yes, the boat is road legal! Well it was as the title states – Collectors Club – Real enthusiasts who were keen to show off their collections.
It just goes to show there are so many events that one can choose to attend, that it’s no wonder there are events that dip out in attendee numbers. Personally it was rather nice to attend something different.
CENTRE this vintage railway which will include a guided tour round the rail sheds at Weyborne Station followed by a train ride to Sheringham and visit to Marriott’s Museum. You can contact John on 01553 842566 or john.collier14@btinternet.com. You can also find more detailed information on the Anglia Website.
Anglia Mid Summer Run This ever popular Touring Assembly run in the lanes and byroads of Suffolk has been organised by Margaret Beresford and Barbara Pratley, on Sunday August 16. If you would like to attend contact Margaret 01394 382096 or Barbara 01394 385135. Visit North Norfolk Railway Sunday September 13 John Collier is organising a day with
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CENTRES
CALEDONIAN Bob MacGillivray 07870 407111 mgcarsscotland@gmail.com www.mgcaledonian.com
We are now in mid-summer or what has been called summer this year! Coldish, wettish and not very sunny! But undeterred the Caledonian Centre activities have rolled on. Since last writing we have been awarded the Best Car Club stand at Thirlestane Show and at Silverstone during MGLive! were awarded the Best Stand by a CRB. Both were based on our Monte Carlo Rally MGB theme but at Silverstone all the stops were pulled out with hats and scarves for the girls and hot mulled wine and other goodies! We were especially chuffed at Silverstone as we were pipped last year by the T Register and this year the Midget Register ran us close! Was particularly impressed by the real Armco they used on their stand… such attention to detail! We are still looking for entries for the Bo’ness Hillclimb Revival on September 5-6. This is always a great weekend with classic cars on track and on display. We would really like a good turnout of MGAs of all types so if the shoe fits get
in touch! The following weekend is the Ingliston Revival and again we are looking for a good entry. Details of both are on our website. Keith Middleton has organised the August Amble on the 23rd based in the Trossachs. Keith has more event organising experience than most so this will be a good day. Again check the website. And you may still be able to enter the September two day tour… Have a look at the Caly website for info. We have received details of the 2016 European Event of the Year being held in France. We expect there will be a good Caledonian Entry for this and if you are interested please check our website for details and make sure you enter when entries open on October 1. I’ve been asking for details of any new MGs on the Caledonian stock list… So far, I know of a TC which has been imported from Ireland for restoration, a ZB Magnette with low ownership which surfaced in Lanarkshire again for
DEVON & CORNWALL Granny Janner www.allegropeter@aol.com www.mgcc.co.uk/devon-cornwall-centre/
The ACE Run started from Okehampton Railway Station with 51 cars on a lovely sunny morning, with spectacular vistas. A check point at Budleigh Salterton was where several had their picnics by the sea. The finish at Bickleigh Castle was hidden amongst the trees by the River Exe. It was built in Saxon times about 1018, having its own thatched Chapel and Court. The castle is encircled with buildings, just like a little thatched village. Ten of the older MGs were parked in the quadrangle of the Castle with some having their cream teas outside admiring these vehicles and discussing cars with the owner. It is with sad news that I write that a long standing member, Dave Miller has departed this world after an illness bravely borne. Our hearts go out to his wife and family, and several local members travelled to the funeral in Arundel. Also
our prayers go out to two other lady members who have a positive attitude to their illness and we wish them a speedy recovery. A new ‘easy-up’ has been purchased for events but unfortunately the search for one that fitted into an MGF’s boot proved impossible. Hopefully it will be used for Powderham Show and Torbay OWC Classic Car Show on Paignton Green with the two Centre banners purchased last year. Horsebridge Natter at The Royal Inn will have been in the same pub for 40 years in August. An Anniversary meal has been arranged for 19th so please let Peter Cooke (01566 775991) know if you would like to partake. South Hams Natter members met at Ivybridge for an evening’s drive across the moors to Widecombe for a lovely meal. Thanks Graham for your efforts.
CENTRE restoration and a 25k mile MGF 75th Anniversary which has been imported from the Midlands and a competition MGB coming in from Scandinavia. Is there anything else on the MG horizon? And finally, David Reid wants his garage emptied! This is your last chance for some EEOTY 2013 memorabilia!
CENTRE Events for the Diary August 9 – DEVON DAY, arrive at Sterts Amphitheatre on Bodmin Moor PL14 5AZ, from 10am. Take a mystery tour to a lunch stop, which must be pre-booked. Contact Terry Bolt on 01579 383497, 07432 103223, terry@ terrybolt.plus.com. September 12 – MGCC SW Centre Wiscombe Hill Climb September 13 – Cornish Riviera Run – Starting at Plymouth Science Park, lunch at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, finish at Healey’s Cyder Farm. Get your entries in now, any volunteers for marshalling? Contact Sue Heath – allegropeter@aol.com. October 25 – Tamar Classic Trial – marshals are needed to man the sections. Any proceeds from this trial go into Centre funds but without your support this event will not take place, please help – contact: bobslatter@hotmail.com. Enjoying the 2015 ACE Run in lovely weather. Photo: Peter Opie
Admiring the MGs at Bickleigh Castle. Photo: Pete Heath
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CENTRES
LINCOLNSHIRE John Hebb tel 01522 683541jhebb38@virginmedia.com www.mgcclincolnshire.co.uk
August Natters Swallow Wednesday 5 (Landlords Choice); Lincolnshire Poacher Friday 7; Abbey Lodge Monday 10; Wishing Well Wednesday 12; Three Horseshoes Thursday 20; Admiral Nelson Thursday 27. August Events Sunday 2 Revesby Show; Sunday 9 Boston Classic Car Show; Sunday 9 Swallow visit to Elvington Air Museum (Keith 01472 602949); Sunday 16 Poachers Concours Doddington Hall (Geoff/Vicki 01205 871973); Tuesday – Friday 18–21 MMM Annual Tour Woodhall Spa. Luncheon Club Wednesday 19. Early September Natters Swallow Wednesday 2; Lincolnshire Poacher Friday 4. Quite a few Natter events in June; the Abbey Lodge held their annual Boules evening on the 8th, unfortunately the temperature was more French Alps than St Tropez, nevertheless a good turnout. A couple of days later 14 members visited parts stockists Rimmer Bros on a trip organised by the Wishing Well Natter where they toured the enormous storage area (several floors in WW1 aircraft hangar) and saw the organisation
behind parts being parcelled ready for same day dispatch worldwide. The Luncheon Club visited the Woodhouse Arms in Corby Glen, 14 members enjoying another fine meal. Unfortunately the Lincolnshire CARR event had to be cancelled due to insufficient entries; a lot of work goes into organising this event and printing the road books, hopefully these can be used next year. It is important for all events to get your entry in at least a couple of weeks in advance. The Three Horseshoes held their Landlords Choice, the winner being the MGC Roadster of Steve Wilkingson, second was Janette Pollard’s V8 Roadster and third was the ZR of Bob Welch. The big event of the month was, of course, MGLive! and Centre members were active in most disciplines. Mark Bellamy took to the track in the MG Trophy races, Adam Key in the Cockshoot Cup and Equipe GTS races. In the Autotests the California Cup was won by the Lincs team of Ena fox, Bryan Pack and Jordan Fox, plus, Centre member Ken Waylett was a member of the Midget Register team which won the BMC Trophy. Ken was also first in the Midget Class, Ena was second and also fastest Lady, Bryan was first in the MGF/TF Class. Jordan was second in the Modified Class and took his Midget to the Sprint Circuit on Sunday where he was First Novice and first in his class. In the Concours the MGB of Vicki Edge was second in the Elite Class and was Best MGB (Windmill Garage Trophy). The
MIDLANDS Tony Lake 01604 589104 tonylake134@hotmail.co.uk
June was the month when the sun began to shine and events on the eastern side of the Midlands were well supported by Natters and Registers alike. MGLive! at Silverstone is where east meets west and both sides of the Midlands Centre step up to the plate to help set up for the weekend, provide marshals and run the popular camp site, this year under the direction of Lech Zakrzewski. Another high spot was Hollowell Steam Fair, you can tell you’ve been by the gritty soot spots on face, head and clothing, just how riding on a steam train used to smell and feel. Kilsby Natter scooped the prize for the best display by a car club. That didn’t happen by accident; good preparation by a hardy gang led by Rick Willoughby left nothing to chance. The following week Kilsby celebrated its 21st birthday at the George Inn with a barbecue attended by some 60 members. A far cry from the handful, literally, persevering for many years, starting in 1994, led by Rick, Terry Baulch and Dave Cotgrave. They can now bask in their success having created a thriving Natter that warmly embraces Car Club, Owners Club and Octagon Club afficianados. Further afield quite a number of MGs from
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the Midlands Centre made their way to Tilburg in the Netherlands for the EEOTY hosted by the MGCC Holland. The event was based at De Beekse Bergen Safari Park created from a worked out sand and gravel operation. It is a huge site, with sailing, fishing, an open air zoo, an off-road Landrover experience, 15 of them are quite a sight in convoy, endless indoor facilities along with glamping in a jungalow, luxurious even. It coped very well with over 300 MGs and 600 people, absorbed them all and still dealt with regular holiday makers. Meet and Greet, Beach Hangout on the waterfront, a barbecue, drive-in movie and farewell lunch all took place in sunny and dry weather outside. The highlight of the driving was the Octarun celebrating 60 years since the Dutch club was formed. This involved visiting eight destinations, a 150-mile route, quite hectic including a free ferry crossing over the River Bergse Maas, cheaper than building a long bridge. Visiting all eight entitled one to a bronze octagon plaque as a memento. There was a visit to a leather museum, very well done with displays of both the mundane and the outrageous shoes that the industry, for which Tilburg is famous, produced along with working
CENTRE Best MGA Award went to Geoff Edge, and Dean Smith’s TF won the Best TF Award. The following Sunday 15 cars and crews set off from the Lincolnshire Poacher to journey through the leafy by-lanes of Lincolnshire to Normanton Hall on a tour arranged by John and Yuliya Bromfield. Unfortunately some of the leafy lanes were closed because of the Lincoln Grand Prix Cycle race, causing the navigators to earn their keep. Nevertheless an enjoyable day.
The 2015 winning California Cup team with MGCC President John Day and MGCC Chairman Bill Silcock
CENTRE examples of the old shoe machinery. The DAF museum majored on the two pedal Variomatic transmission. Early trucks, cars, engines and military vehicles were on display along with a Cosworth BDA powered Huron race car in Camel colours built for DAF that used the CVT to win the Belgian hill climb championship in 1972. Paris-Dakar twin engined DAF trucks were faster than the rally cars on some desert stages, mean machines. The abiding memory many may have, particularly older cars with cart springs at each end was of speed bumps, verkeerdrempels, in the rural leisure areas shared with cyclists and walkers, but the dirt roads were in surprisingly good condition and fun to drive. The Summer Sprint at Curborough is on August 2, always a good test of man and machine as the laws of physics and the revenge of Mother Nature combine, to make sure the nice marshals report you to Sir for ‘all four wheels on the grass’. Next up on September 27 is the Autumn Trial at Burton Dassett, a super compact grassed venue which has seen many young trialers take the wheel for the first time under the watchful eye of Dad. We’d like to see some more new faces this year too, young and a bit older.
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CENTRE
NORTH WEST Paul Goodman 01625 876300
The North West Centre is offering a large range of activities to members this month. The Cockshoot Cup racers lead the way with the double header race weekend at the Anglesey Circuit on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9. The race meeting is organised by the British Racing and Sports Car Club and will include TVRs, saloons and single seater racing cars. Please come and support the drivers. This will also be a good opportunity to look at the cars in detail and to find out more if you are thinking of becoming a racing driver. Next we have our Summer Gathering at the Plough and Flail on Tuesday 18. This is an opportunity for an evening drive and to display your MG to a wider audience. All our experts will also be present to advise you on getting the best from your car. Our lunchtime meeting will be on Wednesday 26 with the venue being The Black Swan, Trap Street, Lower Withington, SK11 9EQ. This is a short distance into Cheshire from Greater Manchester. The following weekend is the Gold Cup
historic car race meeting at Oulton Park organised by the Historic Sports Car Club. The circuit owners are offering free entry tickets for Sunday 30 and Monday 31 to drivers of MGs willing to display their cars. You must email me before August 5 to secure your ticket. The following weekend, September 5 and 6 sees us all off to the Anglesey Circuit again for our second sprint weekend of 2015. We have a very large entry of cars of all ages, shapes and sizes and will need a substantial number of people to run the event. There are jobs to be done on the live circuit, waving red flags and using the radio, and also off track. If you have never been involved before, you will be placed with one of our experienced marshals. It is a great way to get up close to the action in a safe and protected way. Briefly looking back to June, the Plough and Flail Concours was a great success on a sunny evening with more than 100 cars attending. The details of MGLive! will be elsewhere in Safety Fast!, but we must congratulate Garry Wetton,
SOUTH EAST John Bennett 01227 637813, johndotbennett@tiscali.co.uk www.mgcars.org.uk/mgccse/
The Ashdown Adventurers have made a most promising start with their first-Wednesday lunchtime runs in the East Sussex area. Richard Clark (07818 420921) tells me that they have had eight or nine cars for their first two outings with high hopes for double figures soon, especially in September when they are finishing at the Bluebell Vineyard for a tour and wine tasting! The photo below shows an eclectic line up of MGs through the ages drawn up outside the Duddleswell Tearoom at the start of their July excursion. The second photo features the Centre display at the recent Brooklands 12/12 event. This was very successful and a credit to John Davies who had organised everything. Aside from the dominating presence of a VC10 fuselage, also in shot is our new clothing display stand being put to good use and Piers Hubbard’s MGA with what looks a little like a For Sale notice on its screen, but I’m sure that will be for the revised second edition of his book, ‘Call it MGA’, and not his cherished motor car!
