Articles

Our video this week is something I don’t think we have ever had here before, a song. Yes, a music video. Kind of, well, I guess it really is. Anyway, here is Mark Evenchick performing his song “I Wish I’d Never Sold My Good Old MG” at the Le Michele Ange Coffee Cafe, Ottawa, at the Spirit of Rasputin’s “The Next Stage” in May, 2012. This comes from Youtube by way of Kate Morgan of ConstantSoundStudio.com. So, does anyone know of any songs for Jaguars, Triumphs, Healeys or perhaps even TVRs?

Another video of me messing with parts of my Triumph Spitfire – in this case a sun visor. I figured this might be of use to someone, so I shot it before I got down to work. Please pay no attention to the cat, Churchill. He just can’t stand something going on that he doesn’t know about. Anyway, in this short video I dissect a sun visor, a much-abused sun visor, from a 1978 Triumph Spitfire to give you some idea how they are made, what goes wrong, and how they can be repaired. Although this is the visor from a Spitfire, the same basic construction holds true for most British cars of the period such as MGBs, MG Midgets, TR6s, etc. Oh, and the gentleman I make reference to in the video who makes the Plexiglas visors is Andrian Page. […]

Another thought-provoking editorial from our friend and contributor Robert Morey of British Sports Car Consulting. Dealing with the “non-car-collecting ” public is a mechanic’s nightmare. People who don’t understand cars make the worst customers, and thank heavens I don’t deal with them anymore! A typical scenario with these aberrant creatures would be a 110k mile “Luxmobile” driven in with a leaking water pump, the car showing no signs of ever having a service. The customer states,”I’ve been topping up the water for two months and now the damn thing’s overheating!” So, on goes the new water pump, a gallon of antifreeze and they are gone (ignoring your advice that 7k miles is too long to wait to change that sludge they call oil solidifying in the oil pan). They are back in a week screaming because it still loses water. A […]

Call them ‘frog eye’ or ‘bug eye’ either way, this is the first version of the venerable Austin Healey Sprite. Our video this week is from when the car was still brand new to the roads in 1958. This old British Motor Corporation publicity video shows the still wet behind the ears, and tires in this case, Sprite driven at Silverstone by famed English racing driver Roy Salvadori. The Austin Healey Sprite, here in the guise that would become known as the Mk I, was a marvel in its day. Cheap, quick (not fast), and easy to maintain. What it didn’t have in speed, power, or creature comforts it made up for in charm and smiles per gallon. These were, and still are, simply fun cars.  These days though they are becoming much more scarce in solid, unmolested condition, and the […]

Our Video of the Week this week is of the TR Drivers Club Bullet Run, which we featured yesterday. The video itself comes by way of our friend John Clancy at TriumphDVD. June 2016 saw the inaugural Bullet Run hosted by the TR Drivers Club. The event commemorated the life of Tony Lee (Standard-Triumph’s Chief Development Engineer) who sadly died in September 2015. The Bullet Run re-traced the old Standard-Triumph test route which saw all the new and forthcoming models taken down to Bwlch y Groes in Wales. Gordon Birtwistle worked for Tony for over 20 years at Triumph as High-Speed Development Engineer and did an extensive interview with me in front of an audience of about 60 after the Saturday dinner. This video is the opening ten minutes.

I met Ian Crawford and Emilee Coomes in Louisville, KY last week. What great folk! While talking with Ian he mentioned that Emilee had written a story about their road trip to The Mitty a few years ago. I am honored to publish her story her. Oh, and thanks for the beer. 😉

From “Men and Motors” we have the very first Triumph TR5 off the production line brought along to the Classic & Sports Car Show by Nick Goldthorpe from ‘Classic Motor Cars Ltd’.  Yes, the very first one, and a beautiful survivor. The TR5 was little more than a one year only car, very late 1967 to 1968, and was really just a stopgap between the aging TR4 and not quite ready TR6. As such, it had the body styling of the former car and the six-cylinder engine of the latter. In the UK the car was petrol injected while in the USA it was carburetted and known as the TR250. Seems our US regulations couldn’t quite handle the fuel injection – or maybe it was the other way around. These TRs have gone up dramatically in price recently, leading me […]

The primary purposes of this road trip were (are? I am still on it) to see my friend Gene Gillenwater in Ohio, to attend the MG national meet in Louisville, KY, and to simply get out and drive and see some countryside. I have done all of those, and I am still on the road! The first leg of the road trip took me from Charleston, SC, over some of the worst roads I have ever seen, through North Carolina and a bit of Tennessee up into Virginia. Seriously, the roads in my own home state are the worst I have seen and are in dangerously bad shape. We should be ashamed of ourselves. The second leg of the trip was from Bristol, VA, through Abingdon, VA, because no self-respecting British car fan could pass up going to Abingdon, and […]

Our Video of the Week (VotW) this go round comes by way of the British Motor Corporation of 1962. It is entitled “Magic Carpet” and is a nice period marketing piece for the MG 1100. The BMC family of 1100 and 1300 sedans were the big brothers to the Mini. Designated AD016, they were badge engineered as Austin, MG, Riley, and Morris to name a few. They were enjoyable little people movers and were the top selling, or one of the top selling cars, in Britain for many years. Although they never reached that same level of popularity here in the US, there did used to be quite a number of them around. Long ago I had  a website devoted to the MG 1100, and although I haven’t updated it in a long time you can still find it at http://justbritish.com/mg1100. […]

