Readers of this blog know that I am a fan of the excellent Austin Rover Online web site. It is a treasure trove of everything automotive from the BL days right up to the latest from those marques.
One of their contributors is Richard Truett who is based in the US. Richard has written of his ownership of various British cars here including a Sterling purchased on Ebay. His latest buy is a 1981 fuel injected Triumph TR7 with just 712 miles on the clock. You won't believe what he paid for it.
The second SABCC movie night was very well attended with almost forty members of SABCC, Panhandle British Car Association and the Mardi Gras MGs gathering to watch The World's Fastest Indian.
The Garagemahal Theater and Oil Change Emporium - OK, the workshop at Richard and Donna Cuninngham's home in Daphne - was the site for the event. The shop was cleaned out of various projects underway and the theater "lobby" was separated from the movie house side by black drapery. The theater concession stand was set up near the entrance to the movie to make sure everyone had a full supply of popcorn, candy and soft drinks.
A short subject about the MG marque was running when people began to arrive and stake out their seating for the main feature. There was plenty of room to spread out and relax.
The main feature, being set in 1960's New Zealand, brought out the car spotters in the crowd. We picked out Morris Minors, Vauxhall Wyverns and many others. In fact, if you really want to geek out you can get a list of all cars in the movie at the Internet Movie Car Database. As an added bonus, SABCC'er Don Pritchett brought an article from a 1965 Hot Rod magazine with a photograph of the movie's hero on the salt at Bonneville.
We had a short intermission to allow everyone to grab another popcorn and soft drink and stretch their legs. Now when was the last time you went to movie with an intermission?
At the film's end I'm sure there were a few moist eyes in the crowd as the main character in the film - Burt Munro, played by the immensely talented Anthony Hopkins, made his way back to his home in Invercargill, New Zealand.
As always, the club owes a debt of gratitude to Richard and Donna for allowing us to have our activity at their home.
Most of you know that I own an MGB roadster (tourer?) and I certainly enjoy open air motoring. A top down drive puts you closer to the world around you and you discover that there are cool spots near water, flowers by the roadside are fragrant and the wind in the hair (that's left) is a pleasant experience.
There are, however more than a few cars that look better (in my humble opinion) in their closed version. Flame away if you must, but here's my list of the more attractive tin tops:
MGA Coupe
I love the rounded roof line and I think it gives the MGA a more athletic look. It also came with a more civilized interior and it had genuine door pulls (!).
Jaguar XK Series
The XK series cars were some of the most beautiful cars that England ever produced. Granted, by the time of the XK-150, the sporty Jag had gotten a bit large, but it still had the same gorgeous family look. The XK-120 in coupe form is somewhat reminiscent of prewar French coachbuilt cars. The wheel spats suit this car, too.
Jaguar E-Type
OK, my asbestos underwear is on for this one. My personal preference in E-Types is the coupe. To me, nothing says style and grace more than the E-Type coupe. The flowing lines are much more graceful and the side hinged hatch is just cool.
Triumph GT6
Right, I know this is not a roofed Triumph Spitfire, but just look at it. The flowing roofline takes the humble Spitfire in a new direction, looking much more muscular than the open Spit. A poor man's E-Type? Maybe. Very pretty? Definitely.
That's my short list - tell me about yours or tell me why I'm wrong. Go ahead, I'm used to it.
I can't seem to stay away from the video web sites for too long. I always seem to find something worth sharing here on the blog. This time it's an early US TV ad for the new Triumph TR7. I have to admit that for its day, the wedge looked pretty swoopy!
You may have noticed by reading this blog that the South Alabama British Car Club is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of it's founding. The high point of this anniversary year is British Car Festival - one of the longest running all British car events on the Gulf Coast.
The club has set up a shop where you can order all manner of T-shirts, caps, mugs and other goodies to commemorate this milestone. Also, don't forget to register your entry for British Car Festival 2010!
I was thumbing through a copy of Motor Trend from December 1960 when I ran across this ad. As you can see, our friends from Lucas are proud of their customer base and would like you to know that they have offices here in the US of A.
Lucas later became (through a merger with American Varity) Lucas Varity and was later acquired by TRW.