Assuming that the August issue of SF! is not delayed for any reason, there is still just time to sign up for our Summer Gathering at Fishbourne Roman Villa on Sunday week, August 9, and also for the optional feeder run starting as usual at the Jolly Farmer, Buckland, just West of Reigate on the A20. All the details are on the website but a call to our Secretary Philip Bayne-Powell might be a good idea at this stage on 01483 811428 to secure your place. A full programme of MG activities is promised including the usual Concours and PoO events plus the eagerly anticipated gymkhana involving not just MGs but Horse and Carriage entrants as well! All this is in addition to the attraction of the Roman villa itself with its stunning mosaic depicting a winged boy riding on a fish of some kind. Hope you can make it! Finally, a quick look ahead on the website shows plenty of interest in September, but for the benefit of any computerphobes amongst you, highlights are the Shere Hillclimb which takes place on September 6, details from John Davies, 01737
Ian Staines and Ian Winstanley who won the Tim Forwood Trophies for the best Cockshoot performances. The sprint ran with over 100 competitors thank to hard work by the organising team under the leadership of David Rainsbury. Thanks are due to all of those involved.
T Types at the Plough and Flail in June. Photo: Paul Goodman
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The SE Centre display at the Brooklands 12/12 event. Photo: John Glover
241971, the Autumn Gathering on September 14 at Filching Manor near Polegate, call Andrew Mitchell on 07821 838538, and, finally, John Glover’s Cruise to Cornwall for the weekend of 25/27, call him on 07802 318950. What a full and varied programme we have to enjoy!
MGs at the start of the July ‘Ashdown Adventurers’ run. Photo: Peter Haynes
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CENTRES
SOUTH WEST Ian Beningfield 07747 080417 ianbeningfield@gmail.com
With last month’s Safety Fast! landing on the doorstep so soon after MGLive! there was no time to report on the California Cup organised by the Centre. The time spent by the SW Centre team of Antony Pope, Chris Rigby and Martin Skelton honing their skills at our recent MGs on Grass event must have paid off after a very successful day at Silverstone. Finishing second overall, the team were also the first recipients of the new Longbridge Trophy awarded to the top Register team driving more modern machinery. Anthony Pope also picked up the Kimber Trek Trophy for the best SW Centre member at the event. As always thanks to members of the Centre who gave up their time on Friday and Saturday to help set up and marshal the event. With more events on the horizon we are always in need of more volunteers to help organise and run our events, if you can help out please get in touch with a member of the committee A week after Silverstone was our summer social run to Lacock Abbey near Chippenham organised by Alan Diamond and Dave Heath. Organising a picnic during the British Summer it was perhaps no big surprise that the weather was less than spectacular but thankfully the worst of the predicted rain stayed away. There
was a good turnout of 27 cars spanning much of the marque’s history from MMM and T-Types to Midgets, Bs, a Metro turbo and Fs. We were given a prime location within the walled courtyard and over lunch the cars were attracting considerable attention not only from fellow owners but many of the National Trust’s visitors. Upcoming Events Sunday August 16 – Mendip Trial near Chew Stoke, Somerset Saturday September 12 – Wiscombe Park Hillclimb near Honiton, Devon Sunday October 4 – Autumn Social Run to Prescott Hillclimb Autumn Classic, Gloucestershire More details and the full list of future events are available on the website www.mgccsw.com
TYNE TEES Noel Lindford noel.lindford@btinternet.com
The Centre provided a stunning showroom display at MG Newcastle on June 26, when four members’ cars were used as the backdrop to a Dealer Talk-In at MG Newcastle, given by Andrew Jordan, lead driver of the MG/Triple Eight Team, racing in the BTCC at Croft that weekend. The attached photo shows Andrew Jordan admitting the MGA 1600 of Mervyn Gillespie, before getting into the car. He also got into the driving seat of Nick Simpson’s MG TF1250. My thanks to them, Brian Ireland and Gerald Breedon for bringing their cars. Tyne-Tees members’ cars were on display again at MG Northumbria’s Classics in Corbridge, on Sunday July 5, where our stand had a superb display of 24 cars, which included 22 MGs, an Austin 7 and a Ferrari 355! Ian Fair won a class award with his beautiful 1939 Saxe Blue TA Tickford.
Ian Fair’s TA Tickford wins class award at Corbridge
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and remember to check our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MGCCSW for all the latest news and photos.
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joining us, so it should be a very good turnout. Events coming up: The event organiser is Keith Dunn, contactable on Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 August: Croft 01388 526214, if you need further information. Nostalgia Weekend. Tyne-Tees Centre have a The run starts at 10.00am prompt, and for those major presence. Entries are now closed to exhibitors, travelling some distance there are very good B&Bs but do come along on either day to this super event, in Stanhope and Wolsingham. Entry forms will be visit our stand and say hello. available from our Centre website, or if you do not Sunday August 30: Hamsterley Hoppings. have Internet access, please call Noel Lindford on The Centre will have a stand at this village show which 07432 152095, and one can be sent to you. Even supports local charities. It is an excellent day out, so if better come to one of our Natters and collect! you would like to display your car, then please contact Dennis Hope on 0191 517 2804 or email denhope@ hotmail.co.uk Sunday September 13: 8th Old Speckled Hen Run. This year’s event is an 80 mile tour of Weardale and Teesdale, starting and finishing at the Chatterbox Café in Saint John’s Chapel Market Place, near Stanhope, in Weardale. The route takes in some of the most stunning scenery you will ever encounter in Northern England, often driving on little used but good roads, devoid of heavy traffic. The FWD Register are Andrew Jordan inspects our cars at MG Newcastle
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:23
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CENTRES
YORKSHIRE David Copeman 07920 064585 www.mgccyorkshire.co.uk
North – Ken Cothliff The ‘Canada Run’ on June 6 was a great success; the sun was ‘cracking the flags’ again, and new starting point at the Bridge Inn Walshford was a really good starting point for the event. A few of us attended the ‘Cars in the Park’ event at Newby Hall Ripon on May 10. Then the summer Treasure Hunt, organised by Jack and Wilma and won by Jeff and Kate Marsden in their newly acquired MGA coupe, with Steve and Andrea Coltman coming second in the ‘Corgi’ MGB. We had seven cars at the Yorkshire Post Classic Car Show at Harewood House, and we were joined by an RV8 as well. It was a wellpublicised event in the Leeds area, and attracted good crowds on what was not the sunny day we hoped.
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South – Kathryn Twiby Busy month with many of the group attending MGLive!. A small group drove to Jersey for the festival of motoring, with a couple of breakdowns on the way. We also had a very entertaining trip to the theatre to see Wind in the Willow In fact an enjoyable month’s MG-ing! East – Brian Rylance The June Natter was the Pride of Ownership. Results: 1st in class 1 Jill Thornton MGB, 1st in class 2 Chris Moore MGB GT, 1st in class 3 David Jackson MG TF. Best in Show Steve Pountney MG SV. Harry and Janet provided the Social Run which took us over the Humber on a super route ending up at the Sandpiper back in Yorkshire. West – David Copeman A busy MG-ing June. Seven Yorkshire Centre couples attended the European event held at De Beekse Bergen Holland in a variety of MGs: Richard and Jill Coates, Jack and Barbara Haigh, Cliff and Janice Hobbs in MGBs, Tony Hay and Janice Attwood NA Magnette, Tony and Judith Margel M-type, David and Carol Copeman RV8, Bob and Beth Walker F-type Magna which was voted as the best F-type at the event. Bob also had the fastest time for screwing various sized nuts and bolts together inside a bag...? The
weather throughout the event was excellent although the routes were typically Dutch with instructions only and no mileage. West Yorkshire members were in abundance at MG Live! although we did not manage to meet up with everyone who attended. Tiger – Pete Welbourn We had a total of 12 cars, 10 being of the MG variety, for our run up The White Horse Farm Inn at Rosedale, good weather, a good route but jinxed; all the way up to Newton-on-Rawcliffe to the road closed sign! A minor re-route via Cropton and sure enough good food and an equally good view. Finally following last month’s note on opening an MGA bonnet from the outside, does anyone out there have the slatted section of an MGA mk2 grille taking up space in their garage? Not the entire car, just part of the grille that may come in handy one day, a bit like all those timber offcuts.
CENTRE
ULSTER
Carol Willis Tel: (028) 9079 9997 or 07831 345560 Email: carol.mgulster@hotmail.co.uk Website: www.mgcculstercentre.co.uk
We returned to Morrow Contracts, Gilnahirk, Belfast for our summer autotest. The site has changed a bit since last there and everybody had a terrific evening. Our congratulations go to Andrew Blair for winning the event outright with 674.3 secs in his Nova, closely followed by George McMillan (Nova) second and Paul Lowther (Stryker) third overall and all the Class Winners. Thank you to all concerned for helping on the evening (and beforehand) from setting up the tests to taking them down at the finish. We had planned to run a California Cup Team at Silverstone this year but everything seemed to be against us at the last minute. Simon Johnston had rather a bad fall at Cultra Hill Climb which resulted in him having an operation on his arm. We hope you recover soon Simon. Nevertheless, Silverstone welcomed rather a large contingent from our Centre. Gordon and I travelled over on the Friday morning and checked into our ‘Snuggle’ boxes (christened by George McMillan). Also Lyn and Robert Holmes, Peter, Kerry and Aria Moore, Will Corry Sen and Will Jun, Holly and Ben together with Matt Chambers had all arrived by then. Our Chairman and Secretary went exploring in the afternoon and found a lovely little beer
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garden in Brackley, a touch of refreshment there and we subsequently changed drivers to travel to Bicester where your Secretary was introduced to Pizza Express. Delicious to say the least! Then we headed back to Silverstone and were joined by Robert Holmes and Will Corry Sen to take a tour of Force India very kindly arranged by Jamie McMillan. Extremely interesting, Jamie told a good story of how the site was used by the team after each race and showed us some of the carbon fibre bits used on the cars. Thank you so much Jamie. Chairman and Secretary subsequently headed back to the Snooze Boxes to prepare for an evening’s entertainment and food! Yes, I heard that. Apparently early mornings and liquid refreshment mid-afternoon obviously didn’t agree with somebody! While waiting for said person to appear, in the distance espied were Sam Baird, George Jennings, Trevor Barlow, Dermot Simpson and Robert Dickson who had arrived with the beautifully Dickson restored ex Paddy Hopkirk ORX Mini and TR7 which had been driven by Derek Boyd; both cars were being put on display. Both Paddy and Derek came on the Saturday and obviously created quite a stir with the public, it was great to see.