Welcome to our new post category – “Road Ink“. The first of this new category is a short video on the innards of a Triumph Spitfire door mechanism. These mechanics are notorious for going out of alignment and even breaking. When this happens, you can no long open the car’s door from the outside. Quite frustrating, trust me! What is even more frustrating is that the fairly simple repair parts are not available for purchase. You either get to fork out over $200 for a complete unit, or attempt for use used or alternative parts. This latter choice is what those of us not made of money would prefer to do, but since this unit was always viewed as a single item by Triumph and BL, documentation is scarce. Hence this video. I just want to take a few moments […]

Our “Video of the Week” this time is from Petrolicious and is of a 1957 Aston Martin Mk III that the owner bills as “perfectly awful.”  And no, that is not an insult, it is a term of endearment. This is not one of those over-restored, pampered, show-only cars. This is an honest to god, survivor, original. And it is simply wonderful. “Some day, down in the future, whoever ends up with this car when it leaves my garage—they may choose to restore it,” says Dave Adams. “…but I hope if and when that happens, they do it with the correct lens so it’s not over-restored.” This 1957 Aston Martin Mk III is actually the prototype for the Mk III range, and was not only used for official testing and design duties, but had also been entered into the Monte […]

This week we are going to take a drop back away from the cars themselves and take a look at terminology. And no, I am not referring to the infamous “reverse procedure” instructions in most manuals on how to reassemble your automotive explosion. What we are looking at here are the words that are used for the same parts of the cars depending on whether you are speaking “English” or “American”.  Ever look at your US friend’s faces the first time you tell them you are going to stuff something in their boot? Yes, as the phrase most often attributed to George Bernard Shaw goes, “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” And this is no more true than when we talk about cars. When I was younger, way so may years ago, I learned most […]

I have mentioned this book a few times before, but I owe it to you to give a more informative review. Jaguar Design: A Story of Style, is as stunning book both in presentation and in content.  As billed by publisher Porter Press, this is, essentially, the story of three men — Jaguar company founder and owner Sir William Lyons, aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer and current Design Director Ian Callum — and how they shaped the cars that made Jaguar famous. The line that really struck me, and it actually occurs in Ian Callum’s introduction, is in answer to the question, “Should not form follow function?” To this Callum replied, “Yes, of course, but one of the functions of a Jaguar is to be beautiful.” In a nutshell, that hits at the core of what makes a Jaguar a Jaguar, and what […]

Our Video of the Week (VotW) this time go round comes from Steve Wincze of the Connecticut MG Club and the upcoming British by the Sea car show. You may also remember Steve as the winner of last month’s puzzle contest. The video in question is of the Skyline Soiree from 1993. This event was put on by the New England MG T Register. The Skyline Soiree was A scenic road trip through the mountains of the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway in mostly open 2-seater MGs. What we have here is 12 minutes of highlights from a 60 minute DVD. One of four great MG Road Trips sponsored by the New England MG-T Register. On this drive, and in this video, you get to experience the mountain vistas and natural beauty of two national parks and 574 miles […]

Spring has sprung – heck in my area it might as well be summer – and it that time when a car lover’s mind turns to roadtrips! This is especially the case since in about three weeks time the MG 2016 All Register Meet will be kicking off in Louisville, Kentucky. Sadly, I will not be driving an MG to this meetup, but I may very well be taking my 1978 Triumph Spitfire on this roadtrip. Hey, don’t hate, at least it is older British. With the contemplation of such a trip come the thoughts of what I should take with me. What tools, parts, and precautions should I be packing in the trunk for those roadside repairs or hotel parking lot tune-ups?  Now the list will, of course, differ based on the car and its age and obscurity, but […]

Size matters. At least that’s what some people say. I suppose it must be true because I have always had a thing for small cars. For some perverse reason even though I am of a “larger build”,  I have always been attracted to smaller cars – Minis, MGs, Triumphs, Sunbeam Imps and all manner of vehicles that make people puzzle over how I fit into them. I guess that is why our Video of the Week (VotW) caught my eye. The Classic British Microcars is actually a single show split into three parts. I have included all three of those parts here for you. Now, the cars I mentioned above are actually not microcars. In contrast to microcars, the Mini and even the Sunbeam Imp seem huge.  What we are talking about in the realm of microcars are vehicles like […]

I thought that for this go around of our Video of the Week (VotW) we would go for something that is almost unheard of these days – at least unheard of beyond the shores of the UK herself. So, let’s take a look back at the Jowett Javelin and the Humber Super Snipe. While both of these marques and models would get you a bewildered look at the local DMV, and perhaps a talk about it being a serious place of business and not a source of pranks for your amusement, they were actually well known and fairly popular cars in their day. To quote Wikipedia on the Javelin, “The Jowett Javelin is an executive car that was produced from 1947 to 1953 by Jowett Cars Ltd of Idle, near Bradford in England. The model went through five variants labeled […]

Final pictures from the Pinehurst Concours, at least for now, from Leigh Gill. This installment is a beautiful 1994 Jaguar XJ220. Gordon Logan Georgetown, TX 1994 Jaguar XJ220 The 1994 Jaguar XJ200 (#128 of 281 produced) was the fastest production car in the world when introduced. Its original sticker price was $624,000. 3.5 Litre V6, Twin Turbocharged, 542HP, 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, 0-100 in 6.0 seconds, and a top speed of 217 mph. XJ220s were not imported into the US by Jaguar; originally sold in Germany, this rare supercar was imported into the country in 2004 with only 296 miles on it.