For most of us, MG means small, sporty cars. In pre-war England however, MG built some rather large cars aimed directly at SS (Jaguar's original name). I've admired the 'big' MG saloon cars from day one, but as you can imagine they are thin on the ground here in the US of A.
The one that always gets my attention is the MG SA 2- liter car. The tall, imposing grille flanked by large chromed headlights gave it a real presence. Going up against marques like Jaguar and Bentley, the car was luxurious with all leather seating, walnut trim and fine wool carpets. It was also one of the first MGs to offer a radio as an option.
The Tour of the Empire series of evening dinner gatherings has been an enjoyable experience for the members of SABCC. To date we've 'visited' Hong Kong and India. Our next stop on the tour is Jamaica.
The flavors of this laid back Caribbean island are like nothing you've experienced if you are new to Jamaican cuisine. A combination of sweet and savory with a little heat thrown in for good measure form the basis of most Jamaican dishes. Jerk chicken is probably the best known dish, but you can also enjoy other delights such as curried goat, oxtail stew and eskovitch.
We'll meet at the Jamaica Vibes restaurant at 3700 Government Boulevard at 7:00PM Saturday, September 18th for the latest leg of the tour.
While I feel like I'm firmly grounded in reality, no real car guy can resist a little automotive fantasy now and then. One of my favorite places to visit via the web is Wire Wheel Classic Sports Cars. I first ran across the folks from Wire Wheel during my forays to the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the early aughts. Wire Wheel would bring a couple of interesting cars to show at the vendors corral and they always found time to run them on the parade laps prior to the start of the race.
Wire Wheel specializes in mostly British iron. They normally have a good selection of TRs and MGs, but they also have the occasional TVR, Lotus or other unusual marque. For a while, they seemed to have the US market for Marcoses cornered. They also have an interesting array classic and modern competition cars on hand. If you look hard enough you'll see that they have been able bring in some "not legal for use on public roads" cars - an MG-ZT260 for example.
Right now they've got a Lotus Europa Twin Cam in eye bleed green that's got my juices flowing. My enthusiasm is high, but my bank balance is low. Ah, fantasy.
Some years back I started researching an article that I was going to submit to the MGB Driver - the publication of the North American MGB Register - about two songs I had heard about MGB GTs.
One was by Peter Tork, the former Monkees band member who played a slow-witted character on the 1960s TV show of the same name. His song MGB-GT (surprise, surprise) is an upbeat little ditty that recalls the fun and escape provided by his "little red MG". The song can be found on his 1994 album Stranger Things Have Happened.
I contacted Peter through his music publishing company and exchanged emails. It turns out that in his Monkees days, he did own a red MGB GT (probably a '67 or '68 model) that he bought with one of his first TV paychecks. You can hear part of his song here.
The other song was by Richard Thompson, an English rock guitarist and singer with sort of a brooding sound. You may be familiar with his work with the group Fairport Convention in the late 1960s.
His version is about restoring an MGB GT, taking pains to point out that he "took the Rostyles off and put spoked wheels on", and mentions the Lockheed discs and twin SUs. Altogether a little more technical. Here's a link to Amazon's page where you can hear a short clip.
South Alabama British Car Club will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the club and it will be the 20th British Car Festival. I'm putting up a photo of the official art work for this year's event. It will be on dash plaques, tee shirts, banners at the event and a couple of very special goodies that only BCF2010 entrants will receive.
We're featuring the MG TC since that was the car that kicked off the sports car craze in the USA. We're hoping for nice turnout of MG T series cars (I'm looking at you Mardi Gras Ts!) since they are always a crowd pleaser.
British Car Festival is October 23, 2010 at Fairhope Beach Park. Check out the SABCC web site for the latest information.
SABCC'er Tom Schmitz shared this video with me and it's too good not to pass along. Everyone I know wears seatbelts (it's the law, you know) but there are still few drivers who don't. The video was produced for the Sussex (UK) Safer Roads Partnership so that's why the driver's shoulder harness appears to be reversed - right hand drive, you know!
Readers of this blog know that I am a fan of the excellent Austin Rover Online web site. It is a treasure trove of everything automotive from the BL days right up to the latest from those marques.