On the Saturday evening Gordon and I headed off to the Chairman’s Dinner where we received a great welcome and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening meeting so many who had come over on our Mike Armstrong Tours. Afterwards we joined up with Robert Dickson and his group of reprobates (including Derek Boyd) at the Snooze Box Bar for a few wee snifters before retiring. On the Sunday we watched Will Junior race in his beautiful Sebring Sprite before we headed off to the airport. What an end to a great weekend! As you are now aware, we changed the date of our next Sunday Run to August 9 so please keep your eyes peeled for details of where and when to meet. The format of the day remains much the same. Please contact Carol if you wish to go along as we need to give numbers to the eatery. Dates for your Diary: Sunday Run August 9 Ulster Classic Trial September 4 PCTs Sep 19, Oct 3, Oct 24 Autotest October 18 AutoSOLO November 7
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:23
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AUGUST 2015
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REGISTERS
VINTAGE John Venables 01865 862573
The Register had a successful weekend at MGLive!, despite the rather wet time on the Saturday afternoon. I was unable to attend until Sunday as I had promised an old friend that I would do her daughter’s wedding 18 months ago and the dates clashed, so we built the Register stand in the main Marquee at Silverstone on Friday. Strange to say despite being only 25 miles away the weather was good in Oxford and the wedding was accomplished hood down, but we did have heavy rain at 5pm. As I write these notes the time of the Grand Prix, Oxford is having a heavy storm whilst Silverstone is quite reasonable! August 1-2 is the VSCC hill climb at Prescott where we meet up for our traditional picnic at lunchtime, again let us hope the rain gods do not give us a monsoon as they did last year on the Saturday. Do try and come to this even for a single day.
johnandtriciav@gmail.com
We are hoping to join the MGCC stand at Kop Hill on September 19-20. This is a comparatively new event which uses a very old hill at Chinnor in Buckinghamshire; you have a chance to drive the hill, so again if you are available come along. A huge variety of vehicles attend. I expect many of you have a number of local events at this time of year. I recently used my 18/80 at the local church fete to take people for rides around the parish, as a 78 year old I was most amused when a 10 year old boy described me as ‘cool’. It never ceases to amaze me to see some of the vehicles at some shows, one was a hand built motorcycle with a 10 litre engine, V twin, ridden to the event. This event is at Shalbourne, near Hungerford and really friendly organisers. The date is Sunday October 4, not much else on at that time of year Some of our members will be joining the EMGS event at Ross on Wye between September 15-18, a rather nice part of the country.
TRIPLE M Jeremy Hawke +44 (0)1225 863934 mgk3007@btinternet.com www.triple-mregister.org
Silverstone: Well, it’s been and gone and after the highs of Brands Hatch, MMM-wise we could be accused of ‘under-performing’ at Silverstone. First the good bits – we had a really stunning display in the main marquee, with Geoff Enoch’s R Type, re-created from scratch and accurate in just about every detail, complete with a Brooklands Pit back-drop created by Peter G, Dick M and helpers (with a fair bit of blood, sweat, tears and the odd splinter thrown in). Then, there were the not so good bits... Though it started at the same time as a heavy downpour, the AGM was shall we say ‘lightly attended’, from which your committee can only assume that everyone is 100% happy with the way everything is being run? Not even the lure of free tea, coffee and biscuits could bring you punters in! Then, there was the MMM competitive participation, which only just required the fingers of a second hand to count! In the California Cup we scraped together an entry of just three (a fourth had a valid sick note for a poorly diff). Still, they were enough to frighten off any T Type or Vintage entries, so as all three finished the day (Colin Reynolds way out in front) the team duly picked up the Register Trophy. In the Sunday Sprint, again we had only three representatives of the genre (with one sick note for bottom-end woes). Thus we had the grand totals of eight entries/six starters for the biggest club event of the year. But all is not lost; what about the Concours/Pride of Ownership? Well, Ted Hacks’ D Type cut a lonely and solitary sight opposite the row of people furiously polishing their modern ZRs, ZTs etc, which let’s face it, are unlikely to be around when they are 80 years old (I know, I drive one...). Come on folks, it’s free to
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REGISTER
John Day and Doug Harris discuss Vintage matters at MGLive!
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enter and you even get COTY points to boot! Our end of year report for this one will no doubt read ‘could do better’. Forthcoming Events September 12 – Wiscombe Park Hillclimb: Details on the SW Centre web-page at: http:// www.mgccsw.com/2015-events/wiscombehillclimb-2015/, or contact Bruce Weston, 19 Compton Road, South Cadbury, Yeovil, Somerset. BA22 7EZ. 01963 440941 Email address: bruceweston@tiscali.co.uk
The MMM California Cup entry of Reynolds, Hawke and Stroud, just enough for a team!
The total MMM Sprint entry – Phil Coombs (J2), Howard Harman (PA) and Chris Cadman (C Type)
www.mgcc.co.uk
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REGISTERS
SVW Charlie Plain-Jones cplainjones@gmail.com www.svwregister.co.uk/
REGISTER
You might just be reading this before the SVW Weekend August 7-9, and if so do not forget to bring along your surplus parts and tools for the informal Bring and Buy which is a new innovation from Paul and Sharman this year. New Members It is always a pleasure to welcome new members to the SVW Register and we have three more this month: Peter Ross VA tourer Kent Tim Riley SA tourer Somerset Ulf Källåker SA Sweden MGLive! SVW Report We always have a presence in the main Marquee at MGLive! and in the last two years, we have been able to display a car alongside. Last year, Jim Andrews’ VA Tickford graced the stand. This year, the theme of the marquee was ‘A Day At The Races’. SVW cars hardly ever raced, though they did often enter concours events, usually with lady drivers. However, the WA sales brochure has some great illustrations by Connolly of WA cars at Ascot, so we blew them up to poster size (shown opposite) and displayed those alongside my WA Tickford. We also had a blackboard with the odds for a variety of fictitious nags chalked on it.
Maybe the link with the races was too tenuous. Anyway, the Caledonian Centre won the prize for best stand with the rather more obvious display of hay bales, racing overalls etc. The Vintage Register also put up a good show and though it has nothing to do with SVW I can’t resist a picture of the President’s wife Janet with helpers counting the cash at the close of play on Sunday. Most of our committee, together with Rosemary Washbourne and Rhoda Andrews, took
T TYPE John Ward 01621 773606 johnw.ward@yahoo.co.uk www.tregister.org
As you read these notes I trust many of you will be ready for the the T Register ‘T’ Party on Sunday 2nd at the Shuttleworth Aero Museum, always a winner, it is a great combination classic MGs and flying machines. Staggeringly with Silverstone also behind us there is only one more T Register party to go, the Autumn Tour to Wooton under Edge and then the show is over for another year! MGLive! 2015 Silverstone weather behaved in its predictable way for the annual MGLive! Event. Driving there on the Friday in bright breezy conditions, thoughts were that maybe the sun would shine tomorrow. Wrong, Saturday morning was dull and overcast and shortly a grey drizzle descended to dampen the spirits, but this did not deter the T Types. By 9.30am it was a question as to whether we had been allocated enough parking area and by 11.00 I was stealing spaces reserved for the 60th Anniversary timeline of competition cars which had not turned up. Then at about 3.00pm the worst befell us, the downpour happened, scattering everybody to shelters but the diehard racers carried on. The theme of the main marquee was ‘A Day at the Races’ and many thanks to Geoff and
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Annie Matthews and supporting cast for putting on a great display of racing days in the 1960s which is where we came in. If you recall we won last year but others had obviously worked out
Joy Anderson, Alan Wakefield and Sally Silcock posing alongside the late Tony Smith’s immaculate TA Pebworth Special on the T Register Stand
a turn at manning the desk, and the takings from sale of our regalia were good thanks to Chris Cox’s sterling efforts. Here he is in front of the stand roping in the customers. Sadly, we did not have so many cars in the car park – just five at the most – where were you all?
REGISTER the strength of the opposition and pulled out the stops, so no prize this time. Sunday was a much improved day weather wise and traditionally not so many T Types make the journey on this day, but still a good turnout and even with more allocated space the car park was full by lunchtime. Maybe the attraction was the late afternoon racing with T Types competing with the Iconics, or what proved to be a very popular event was the Sprint taking place over a single lap of the Stowe Circuit and being a round of the Luffield Speed Championship. Martin Price giving it all in his TA in the Luffield Championship Sprint at Silverstone 2015. Martin is the T Register Luffield Championship representative so if you want to know anything about getting started contact him. Photo: Colin Murrell.
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REGISTERS
Y TYPE Jerry Birkbeck 01926 258691 Mob: 07855 566325 jerrybirkbeck@btinternet.com
MG Live 2015 – Silverstone The major MG Event of the year was MGLive!. Held as is tradition at Silverstone, this was dominated by the weather – rain on Saturday and a windy but largely damp free Sunday. This must have affected numbers as it appeared light on punters over both days. The Register took the opportunity to hold the AGM in one of the pits – Paddock Zero. Unfortunately, this was not a good location and despite keeping the doors closed the interruptions caused principally by the noise of passing vehicles did little to improve the ambience. Numbers attending the meeting were little more than the Committee and if we intend, as we would like, to broaden the base and age profile of the Register then we will need to carefully consider the location of future meetings. Though thanks to Chris for using his initiative to try somewhere different. The following were appointed: Chairman: Peter Veilvoye; Secretary: Chris Callaghan; Treasurer: Bill Bennett; Webmaster: Annette Callaghan; Registrar: Jack Murray*; Regalia: Mike & Sue Silk; Technical: Neil Cairns; Press/PR/Events: Jerry Birkbeck Thanks to Annette for fulfilling the role of Treasurer for the last three years and welcome to Bill Bennett, who owns a lovely YA. Sadly Jack Murray
announced that he was standing down as Registrar on the grounds of ill health. He has done a fantastic job over the past 24 years and his careful work with both new and existing owners will be sadly missed. We are now actively seeking a new Registrar and all Jack’s records are being collected by Chris. In the interim, Registration is at present being dealt with by Peter and the rest of the Committee. Any problems then please do contact me either by phone or email. MG YT Chassis No 4451 We must thank Neil Coombes, our serial restorer
Edward Vandyk Tel: 01488 608810 email: mgascribe@vandyk.co.uk
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of Ys (and also a VA Tourer) for bringing along the YT he is currently working on. His journey from home in Kent to Silverstone should have taken around 2.5 hours. However, problems with his trailer, the M25 and sundry experiences resulted in him arriving at 7.00pm after an 11 hour journey. His efforts were much appreciated and he drew favourable comments from a large number of very interested spectators. Thank you very much Neil for all your hard work. Thanks also to Mike and Sue Silk for their dedication running the stand – once again a super job.
Neil Coombes’ YT 4451 at Silverstone
MGA MGLive! is behind us now but what a great weekend and what a good turnout of MGAs! I am sure we all appreciate the effort Kimber House and the various Register Committees put into making this annual event run seamlessly. You should get this edition of Safety Fast! just prior to the MGA Day at Gaydon on Sunday August 2 and if you are waiting until the last moment to see, for example, what the weather holds, now is the time to decide! For no other reason than I am an optimist I believe the sun will be shining out of a cloudless sky and it will be roofs down, or possibly sunroofs open for coupes, and sun block. Do come and make it the biggest collection of MGAs ever assembled. ‘Call it MGA’ second edition was a hit at MGLive! with Piers and Roger frantically signing away. Copies are now available by mail order – see the MGA Register website or send an email to George Dutton at george519@o2.co.uk. I suggest you don’t delay as ‘when they are gone, they are gone!’ The Lands End to John o’Groats MGA tour starting early September will soon be on us. 76 cars are now signed up of which some 48 will be doing the whole trip, including hopefully your scribe! The overnight stops are at Lands End (6th), Barnstaple (7th), Congresbury (8th), Telford (9th), Ainley Top, Elland (10th), Wetheral (11th), Irvine (12th), Pitlochry (13th), Strathpeffer (14th),
REGISTER
Dundonell & Ullapool (15th) and Thurso (16th). If you want to come and see the cars and possibly, in some locations, join the participants for a drink or supper please either contact George Dutton (as above) or Stuart Mumby on mga@live.co.uk and they will give you further details. Now for a plug about something I am involved in organising in conjunction with the Twin Cam Group but which is open to all MGAs. On August 30, the Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend, there will be a car show at Stockcross, a village within five miles of the M4 / A34 junction. This will be part of an annual village fortnightly event and will have craft stalls, open gardens, food and local beer from West Berks Brewery amongst other attractions. In other words it is not just for car enthusiasts but their partners as well!
REGISTER As part of the show we have organised a Rare Breeds tour, which we hope will also have some interesting variations from the usual tulip in certain sections, in the morning covering 60 miles of Wiltshire, Hampshire and Berkshire. Whilst there will be a coffee stop the idea is to get the tour back by about 2pm so everyone can enjoy the food, beer and other attractions in the afternoon. MGAs are certainly a rare breed so your participation would be most welcome but spaces are limited by our MSA Exemption Certificate. You can, of course simply turn up for the car show in your MGA and entry will be free. Please contact me or go to http://www. mgcc.co.uk/mga-twin-cam-group/events-2/ for further details of both tour and show.
MGAs in the arena at MGLive!
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REGISTERS
MAGNETTE Stephen Tickell 01737 760330 stephen.tickell@gmail.com www.magnette.org
There was a better than average Magnette attendance at MGLive! with 18 cars on Saturday and 14 on Sunday. On display in the marquee we had the historic rallying ZA in which Jan Pearce competed for over 20 years. Jan did some light restoration on 594 AAF before he passed away, and had to replace the original engine after his last desert rally, but the car still has a lovely patina. It’s now owned by David Halliday and attracted plenty of interest. David was joined by Paul Batho and Anthony White to form the Magnette autotest team, narrowly losing out to the Midget Register for the BMC Trophy – a creditable performance given the
significant difference in size and manoeuvrability! Anthony had the foresight to bring his dashboard camera, and hopes to produce YouTube videos of the autotest and also his circuit parade lap, which you’ll be able to find via magnette.org Thunder Dragon rally Jose de Souza, who entertained us at Magnette60 with tales of Peking-Paris and other classic rallies, is taking his ZA to Bhutan for the Thunder Dragon rally in November. Possibly this non-competitive event will be less arduous than crossing Mongolia on dirt tracks, but the Himalayan mountain kingdom is still a fairly remote location for a Magnette, so no
MGC Ginny Cartmell 01208 821552 ginnycartmell@btinternet.com
At time of writing Barrie and I are just trying to get back into home life after living out of the MGC for the last two and a half weeks. First we left the UK via Plymouth to Roscoff, and meandered along the French coast, with a very welcome stopover in Le Touquet (this just happens to be the venue for next year’s EEOTY). Then it was into Holland, to attend the 2015 MG European Event of the Year. Driving to De Beekse Bergen had its challenges, with the motorways around Antwerp resembling a lorry park at times. Once on the open roads it was a pleasure and delight, driving in the countryside. The Dutch put on a very entertaining event and the weather was just super from start to finish. We saw a record amount of MGCs attend this year. Unfortunately we only managed to get a line up of eight, but there were a total of 11 over the four days that we attended, including the last MGC GT built, chassis number 9102, pictured below...
The Chassis Plate
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doubt we can look forward to more exciting reports and photos. Harrogate weekend You can still join us for our weekend in Yorkshire, courtesy of the Harrogate MG Club, even if you haven’t booked. On Saturday the scenic run leaves Bewerley Park around 10am and includes a stop for the Register AGM at Oatland Mount (HG2 8BY), starting 3pm. Sunday is the main show day and again it’s ok to just turn up, although it would be very helpful to have an idea of numbers to make sure parking is reserved. Please contact Alan Cleobury (01564 702300).
Paul Batho in autotest action. Photo: Simon Goldsworthy
ex-Jan Pearce rally car on display
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REGISTER
Last MGC Built Chassis number 9102
As always we met up with lots of old friend and made many more new ones. Albert and Maya from Holland were particularly helpful when it came to ordering food in our hotel each
REGISTER evening, talking us through the menu, to make sure we ate well each night. Once the event had come to a close after a farewell afternoon tea in glorious sunshine, it was back on the road heading for our Rotterdam sailing back to Hull, just in time for MGLive! Silverstone. We covered just over 2,000 miles, door to door, without even a hiccup. That really is a record in our history of travelling around Europe and beyond...! Roll on next year, Le Touquet will be a great venue, C you there..... Instead of reading about what Barrie and I do each month, why not send in some of your experiences and excursions or share your technical ideas and details with other members.
Eight of the 11 MGCs at the MG European Event of the year in Holland this year
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REGISTERS
REGISTER
MGF Tim Morris 01932 882467 scribe@mgfregister.org www.mgfregister.org
As I write his month’s column we are frantically trying to pull everything together for our biggest show in five years and as you receive Safety Fast! through your letter box it will in all likelihood be over. We hope you had a really great time and if you couldn’t make it to MGF20 then you’ll be able to read about it in next month’s edition and there will be a special souvenir edition of our own magazine FasTForward coming out in mid August (a little later than normal if you were expecting yours at the beginning of the month). But Register activities don’t stop just because of MGF20 and the Summer season is now well and truly underway. Our new Regions in Thames Valley and Hertfordshire are taking the bit between their teeth and organising road runs, picnics and visits to other shows including the Uxbridge Car Show. Our South East Region have held their annual Teddy Bears’ Picnic at the very scenic Parham House in Sussex and the Heart of England have been out under canvas in South Wales for a week. There is lots more to come, and to find out what is happening near you just head over to our website forum at www.mgfregister. org/forum. Although Facebook has an increasing number of followers now, we in the Register still find that the Forum is the best place to see what is going on at a glance– just check out our
regional boards. We encourage all our Reps to post their itineraries there, so if you are travelling about and want a different event then you can do so in one place. Our Social Media presence is still growing and as well as the main MGF Register Facebook page you can find several of the Regions running satellite pages as well – just search for them and ‘like’ the page. It’s quick and easy and is a growing method of communication for the Register. Important though the social side is to the Car Club and Register there are other aspects to the club. Principally we do exist to record the history of the MGF/TF. You may have noticed that we have been asking for VIN numbers when you buy your MGF20 ticket – we can assure you there is no sinister purpose here. Part of our remit is to record as many F/TFs still extant as we can and this was too good an opportunity to miss. The data is used for historic reference only – just imagine if the same thing had been done to all the pre-war MGs – what a wealth of knowledge the Club would have for motoring historians. Well that’s the idea. A lot of our favourite roadsters are disappearing due to the often-high cost of repairs and the low cost of the cars themselves – before long there will only be a handful left. An exaggeration maybe, but the numbers are
definitely declining. We see many cars being offered for parts or scrap – not altogether a bad thing as parts are becoming harder to find and they go to keeping the better cars on the road. Our MGF20 partners are also important in this regard with Church Square Autos selling good quality complete cars and Martin Smith selecting the very best in used MGF & TF parts along with Peter Best offering competitive classic insurance. For that and all the support they give to the Register and MGF20, we thank them. MGF Register South East at Parham House for their Teddy Bears’ Picnic
ZRZSZT John Thompson 07854 275541 johnt5@btinternet.com www.mgcc.co.uk/zedregister
News in brief Much has been written elsewhere about MGLive! 2015, therefore I will only give a brief summary. We had another great weekend at this famous circuit with Zeds proving as popular as ever over the two days. Over one hundred Zeds were counted in our parking area on the Saturday and Sunday, with more scattered around the site as well. It was good to see so many of you there and catch up with familiar faces and meet some new ones. We would like to thank Bill Dodds for the loan of his ZR 160 for the weekend. Our ‘display car’ was one of only two face-lift 4-door ZR 160s produced in the Monogram colour Twilight. The other was left-hand drive making Bill’s car unique. It certainly created a lot of interest amongst the visitors during the show. We took the opportunity to promote MG Saloon Day which was only four weeks after Silverstone. The weather over the weekend was mixed to say the least but nothing to dampen the overall atmosphere that is MGLive!. A full report on MG Saloon Day will appear in next month’s issue. AGM On the Saturday afternoon we held our postponed AGM. The Chairman’s report concluded that we had had another successful year building
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MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 89
on the previous year’s programme of events. With over half of the year’s events now behind us planning is continuing for the Classic Motor Show in November. More information will become available as our plans reach fruition. Regrettably a number of committee members stood down at the meeting; as a result, there are now vacancies in several key areas. Some of the remaining committee members have taken on additional duties to compensate in the short term. However we still need to fill these remaining vacancies. If you have enjoyed our events, what the Register has to offer and would like to be part of an enthusiastic team please contact a member of the committee who will be happy to provide you with further information. We would like to welcome Bill Dodds on to the committee who joined us in a Non Portfolio position at the meeting. Many thanks to the V8 Register for letting us use their marquee for our meeting. Events & shows With no pun intended we seem to be racing through this year’s events programme. With two more racing rounds ahead of us at Oulton Park and Snetterton our eyes will once again be on the Trophy championship. There have been some close fought battles so far this season in the largest ZR grid seen for many years. We will be
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organising the parade laps during the lunch break at both these meetings. This is the opportunity to take your own car around the circuit and see it from a racing driver’s perspective – an opportunity too good to be missed. Programme of events 2015 September 12 Oulton Park Race Round Oulton Park, Cheshire October 10-11 Snetterton Race Round Snetterton, Norfolk November 13-15 Classic Motor Show NEC, Birmingham
Bill Dodds’ Twilight MG ZR on display at MGLive!
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REGISTERS
REGISTER
MG6.3.5
Steve Haines Steve-haines@live.co.uk www.facebook.com/groups/MG635Register twitter.com/635register
The Register were extremely lucky to be the custodian of Jack Goff’s BTCC MG6 GT for the MGLive! weekend. This took a huge amount of negotiating and logistics to organise, with MG Motor, 888 Race Engineering and Jack Goff Racing being extremely generous with time, transport and trust to let us have this state of the art current race car at the show. This demonstrates the increasing excellent relationships being nurtured between the Register, Car Club, MG Motor and BTCC teams. Jack Goff himself arrived in his MG3 on Saturday to spend all day at MGLive!, visiting some old friends in the racing paddock, giving talks on the MG Motor stand and kindly signing autographs and having photos taken on our stand for donations to our Charity Prostate Cancer UK. His team were kind
enough to let us have our Register sticker on Jack’s car for the rest of the season, so look out for it flying around the BTCC race tracks! The Register sales went well over the weekend, and through the raffle and money raised from Jack’s appearance, we have put £140 plus gift aid into the Prostate Cancer UK fundraising page. So far we have raised £290 of our £500 target for the year. Please feel free to donate at: www.justgiving.com/ MG635Register/ There was a great turnout in the Register parking areas, with over 50 cars on each day and a real great mix of colours and styles, particularly of the MG3s and some new MG6s. It was great to see members, both old and new over the weekend. We have had a huge response to the formal register,
which is coming along nicely. We still need to make sure that as many vehicles as possible are recorded, so if you haven’t yet registered your vehicle, please do get in touch with Barry Faiers mgmotor@nicbar. plus.com Elsewhere in the event, Russ Swift did his things in the MG3, the MG3 Trophy concept was on track for the circuit tours, MG3 Sprint and MG6 were at Stowe circuit for the sprint sessions and the Facelift 6 was being shown off on the MG Motor stand. Once again MGLive! was well attended by 6 and 3 owners, which shows the increased number of owners and vehicles registered and the growing popularity of the continuation of the MG marque. There were two entrants in Pride of Ownership class M this year and we hope to increase that next year at MGLive! 2016, so please put yourselves forward next time. With future events in mind, keep an eye out for the Silverstone BTCC offer where we will have our next big gathering over the weekend of September 26 and 27. Planning ahead, our AGM will take place at 3pm on Saturday December 5 at the MG Sales Centre and our Christmas meal at The Guild in Bromsgrove. Check out the Facebook events page for details: www.facebook.com/groups/ MG635Register/events/
WAIMAK CLASSIC CARS
PO Box 373 Rangiora 7440 North Canterbury New Zealand Tel: +64 (0) 3 310-6485 / 0274990020 www.waimakclassiccars.co.nz Email: info@waimakclassiccars.co.nz Please Note: Viewing of vehicles STRICTLY by appointment only. Should you wish to call us, you may do so Monday to Friday between 9:00am till 6:00pm (NZ StandardTime). Alternatively, you may email us anytime.
1932 MG J2 The Car With The Racing Pedigree! 850cc – 4 owners – 3598 miles - NZ New – fully restored to Concours condition – Comes with purpose built trailer – very collectable classic – this car is number J2571 - History is available from BRAND NEW that is FROM 1932 - This car was chosen by the MG Car Club ib Bew Zealand to represent its type at the Ellerslie Intermarque Concours February 2008 - This J2 is ABSOLUTELY IMMACULATE. There’s nothing to fault here. No other car has had such a meteoric rise to popularity. From modest beginnings, built to an ideal by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, this car proudly boasts of a list of successes in the competition, racing and record breaking fields that was never equalled before in the history of motoring. £39K
1980 MG Midget Heavy On The Fun... Light On The Budget! 65217 Miles, Convertible, 1493, Petrol, Manual £8K
1958 MG MGA THE GETAWAY CAR! 86078, Convertible, 1500, Petrol, Manual £20K
1955 MG TF Style & Performance! Convertible, 1500, Petrol, Manual £23K
1977 MG B GT A Very Original, Low Mileage Example! 45454, Coupe, 1798, Petrol, Manual £12K
Please note, all prices are in GBP and include shipping to UK port (FOB) 90
AUGUST 2015
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1976 MGB ROADSTER British Racing Green, Biscuit trim. Totally restored car. Everflex hood. All matching Biscuit trim. 15” Minilites. New tyres, new chrome. Super engine bay. Bare metal respray. Wood steering wheel, walnut dash. Coloured cappings and dashtop. Alloy r/cover. Carpeted boot. Matching hoodcover etc. Superb car. £11,995.00
1963 MGB ROADSTER Tartan red, black trim, rare pull door handle car with 3 brg engine. Registered Feb 1963. Rare early car with overdrive. Trim in nice order, hood replaced. Polybushed front suspension. Body in nice order and ready to enjoy. These early cars are getting very scarce, especially still with 3 brg engine. £7,495.00
1980 MGB GT LE Pewter. Rare last of production special spec. LE, alloys, webasto roof. Has had total body renovation 7 years ago. One lady owner for many years. £5,495.00
1979 MG MIDGET Pageant blue, black trim, superb little car, body is in excellent condition, recent respray, all new chrome conversion, new hood, new carpets, new dashboard, recovered seats. Exceptionally pretty car in excellent order. Ready for lots of summer fun. £5,995.00
1960 MGA 1600 COUPE Totally restored, Iris Blue, blue trim. Last owner since 1973. Totally restored chassis, body, mechanicals, suspension. To be finished from £24,500.00 depending on final spec.
1950 MG TD. Green with green trim. Very early MG TD, 2 owners from new. Really excellent original condition, underside, body and frame are excellent. Just had full brake overhaul. Rare opportunity. Paint OK but really needs a respray to reach its full glory.£16,995.00
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MG TF 135 Style pack. (just 32,000 miles)
MG TF 135 Sprint Ltd Ed. (just 35,000 miles)
MG TF 135 Spark+Hardtop (just45,000 miles)
MG TF 160vvc (just 63,000 miles)
February 2011 ”60” Reg. Finished in Radiant Red/ full black leather. One of the very last MG TF’s made 2011 model with folding mirrors (58th from last). Style pack car so full leather, silver interior trim, Twisted pepper alloys, heated glass rear screen, engine water level sensor. Full service history. Superb. 12 MONTHS WARRANTY. £6,995
July 2003”03” Reg. Finished In: Met Black/black half leather grey inserts A very high spec low mileage TF135 Sprint ltd edition, fitted with over £3200 of extras eg sports pack 2 with 16” 11 spoked alloys, smokestone cockpit, chrome packs, front fog lights, black hood with a glass heated rear screen. Documented service history. Just fitted with a new headgasket/water pump and cambelt plus new MOT. £3,695
September 2004”54” Reg. Finished in Xpower Grey/ black half leather grey inserts A superb ltd edition Spark fitted with a removable colour coded hardtop. These were very high spec TF’s. Spec included chrome packs, bright interior pack,fog lights, sports pack 2 (with unmarked) 16” alloys. Black leather with grey alcantara inserts plus MG logo. Full service history, recent cambelt just moted. 12 months warranty. £4,695
July 2003”03” Reg Finished In: Trophy Blue/black half leather Previously supplied by us. Rare TF160 vvc model. Headgasket /cambelt/water pump replaced by Apple MG in 2013 ,fully detailed huge service history file with bills and old mots. Black half leather sport seats, rear park sensor, sports pack 2 16” 11 spoked alloys, front fog lights, outstanding condition. £3,695
SO
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MG MGF Rare 1995 car (the 1137 made)
MG TF 135 Rare colour (just 26,000 miles)
MG TF 135 + Hardtop (just 31,000 miles)
MG TF 135 Sprint, 1 owner (just 28,000 miles)
November 1995 ”N” Reg. 70,000 Miles Finished in B.R.Green/black Full MG main dealers service history. Extras include power steering and Abs braking. A very original car in excellent condition with original hands books stereo etc recent ball joints brake pads all round and rear brake calipers. Sold with a new headgasket/ water pump/cambelt and a new mot. A future classic MG, or is it already! £2,695
November 2002”52” Reg. Finished in Celestial blue/Full Black leather Pre reg plus one private owner from new. Very low mileage having covered just 26,000 miles. High spec TF135 fitted with Full black leather sport seats, sports pack 2 with 11 spoke 16” alloys, chrome packs, front fog lights, etc. Finished in very rare Monogram Celestial Blue (code IAI), Superb condition. To be Sold with a new headgasket/cambelt/water pump and mot. £4,295
May 2004 ”04” Reg. Finished in Solar Red/Full Black leather Previously supplied by us some 8 years ago @10,000miles. Having covered now just 31,000 miles with full service history. Finished in Solar Red with a colour coded removable hardtop Black soft top and full Black leather sport seats. Chrome packs engine water level sensor, abs braking etc. £4,295
November 2002 ”52” Reg. Finished in Silver/ Black half leather grey inserts. 1 owner. Ltd edition model with just 500 made. Full service history 9 services. Fitted with sports pack 2 with unmarked 16” alloys, light smokestone cockpit, chrome packs, front fog lights, grey hood with a Glass heated rear screen. Immaculate condition. Fitted with a new Headgasket/cambelt and water pump 22/5/15 £4,295
This is just a small selection from our stock
FAMILY BUSINESS ESTABLISHED 1981 OUR OFFICE/ SHOWROOM IS AT 62B HIGH STREET SHEPPERTON TW17 9AU VIEWING BY APPOINTMENT PLEASE
www.mgcc.co.uk
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 91
www.churchsquareautos.com AUGUST 2015
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27/07/2015 13:25
FEATUREBACK LOOKING
In ‘Looking Back’ July issue the gent in the trench coast is inspecting my 1933 J1. The photo was probably taken at Brentwood, Essex in 1973. I still own the car and it’s need of a new wiring loom connecting up – but beyond me at the moment. Is there any electrically minded member out there who would like an expenses paid trip to the Isle of Mull? Please contact Kimber House, first instance. Yours faithfully Colin Smith
Looking
Back
If you can tell us more about any of these cars or the events, we are always keen to hear from you at Kimber House; contact the MGCC Archivist Pete Neal on peterneal@mgcc.co.uk.
We can only drool over this picture below by Andrew Roberts of a line-up of magnificent K3s, with, on the far right, past MGCC President Bill Wallis almost engulfed by a Union Jack. We would be interested to know, for the record, when and where the event took place. This excellent photo right taken by Chris Phillips of a T-Type getting down to some serious racing, has us
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MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 92
wondering where and when this event took place. Can you help? As was the case this year, it took more than a downpour to dampen the enthusiasm of these these chaps in the photo above lining up on the grid at Silverstone in May 1994. Looking at the stands however, it appears that apart from a few hardy souls, the spectators did not share the drivers’ enthusiasm!
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:25
CARS FOR SALE
enquiries@mgsforsale.com
01707 876089
www.mgsforsale.com
07831 556666
MGB ROADSTER 1967
Green, wires, O/drive, 3 synchro box, MOT Feb 2016. Stainless exhaust, 12v battery, waxoyled, with good hood and tonneau. Owned 8 years and drives really well. £5950.00 ono. Tel. 01278684506 or 07866473262. (Bridgwater Somerset)
MG TD2, 1953, LHD, exported to the US from new and restored in the US in 2010 and imported into the UK that year to join an extensive collection of MGs. Recommissioned in 2014 and registered on UK number plates at the cost of £2,000 by noted marque specialist Peter Edney to ensure all correct period details. A nice example with original engine and gearbox still fitted from new, good condition maroon coachwork with beige interior trim, removable matching armrest, good condition Roadster 1974small history mohair hood, side screen assemblies presentMGB but require refurbishment, Owned for documents 29 years,including New HMRC shell file with ‘T’ Register dating letter & correspondence, import 1992UK plus engine has paperwork confirming all duties paid, registered carrecon now and readywhich to improve done 30000. Sound£16,950.00 but requires further or enjoy as is, selling on behalf of private vendor, just arrived some work now. Mot till April 2016. Runs OK and overdrive works, New wire wheels and tyres 2 years ago. Only used in summer. £4000 ono. ANY YEAR, ANY CONDITION Contact Harry Cornish on 01608686364 mob 07527213140. harry.cornish2@btinternet.com Do not confuse the above vehicles with cheaper inferior quality(Shipston models offered elsewhere. Part exchange South on stour any make of Motor Car with generous allowances. Discounted cash purchases. Viewing by appointment only Warwickshire)
URGENTLY WANTED ANY MG www.mgsforsale.com please (available evenings & weekends) no obligation to purchase. All our vehicles carry a warranty, have an MOT and are fully serviced prior to collection/delivery.
MGB ROADSTER 1967 MGB Green, ROADSTER wires, O/drive, 1967 3 synchro
Green, wires,Feb O/drive, synchro box, MOT 2016.3 Stainless box, MOT Feb 2016. Stainless exhaust, 12v battery, waxoyled, with exhaust, 12vand battery, waxoyled, with good hood tonneau. Owned 8 good hood tonneau. Owned 8 years and and drives really well. years and £5950.00 ono.drives really well. £5950.00 ono. Tel. 01278684506 or 07866473262. Tel. 01278684506 or 07866473262. (Bridgwater Somerset) (Bridgwater Somerset)
MGB Roadster 1974 OwnedRoadster for 29 years, New shell MGB 1974
1992 plusforrecon engine New whichshell has Owned 29 years, done 30000. Sound butwhich requires 1992 plus recon engine has some work now. April done 30000. Sound Mot but till requires 2016. work Runs now. OK and some Mot overdrive till April works, New and tyres 2016. Runs wire OK wheels and overdrive 2 yearsNew ago. Only used inand summer. works, wire wheels tyres £4000 2 yearsono. ago. Only used in summer. Contact Harry Cornish on £4000 ono. 01608686364 mob Cornish 07527213140. Contact Harry on harry.cornish2@btinternet.com 01608686364 mob 07527213140. (Shipston on stour South harry.cornish2@btinternet.com Warwickshire) (Shipston on stour South
Warwickshire)
www.mgcc.co.uk
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 93
1971 MGB Roadster 1971 Roadster Green, Tax Exempt, Chrome 1948 MGB YA For Restoration
Green, Taxstored Exempt, Rostyles, Bumpers, Been dryChrome for theChrome last 40 Rostyles, Chrome Bumpers, Overdrive. 2005 on pretnew year’s. BodyRebuild and wings appear Overdrive.shell Rebuild 2005 on new Heritage approx. 2000 ty sound and the chassis hasmiles been Heritage 2000 miles since. Too shell many approx. new parts to list. wax-oiled at some point. The previsince.of Too many Dry newuse parts to list. Lots history. only ous of owner dabbleduse butonly seemed to Lots history. Valuation AugustDry 2014 £12,500.00 do the August last things first. What Valuation 201407831 £12,500.00 £12,750.00 ono. Tele: 315821 appears be aTele: new Rad 315821 and the £12,750.00 ono. 07831 or 01869 to 347746 Shell is in excellent condition after or 01869area) 347746 (Oxford re-chroming (Oxford area)as is the front bumper.
The lights and handles were sent off but unfortunately he passed away before getting them back. No documentation to show where they are. The engine is a replacement unit to Std. bore size. I have more images if anybody is interested in it. Price £3600 ono. Contct Pete Davies, 07877932284 p.davies@mgabingdon.org.uk (Carterton Oxfordshire.) MGB Roadster 1975
Restoration project.1975 Chrome MGB Roadster bumpers. Complete On SORN Restoration project.car.Chrome Wire wheels, and Overdrive. bumpers. Complete car. On SORN How to Advertise Number plate HRY. Taken off road Wire wheels, and Overdrive. Members can advertise their cars 2011. £875.00 Number plate ono HRY. Taken off road free of charge in Safety The Tele: 315821 / 01869Fast. 347746 2011.07831 £875.00 ono (Oxford area) advert will also be/ 01869 posted347746 on the Tele: 07831 315821 (Oxford area) in due course. This is Club website
for one insertion only. To place an advert or for additional insertions email Colin Grant at colingrant@mgcc.co.uk with details of your car, around 60 words, together with an attached picture, your contact information, price of your car, the area where you live, and MG Magna number. Tri-angCost Pedal membership forCar non1931 members to Tri-ang advertisePedal is £20. All MG Magna Car Owned by one family last 45years. adverts 1931 should be submitted by the Beautiful restored condition. Offers
NEW PREMISES IN OXFORDSHIRE Naylor TF 1700
1971 MGB Roadster
ChassisA40 no 21,mileage 31,800 . London Road, Green, Postcombe Tax Exempt, Service Chrome Station Finished in red,with Postcombe ,Oxon,OX9 7ED red leather Rostyles, Chrome Bumpers, upholstery and carpets, c/w black Overdrive. Rebuild 2005 on new www.former-glory.com. Est. 1986 hood and tonneau cover. This car is Heritage shell approx. 2000 miles dry stored and in very good condisince. Too many new parts to list. tion. Solid service history with Lots of history. Dry use only many new parts recently fitted, Valuation August 2014 £12,500.00 including replacement silicone £12,750.00 ono. Tele: 07831 315821 water hoses and fuel lines, and a or 01869 347746 complete brake overhaul. The MOT (Oxford area) runs until April 2016 and passed without advisories. Tyres and wire wheels are as new. The chrome is in excellent condition. The radiator grill slats and cap have recently been re-chromed. The car was extensively featured in both the Safety Fast magazine and Naylor MGB 1977,Tartan red,2 litre egine, over MG TD 1953, UK supplied, magazine, this will give a good 16k spent at the MGOC on full body Club chrome wires and 5 speed hi gear into the Stunning car. Theexample. sale price and mechanical rebuild in 2004. Leather insight conversion. seats, excelllent paintwork £7950 of £17,500 will£25,950. include a " TF" cherished number plate. To view or obtain further information MGB Roadster 1975 Tel; 01865 426279. Restoration project. Chrome (Oxford ) bumpers. Complete car. On SORN Wire wheels, and Overdrive. Number plate HRY. Taken off road 2011. £875.00 ono Tele: 07831 315821 / 01869 347746 WANTED (Oxford area) Does anyone know of my wifes MGA 1600 MK1,Chariot red, MGB V8 Roadster, Heritage shell, MGBGT, 1974, Reg No. ROC 60M, 5-speed gearbox, full mechanical 1973, Professionally built to show colour Blaze (Red/Orange). She rebuild with upgrades,Excellent standard,Matching works hardtop. sold the car in GT 1995, a gentleman, bodywork. £23,950 All factory V8 to Parts.Call for £.. from the name of Timdetails. Collins, Stamford, Lincs/East Midlands area. She would now very much like to buy it back. Any infomation would be greatly appreciated. MGCC member. Tel: 01384422178. Email; ldb150@hotmail.co.uk MG Magna Tri-ang Pedal Car 1931 Owned byMGB one1971,Glacier family last 45years. white, ONE OWNER Beautiful restored condition. Offers Motors from new. Supplied by University inTel; West London.529322 Rebuilt by Brown and over £1500. 01235 Naylor TF 1700 Gammons. opportunity. £12,950 Naylor TF 1700Unique (Oxford) Chassis no 21,mileage 31,800 . Chassis noin21,mileage . Finished red,with 31,800 red leather Finished in and red,with red upholstery carpets, c/wleather black upholstery and carpets, c/w car black hood and tonneau cover. This is hoodstored and tonneau cover. Thiscondicar is dry and in very good dry stored in veryhistory good condition. Solid and service with tion. Solid servicerecently history fitted, with many new parts many new replacement parts recentlysilicone fitted, including including water hosesreplacement and fuel lines,silicone and a water hoses and fuel lines, complete brake overhaul. The and MOTa complete Thepassed MOT runs untilbrake April overhaul. 2016 and Factory GT V8, 1973, NO.883, runs until April 2016 andandpassed without advisories. Tyres wire Glacier white with full Webasto. Recent withoutare advisories. Tyres and wire wheels as repaint new. The chrome is in sports full and retrim by Surrey wheels are condition. as new.and The chrome is in excellent The radiator classics. £17,950 grill slats condition. and cap have recently excellent The radiator been re-chromed. was grill slats cap The have car recently ZT-T 190and 2003 extensively featured in both the been car was 64000re-chromed. miles. Good The condition with Safety Fast featured magazine inand Naylor extensively both the many new parts. CD auto changer. Club this will and give aNaylor good Safetymagazine, Fast magazine MOT Dec 15. Great drive. Servicing insight into the this car. will Thegive salea price Club magazine, good up£17,500 to date,will owner ex aRover of TF" group. cherinsight into theinclude car. The" sale price £1500. Tel: 01993 891713 ished number plate. To view or of £17,500 will include a " TF" cher(Oxfordshire) obtain further plate. information ished number To view or Tel; 01865 426279. obtain further information (Oxford ) 426279. MGB AUTOMATIC, Factory Tel; 01865 (Oxford ) built,1972, Bare shell, nut and bolt restoration, fully photographed,Detailed engine bay. £7,950
WANTED
MGC Roadster,1970, the LAST one built, nut and bolt restoration,engine still running in, magazine featured. Unique opportunity. £29,500
MGB HERITAGE SHELL, 1966, Built By Taimar Valley MG, BLue Royale.Blue mohair, sports leather seats, upgraded brakes and suspension. £15,950
Midget 1972, round wheel arch, Bare metal respray in 2014 to show standard, new interior, drives superbly. £7,950
MGS URGENTLY WANTED TO PURCHASE.
Does anyone know of my wifes WANTED MGBGT, 1974, know Reg No. 60M, Does anyone ofROC my wifes colour (Red/Orange). She MGBGT,Blaze 1974, Reg No. ROC 60M, sold the Blaze car in 1995, to a gentleman, colour (Red/Orange). SheMGOC Recommended name Collins, from the sold theof carTim in 1995, to a gentleman, MGB Roadster 1964 MGTF135 2002 Stamford, Lincs/East Midlands area. name Tim Collins, from black the Car club trade member Good of condition, BRG with MG In Platinum Silver. 63400 miles. She wouldLincs/East now veryMidlands much like to Stamford, area. leather interior. With current Headgasket replaced, stainless steel buy it back.now Any very infomation would She would much to owner for 23 years and onlylike 8,000 coolant pipes fitted and recent new be greatly appreciated. MGCC buy back. Any infomation would milesitduring that time. Garaged and 2015 condibrakes and AUGUST tyres. Excellent member. Tel: 01384422178. be greatly appreciated. MGCC mainly dry use. New batteries and tion inside and out. MOT till Feb Email; ldb150@hotmail.co.uk member. Tel: 01384422178. radiator. Motalita steering wheel. 2016. £1400 Email; ldb150@hotmail.co.uk Workshop and owners manuals Contact Norman on 01993 840099 included. 12 months MOT. (West Oxfordshire) £8,250. Tel. 0128 5750 494 (Cirencester, Glos)
2003 MGZR 160 "Mirage" fast road/tra Owned 8 years always Specialist maintaine 93upgrades to engine, sus brakes etc. Th spent/receipts, huge his £3,995. Tel: 0151 638 5 (Wirral)
27/07/2015 13:26
CARS FOR SALE
How to Advertise Members can advertise their cars free of charge in Safety Fast. The advert will also be posted on the Club website in due course. This is for one insertion only. To place an advert or for additional insertions email Colin Grant at colingrant@mgcc.co.uk with details of your car, around 60 words, together with an attached picture, your contact information, price of your car, the area where you live, and membership number. Cost for nonmembers to advertise is £20. All adverts should be submitted by the 15th of the month for the following months issue.
MGB Roadster 1964
Good condition, BRG with black leather interior. With current owner for 23 years and only 8,000 miles during that time. Garaged and mainly dry use. New batteries and radiator. Motalita steering wheel. Workshop and owners manuals included. 12 months MOT. £8,250. Tel. 0128 5750 494 (Cirencester, Glos)
MGTF135 2002
In Platinum Silver. 63400 miles. Headgasket replaced, stainless steel coolant pipes fitted and recent new brakes and tyres. Excellent condition inside and out. MOT till Feb 2016. £1400 Contact Norman on 01993 840099 (West Oxfordshire)
2003 MGZR 160 VVC, "Mirage" fast road/track day's. Owned 8 years always garaged. Specialist maintained with upgrades to engine, suspension, brakes etc. Thousands spent/receipts, huge history file. £3,995. Tel: 0151 638 5043 (Wirral)
MGTF1500 1954 (Sept) 1978 MGB Race Car 1785cc MG YT TOURER MGTF 2005
Low coolant alarm kit; hood with glass screen; Zandf tuning remap; new clutch; mgoc supersports exhaust; full respray in monogram spice,new2005my springs/dampers; grills chrome plated; alloy wheels resprayed with full size spare; new waterpump/coolant pipes; head gasket replaced; passenger airbag, power steering, central locking/alarm, cd player, leather seats in alpaca/tan, TF LE500 dials, new front brake calipers and windstop; fsh; MOT’d to August 2015. £3600 ono – Telephone James on 07908 887771
1950
Original R.H.D. Black with red interior. This is a rare car in stunning condition. Full restoration completed in 2014. £32,500. Telephone 01892 664867 (South East)
WANTED
MGB Roadster 1968-9 Series II. Red. Condition 1-2. Wire wheels, overdrive, original appearance ie no walnut dash etc. Call Jeremy Wilton on 07775 661255 or preferably email j.wilton@hotmail.co.uk"
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MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 94
1977 MGB Roadster
Sebring f/rear many new panels, boot, wings, sills. 15in alloys, leather sports seats black with red piping. Kent cam and sports exhaust. Looks and drives great. Owned for last 13 year's. For more information Tel: 07866047549 or 07583317342 (Devon)
MGC Roadster 1970
First registered 1.10.70. Two owners. Owned for 39 years. BRG. Bills in excess of £21,000. 111,624 miles Engine rebuild at 70,000. Full body restoration & respray 2004/2005. Cream bermuda hardtop, softop & tonnau. Garaged. MOT 1 year. Condition 2/3. £23,000. Please contact Colin on 01297 792538 Email: cogstewart@aol.com for further details. (East Devon)
MGA 1600 Coupe 1959
Red. In my family since new, I have owned this car since 1969. Body off rebuild last year. Always garaged. Runs on unleaded petrol. 12 months MOT. Really immaculate condition. £27,500 Tel: 01280812850 or 07860534815 (Bucks)
Front runner, recent repaint in Works colours. Usual modifications. Spare wheels and excellent tyres. Works hardtop. Reluctant sale. £7995. Telephone: 01460 73751
1969 MGB Roadster.
Great overall condition. Jaguar British Racing Green complete with refurbished original works hardtop in Old English White. 1828cc engine with mild road cam and s/s sports exhaust. 123 electronic distributor. Ready to enjoy. £8250. For more information telephone 07751 247412 (SE London)
Superbly specified, equipped and maintained with low milage during my long ownership. Comprehensive record of restoration and subsequently. Heritage docs. Offers close to £32500 Tel: 02075828547 (S.Central London)
MGB GT 1980
with overdrive. Maroon colour, Tax November, MOT October, VGC, Low Mileage. Garaged. Dry weather run only. Restored in 1995 picture of restoration. Solid underneath, nice interior, good body, waxoyled. £2,900. Contact owner for full specification, 01296 489708. (Buckinghamshire )
1974 MGB GT V8
2 owners from new. Lady owner since 1977. Tax exempt. Very original 67K. MOT May 2016. Glacier white, autumn leaf interior, Weathershields sunroof. Ziebart sealed when new, garaged from new. Spare parts and manuals included. Radiomobile radio/8track + tapes. Must be viewed and tried. More pictures available. £15,000 ono. Phone 07976 625454 or 01299 251948 (North Worcestershire)
SELLING YOUR CAR?
As a member of the MG Car Club you can advertise your car in Safety Fast for free. Just email your car details, max 60 words, together with a JPEG picture to Colin Grant at colingrant@mgcc.co.uk. Non member fee is £20
1969 MGC GT -
Mineral Blue & Black Leather, 12 Months MOT, wire wheels, Webasto roof, 2011 bodywork restoration using Heritage panels, spot welded where possible. Etch primed and refinished in Mineral Blue cellulos. Polybushed front & rear, stainless steel exhaust. Servo and master cylinders refurbished by J&L Spares Ltd. SU electronic fuel pump £17,995 ono ianpeacock192@hotmail.com phone 07805 248644 (York)
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:26
CARS FOR SALE
BEAULIEU INT. AUTOJUMBLE
THE
SEPTEMBER 5TH & 6TH 2015
STAND IS HERE 64 63 62 61 60 59 58
MARQUEES (BLUE)
GR
GREEN FIELD
49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57
65 66
80 79 78 67 77 68 76 69 75 74 70 73 71 72
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
96 95 94 93 92 91 90
GREEN (B) FIELD
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
GREEN FIELD
28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
6
55c 55b 55a 55 54 53 2
87a 56 87 57 86 58 85
MARQUEES (BLUE)
27 26
48 47 46 35 45 36 44 37 43 42 38 41 39 40
130 157 131 156 132 155 133 154 134 153 135 152 136 151 137 150 138 149 139 148 140 147 141 146 142 145 143 144
30 29 28
33 34
93 118 94 117 95 96 97 116 98 115 99 114 100 113 101 112 102 111 103 110 104 109 105 108 106 107
32 31
59 84 60 83 61 82 62 81 63 80 64 79 65 78 66 77 67 76 68 75 69 74 70 73 71 72
EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR MG MODELS: M, D, F, J, K, L, P, N, TA, TB, TC, TD. Information, sales, swops, purchases and service. … for the very best in vintage MGs … Estd. 1968
MGOC. OCC.
TEL: 01789 400181/FAX: 400230 MOB: 07836 244103
www.barrywalker.com email barry@barrywalker.com (we are close to Stratford-on-Avon)
CM09.15/A23/r
6 7
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
9 10
170 195 171 194 172 193 173 192 174 191 175 190 176 189 177 188 178 187 179 186 180 185 181 184 182 183
163a 202 164 201 165 200 166 199 167 198 168 197 169 196
PUBLIC ENTRANCE
PUBLIC ENTRANCE
3 4 5
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
124 163 125 162 126 161 127 160 128 159 129 158
OAK TREE GONE!
BEER
94 93
1 2
88 123 89 122 90 121 91 120 92 119
57 63 62 58 61 59 60
97 96 95
GREEN (D) FIELD
T O I L E T S
33 32
139 138 137 136 135 134 133 132
BANKING
164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 1 173 1 121 152 122 151 123 150 124 149 125 148 126 147 127 146 128 145 129 144 130 143 131 142 82 108 83 107 84 106 85 105 86 104 87 103 88 102 89 101 90 100 91 99 92 98
RED FIELD
69 68 67 66 65 64 51 52 53 54 55 56
RED (A) FIELD
25 38b 26 38a 27 38 28 37 29 36 30 35 31 34
115 157 116 117 156 118 155 119 154 120 153
76 114 77 113 78 112 79 111 80 110 81 109 75 74 73 72 71 70
RED (A) FIELD
19 20 21 22 23 24
15 16 17 18
S
45 46 47 48 49 50
RED FIELD
TO RED & YELLOW FIELD
44 43 42 41 40 39
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1 15 16 16 16 163
BE SURE NOT TO MISS IT. STANDS R60-63. RIGHT BY THE ENTRANCE
Recommended spares supplier
BARRY WALKER Estd.1968
British Motor Heritage approved
.....for the very best in vintage MGs..... A BETTER OFFER THAN FROM ANY BANK I KNOW!? A BABY K3 IF EVER THERE WAS ONE! REDUCED This Q bodied s/charged P type is built to K3 replica standards & performance and is race and rally prepared. Superbly restored with Phoenix Crank, Phoenix rods & forged pistons, this is driven thru an ENV preselect g’box and nose mounted supercharger. A proper car, with numerous events to date, VSCC buff form. Race, rally or fast road use…. it’s your choice...Reduced under instruction to ..........................................£79,500 or v.close
1937 MG T/Q 2-SEAT SPORTS Surely one of the best value cars on the market, this is in stunning condition, the highest std. of the 5 I’ve sold. TA chassis/ Q body work/tuned XPAG engine & TC box, 90 mph, 80bhp, BRG….... all this, and built for..£55,000
MG SUPERCHARGED 1933 J4 rep Unlike the truly magnifcent J4 spec road car below, this example has been race & rally prepared. A 70bhp engine with rare high geared ENV g’box, this offers a truly competitive MG, or a highly exciting road car. VSCC buff form, full history. Ocean blue with black leather ...................................£69,500
URGENT PROOF
1933 MG SUPERCHARGED J4 rep 1936 MG NB TOURER The 6cyl. NB is the fnal culmination of the ohc MGs and is very rare. 4-seat open tourer is a delight every sense. Powerful 1300cc The best onecheck to come to the proof open market in years. Phoenix Please this carefully for errors in The style, content andin layout. crank, lightened clutch, ENV manual box, Marshall s/c. engine, roomy, comfortable, and perfect for touring, be it friends, golf clubs, dogs Although everyReady careforisallexercised preparing advert, wethroughout, cannot or the wife &your her luggage. Totally restored 2-tonehold green with green It’s a proper rebuild. MGCC/VSCC in events. leatheryou & full black weather equipment...France, here we come ...........£69,500 Fabulous condition, Black with bluefor hide.............£75,000 ourselves responsible any inaccuracies may overlook.
1933 S/CHARGED J3/J4 Diffcult to describe this other than concours, meant correctly when I say it! J4 spec engine, ENV box, Volumex s/c, 12” brakes -it’s really fantastic. Numerous prizes - 2 tone red, Collingburn trim. No offers at ............... £69,500
SHOULD YOU REQUIRE ANY ALTERATIONS TO THIS PROOF PLEASE TELEPHONE BEFORE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ AND QUOTE ADVERT NO. _ _ _ _ _
MG YT 4-SEAT OPEN TOURER The rarest of the post – war MGs, this matching Nos. example has been restored to pristine condition. Reg. 3YT. Yes the number is real and included..........£35,000
1933 MG J2 DE-LUXE SPORTS
1937 MG TA with XPAG-reliability
1954 MG TF 1250
Built in Australia by one of the v. best MG engineers. I cannot fault this car - a Fully overhauled by us, this lovely early TA with ftted TC Ex. Channel Ils., low mileage, older rebuild in v orig. stunning restoration with c/balanced crank & rods, deluxe dash, detailed bays eng, & box eliminates the TA eng. problems and offers cond., with wire wheels & all matching Nos. Orig. RHD in and period accessories. Raven black with full Collingburn Apple green hide, and reliability & quality at a sensible price...............£33,500 dark red with red leather ........ bargain surely at £23,950 fullWe weatherreserve gear. Fabulous car,the at barely restorationto costcharge ...............£46,500 right for any alteration to this proof which
for the typefrom of cars we original sell • COMMISSION SALES: Our highly regraded service is always available to you. • FULL DETAILS ON OUR WEBSITE • We carry thousands ofisspares a departure the copy Email: barry@barrywalker.com Web: www.barrywalker.com Tel: 01789 400 181 Mob: 07836 244103
www.mgcc.co.uk
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 95
95
AUGUST 2015 65_1083_BARRY_WALKER_ADVURN46153.pgs 24.07.2015 11:49
FMG-Advent
27/07/2015 13:26
CLASSIFIEDS
1971 MGB Roadster
MGB ROADSTER 1967
Green, wires, O/drive, 3 synchro box, Feb 2016.1967 Stainless MGBMOT ROADSTER Green, wires, O/drive, 3 synchro exhaust, 12v battery, waxoyled, with box, hood MOT and Febtonneau. 2016. Owned Stainless good 8 exhaust,and 12v battery, with years drives waxoyled, really well. good hood and tonneau. Owned 8 £5950.00 ono. years and drives really well. Tel. 01278684506 or 07866473262. £5950.00 ono. (Bridgwater Somerset) Tel. 01278684506 or 07866473262. (Bridgwater Somerset)
Green, Tax Exempt, Chrome Rostyles, Chrome Bumpers, 1971 MGB Roadster Overdrive. Rebuild 2005 Chrome on new Green, Tax Exempt, Rostyles, Chrome Bumpers, Heritage shell approx. 2000 miles Overdrive. Rebuild 2005 onlist. new since. Too many new parts to Heritage shell approx. 2000 miles Lots of history. Dry use only since. Too many new parts to list. Valuation August 2014 £12,500.00 Lots of history. Dry use only £12,750.00 ono. Tele: 315821 Valuation August 201407831 £12,500.00 or 01869 347746 £12,750.00 ono. Tele: 07831 315821 or 01869area) 347746 (Oxford (Oxford area)
MGB Roadster 1974
MGB 1974 OwnedRoadster for 29 years, New
shell
1992 plusforrecon engine New whichshell has Owned 29 years, done plus 30000. Sound butwhich requires 1992 recon engine has some work now. Mot till April done 30000. Sound but requires 2016. Runs OK and overdrive some now.wheels Mot and till tyres April works, work New wire 2016. OK used and inoverdrive 2 yearsRuns ago. Only summer. works, New wire wheels and tyres £4000 ono. Contact Cornish on 2 years ago. Harry Only used in summer. 01608686364 mob 07527213140. £4000 ono. harr y.cornish2@btinternet.com Contact Harry Cornish on (Shipston on stour South 01608686364 mob 07527213140. Warwickshire) harry.cornish2@btinternet.com (Shipston on stour South Warwickshire)
1948 YA For Restoration
Been dry stored for the last 40 year’s. Body and wings appear pretty sound and the chassis has been wax-oiled at some point. The previous owner dabbled but seemed to 1948 YA For Restoration do the things first.last What Been dry last stored for the 40 appears to be a new andpretthe year’s. Body and wings Rad appear Shell is in excellent condition after ty sound and the chassis has been re-chroming as is the front bumper. wax-oiled at some point. Thesent previThe lights and handles were off ous dabbledhebutpassed seemed to but owner unfortunately away before back. No What docudo thegetting last them things first. mentation where appears totobeshow a new Rad they and are. the The engine is a replacement to Shell is in excellent conditionunit after Std. bore size. I have more images if re-chroming as is the front bumper. anybody is interested in it. The andono. handles were sent off Pricelights £3600 but unfortunately passed away Contct Pete Davies,he 07877932284 before getting them back. No docup.davies@mgabingdon.org.uk (Cartertonto Oxfordshire.) mentation show where they are.
The engine is a replacement unit to Std. bore size. I have more images if anybody is interested in it. Price £3600 ono. Contct Pete Davies, 07877932284 p.davies@mgabingdon.org.uk (Carterton Oxfordshire.)
MGB Roadster 1975
Restoration project.1975 Chrome MGB Roadster
bumpers. Complete On SORN Restoration project.car.Chrome Wire wheels, and Overdrive. bumpers. Complete car. On SORN Number plate HRY. Taken off road Wire wheels, and Overdrive. 2011. £875.00 ono Number plate HRY./Taken road Tele: 07831 315821 01869off 347746 2011. £875.00 (Oxford area) ono Tele: 07831 315821 / 01869 347746 (Oxford area)
MG Magna Tri-ang Pedal Car 1931 Owned by one family last 45years. Beautiful restored condition. Offers over £1500. 01235 529322 MG MagnaTel; Tri-ang Pedal Car (Oxford) 1931
Owned by one family last 45years. Beautiful restored condition. Offers over £1500. Tel; 01235 529322 (Oxford)
Naylor TF 1700 Chassis 21,mileage 31,800 . MGBnoROADSTER 1967
Finished inwires, red,with red 3leather Naylor 1700 Green,TF O/drive, synchro upholstery and carpets, c/w .black Chassis 21,mileage 31,800 box, no MOT Feb 2016. Stainless Finished red,with red hood and in tonneau cover. Thisleather car is exhaust, 12v battery, waxoyled, with upholstery and incarpets, c/w condiblack dry stored and very good good hood and tonneau. Owned hood and This car is 8 tion. Solidtonneau servicecover. history with dryyears storedand and indrives very good condireally well. many new parts recently fitted, tion. Solid ono. service history with £5950.00 including many new replacement parts recentlysilicone fitted, Tel. 01278684506 or lines, 07866473262. water hosesreplacement and fuel and a including silicone (Bridgwater Somerset) water hoses and fuel lines, complete brake overhaul. The and MOTa complete Thepassed MOT runs untilbrake April overhaul. 2016 and runs until April 2016 and without advisories. Tyres andpassed wire without advisories. Tyres and wire wheels are as new. The chrome is in wheels are as new. The chrome is in excellent excellent condition. condition. The The radiator radiator grill grill slats slats and and cap cap have have recently recently been re-chromed. The car was extensively featured in both the Safety Fast Fast magazine magazine and and Naylor Naylor Safety Club magazine, this will give a good Club magazine, this will give a good insight into the car. The sale price insight into will theinclude car. The price of £17,500 a " sale TF" cherof £17,500 will include a " TF" cherished number plate. To view or ished To view or obtain number further plate. information Tel; 01865 426279. obtain further information (Oxford MGB 1974 Tel; 01865) Roadster 426279. Owned) for 29 years, New shell (Oxford 1992 plus recon engine which has done 30000. Sound but requires WANTED some work now. Mot till April Does anyone know of my wifes 2016. 1974, Runs Reg OKNo. and overdrive MGBGT, ROC 60M, WANTED works, New know wire wheels andShe tyres colour Blaze (Red/Orange). Does anyone of my wifes sold carago. in 1995, to a gentleman, 2 the years OnlyNo. used in summer. MGBGT, 1974, Reg ROC 60M, name of ono. Tim Collins, from the £4000 colour Blaze (Red/Orange). She Stamford, Lincs/East Midlands area. Contact Harryto Cornish on sold the car in 1995, a gentleman, She would now very much like to mob 07527213140. name of Tim fromwould the buy01608686364 it back. AnyCollins, infomation be harry.cornish2@btinternet.com greatly appreciated. MGCC Stamford, Lincs/East Midlands area. member. (Shipston onverystour She would Tel: now01384422178. much likeSouth to Email; ldb150@hotmail.co.uk buyWarwickshire) it back. Any infomation would be greatly appreciated. MGCC member. Tel: 01384422178. Email; ldb150@hotmail.co.uk
64000 miles. Good condition with many new parts. CD auto changer. MOT Dec 15. Great drive. Servicing up to date, owner ex Rover group. £1500. Tel: 01993 891713 (Oxfordshire)
ZT-T 190 2003
64000 miles. Good condition with many new parts. CD auto changer. MOT Dec 15. Great drive. Servicing up to date, owner ex Rover group. £1500. Tel: 01993 891713 (Oxfordshire)
Green, Tax Exempt, Chrome Rostyles, Chrome Bumpers, Overdrive. Rebuild 2005 on new Heritage shell approx. 2000 miles since. Too many new parts to list. Lots of history. Dry use only Valuation August 2014 £12,500.00 £12,750.00 ono. Tele: 07831 315821 or 01869 347746 (Oxford area)
MGB Roadster 1975
Restoration project. Chrome bumpers. Complete car. On SORN Wire wheels, and Overdrive. Number plate HRY. Taken off road 2011. £875.00 ono Tele: 07831 315821 / 01869 347746 (Oxford area)
MIDGETS! WANTED
Contact the Midget Specialist MIKE AUTHERS on Abingdon 07703 465 224 CHROME BUMPERED MIDGETS in excellent condition bought up to £8,000. View current stock at
www.mgmidgets.com 1948 YA For Restoration
ZT-T 190 2003
Naylor TF 1700
1971 MGB Roadster
Been dry stored for the last 40 year’s. Body and wings appear pretty sound and the chassis has been wax-oiled at some point. The previous owner dabbled but seemed to do the last things first. What appears to be a new Rad and the Shell in excellent M.G. in isNorth Hertscondition after re-chroming as is the front bumper. The lights and handles were sent off MGOC Recommended Workshop but unfortunately he passed away and Power Steering Installer before getting them back. No docuMoT & Failures mentation to show Repaired where they are. Servicing, Welding, Restoration The engine is a replacement unit to Std. bore size. I have more images if M.G.A. – C – V8,inMidget anybody –isBinterested it. Price £3600 ono. Rear of Langley Garage Contct Pete Davies, 07877932284 London Road, Langley, Nr Hitchin, p.davies@mgabingdon.org.uk Herts SG4 7PJ (Carterton Oxfordshire.)
Chassis no 21,milea Finished in red,wi upholstery and car hood and tonneau c dry stored and in v tion. Solid service many new parts including replace water hoses and f complete brake ove runs until April 20 without advisories. wheels are as new. T excellent condition grill slats and cap been re-chromed. extensively feature Safety Fast magazi Club magazine, this insight into the car of £17,500 will inclu ished number plat obtain further info Tel; 01865 426279. (Oxford )
MG Magna Tri-ang Pedal Car 1931 Owned by one family last 45years. Beautiful restored condition. Offers over £1500. Tel; 01235 529322 (Oxford)
ZT-T 190 2003
64000 miles. Good condition with many new parts. CD auto changer. MOT Dec 15. Great drive. Servicing up to date, owner ex Rover group. £1500. Tel: 01993 891713 (Oxfordshire)
01438 729288
07860 473298 www.mg-repairs-hertfordshire.com
96
AUGUST 2015
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 96
WAN
Does anyone kno MGBGT, 1974, Reg colour Blaze (Re sold the car in 1995 name of Tim Co Stamford, Lincs/Eas She would now ve buy it back. Any in be greatly appre member. Tel: 0138 Email; ldb150@hotm
www.mgcc.co.uk
27/07/2015 13:26
SPARES FOR SALE HOW TO ADVERTISE
Members can advertise their spares for sale/wanted free of charge for items up to £250. Over £250, or for non-members to advertise, there is a charge of £20. To submit your advertisement email Colin Grant at colingrant@mgcc.co.uk. Please remember to include your membership number in all correspondence
XPAG engine TD/F/YB
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW MGB
MGA/Twin Cam Spares Large /heavy items collect only. Please e-mail: ken_hall@ntlworld.com for list or contact Ken Hall on 01903 526817 (Worthing, West Sussex)
Baulk Rings
At last now available after extensive testing we are satisfied these will cure your synchro problems.
MG Midget
CNC machined in the UK to our specifications
Round wheel arch rear wing O/S. New BL item old stock £150 Buyer collects. I pair of sills not BL - New with single jacking point. Also N/S sill with single jacking point. New old stock BL item. Also new O/S 2 jacdking points, new old stock BL item. Buyer collects. Tel 01494 813903 (Bucks)
For outright sale: 1380cc (i.e. plus 140") bore, new three ring solid skirt pistons, allen caphead pinch bolts, crank no MIDDLETON 03/06/2015 168557 (TC's Forever11:34 page Page 1 B19 - BarrieAldon Carter_D MIDDLETON Amethyst ignition 129) at .020/020" (crack tested) system. Unused complete new shells, lightened fly wheel, with instructions,cost £195 will 8" clutch, all balanced. Lip accept £100 Tel. 01274639831 seals front and rear (using or mob 07711982862 Speedi Sleeve) new billet steel
Brass 2nd and 3rd/4th Steel 4 Synchro
Suitable for Road & Race cars DENIS WELCH MOTORSPORT • YOXALL • BURTON ON TRENT • STAFFS • DE13 8NA • ENGLAND Tel: +44(0)1543 472214 • E-mail: sales@bighealey.co.uk • www.bighealey.co.uk
03/06/2015 11:34 Page 1
BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE
fast road cam shaft, vernier tim-
ing sprocket set at 109 Midget and ZR Spares. degrees, new bearings, oil 4 Midget Rostyle wheels c/w groovedCarter_D cam followers, comB19 - Barrie MIDDLETON 03/06/2015 good tyres £70 11:34 Page bined horizontal oil pump/filter. MGZR Hairpin ali spare wheel Cylinder headMIDDLETON stage 11, unleadc/w11:34 tyre £40 B19 - Barrie Carter_D 03/06/2015 Page 1 ed, large valve, metro stem MGZR Boot liner £25 seals, bronze guides ported (by MGZR haynes manual £10 Edney/XPAG ENG). Contact All items vgc, would take best Ron Ward - 01422 823649 offer. Tel tony on 02476412861
£59.95 + VAT £49.50 + VAT
1
Situated right in the middle of classic car country with easy access to Silverstone, Gaydon (Heritage Motor Centre) Abingdon, Prescott, Longbridge and only an hour from London KIMBERS ARK B&B is the home away from home for the classic car enthusiast. For comfortable rooms, off street parking and a traditional English breakfast contact club members Mike and Jan
01295 254498, kimbers.ark@gmail.com. www.kimbers-ark.co.uk.
Comfortable and friendly B&B near Gorron, France run by MG car Club Members. La Bureliere is a few minutes from Gorron with its bars and restaurants, near Fougeres and Mayenne and 80 minutes from Le Mans. Undercover parking available. La Bureliere is 2 hours from Caen and 3 hours from Dieppe For further information and availability please contact Anne on 07814 449203 or bushva38@ btinternet.com
MGC GT With o/d. This is an exceptional C apparently never having been welded, Totally re-trimmed in MG Midget black with red piping, Fabulous wood dash, unleaded head and C GT With o/d. This GT With o/d. This MGC GT With o/d. This is anMGC exceptional C apparently an exceptional C immaculate engine an exceptional never having been welded,isTotally re-trimmed inC pparently never MGC GT With o/d. This compartment. Koni black with red piping, Fabulousapparently wood dash,never unleaded ing been welded, Ashley Cleave Brooklands Competitor 1937 It is an exceptional C having been welded, head and immaculate engine compartment. Koni ally re-trimmed in apparently appears few people are interested in genuine never shocks, Minilite reps, Amethyst ignition Totally re-trimmed in shocks, Minilite reps, new calipers and much more. ck with red piping, Aldon having been welded, Brooklands cars. Only pointy tail pub specials. system. re-trimmed innew red piping, much ulous wood dash, Totally An outstanding C mot’dcalipers andblack taxed.with I’veand used this this This car is still available. Being restored to MGC withGT redWith piping,o/d. This Fabulous wood dash, leaded head and black winter and it is very niceAn and quick. £12,995 required specifications. Starts at £35,000 Fabulous dash, more. outstanding is anwood exceptional C unleaded head and maculate engine unleaded head and apparently never engine immaculate engine C mot’d immaculate mpartment. Koni Midget and taxed. I’ve and ZR Spares. having been welded, compartment. Koni compartment. Koni cks, Minilite reps, shocks, Minilite reps, used this winter re-trimmed in this shocks, Minilite reps, calipers and muchnewTotally calipers and much black with red piping, new calipers and much e. An outstanding more. and it is very nice and£32,000 An outstanding £29,950 £32,000 Fabulous wood dash, C mot’d and taxed. I’ve more. An outstanding ot’d and taxed. I’ve £13,995 this this winter head andquick. ed this this winter usedunleaded C mot’d and taxed. I’ve MGA/Twin Cam Spares
Large /heavy items collect only. Please e-mail: ken_hall@ntlworld.com for list or contact Ken Hall on 01903 526817 (Worthing, West Sussex)
Round wheel arch rear wing O/S. New BL item old stock £150 Buyer collects. I pair of sills not BL - New with single jacking point. Also N/S sill with single jacking point. New old stock BL item. Also new O/S 2 jacdking points, new old stock BL item. Buyer collects. Tel 01494 813903 (Bucks)
4 Midget Rostyle wheels c/w good tyres £70 MGZR Hairpin ali spare wheel c/w tyre £40 MGZR Boot liner £25 MGZR haynes manual £10 All items vgc, would take best offer. and itTel is tony very on nice02476412861 and
immaculate engine used this this winter compartment. Koni and it is very nice and shocks, Minilite reps, www.mgcc.co.uk quick. £13,995 new calipers and much more. An outstanding MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 97 C mot’d and taxed. I’ve
it is very nice and quick. £13,995
£26,995
£32,0
£32,000
quick. £13,995
AUGUST 2015
£32,000
97
CM07.15/B19/rkb
Unused complete with instructions,cost £195 will accept £100 Tel. 01274639831 or mob 07711982862
CM07.15/B19/rkb
Carter_D
degrees, new bearings, oil grooved cam followers, combined horizontal oil pump/filter. Cylinder head stage 11, unleaded, large valve, metro stem seals, bronze guides ported (by Edney/XPAG ENG). Contact Ron Ward - 01422 823649
27/07/2015 17:16
1966 OVER
1966 OVER
45
45
YEARS
YEARS
2015
2015
45
Tel: +44 (0) 1274 585161 Fax: +44 (0) 1274 532772 Direct workshop line: +44 (0)7804 077 849 alastair@naylorbrothers.co.uk or craig@naylorbrothers.co.uk 1966 OVER
45 YEARS
2015
MG Safety Fast August15 47-98.indd 98
1966 OVER
45 YEARS
2015
27/07/2015 13:26
‘The Abingdon Policy’ the Home of classic insurance for your MG Exclusive to members of the MG Car Club.
- Peter Best Insurance Proudly supporting the MGCC and its members since 1985
Approved
TEL: 01621 840400 The Farriers, Bull Lane, Maldon, Essex CM9 4QB
WWW.PETERBESTINSURANCE.CO.UK Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Photograph courtesy of MG Car Club
MGCC_SF_August15_Covers.indd 3
24/07/2015 15:27
21st Century Technology for the Classic Motorist Startmonkey 400 is a revolutionary new alternative to the heavy battery jump pack. Weighing in at only 1100g and measuring just 210x65x64mm, it will start the 12 volt battery of any 4x4, van, car, boat or motorcycle between 15 and 20 times without requiring a recharge. It will retain 75% of its charge for at least a year. The roadside model connects to your battery with conventional crocodile clips while the motorsport model is fitted with a standard Anderson plug. £199.95 incl UK delivery and VAT. Zircotec has appointed British Motor Heritage as distributor and technical support for their incredible heat management products. Significant reduction in under-bonnet temperatures is possible by coating an exhaust manifold with Zircotec ThermoHold Coating. A range of 14 different coloured ceramic coatings provide the ultimate in thermal barrier performance whilst they are also an attractive durable finish that is easy to maintain. Please call for more information and a quotation to coat your exhaust components. The Motoring Classic’s Powermonkey Discovery measures only 46x13x114mm yet can recharge an iPhone twice, standard mobile phones 3-4 times, or give iPods / MP3 players up to an additional 120 hours playtime. Simply recharge the unit from your computer USB or a mains charger (not supplied). £45.00 incl UK delivery and VAT.
buy online at www.motoringclassics.co.uk or call 01993 707200
MGCC_SF_August15_Covers.indd 4
24/07/2015 15:27