Articles by Michael Carnell

I regret that it has not been mentioned here before, but the College of Charleston has entered into a partnership with the HVA (Historic Vehicle Association) to develop a program “with the goal of developing an academic partner to teach and publish scholarly research on this dimension of historic preservation.” The College’s Historic Preservation & Community Planning Program began it’s partnership with HVA last year and will be hosting the President of HVA, Mark Gessler, on campus on September 26, 2016, for a lecture entitled “Why We Need a National Register for Automobiles Now.” This lecture is free and open to the public. The program is also hosting a conference at the Historic Vehicle Association Research Laboratory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in October. That conference “Driving History – Putting Preservation on the Road” is the first international academic event of its kind known […]

Reader Doug Foster recently sent me an email telling me about his car. I still own the first car I ever bought (while in college 1971): A 1969 Primrose MGB.  Currently has 72k original miles and over the last few years have cleaned her up and rebuilt the motor.  She is virtually the same now as when she left the factory – no reproduction parts!  She won second place in the Forest Grove Concours last year… Recently my wife and I fell in love with MG Magnettes and purchased a 1958 ZB Varitone that is in great condition. Robert A. Mac Millan of Salem, Oregon bought the car new on May 29, 1969. Doug purchased the car in 1971 from Robert while Doug was completing college. He drove it daily for several years and frequently entered various time speed distance rallies, […]

Reader Gary Swift and his son went to the Aveton Gifford Classic Car Show, Devon, England, last weekend. Gary’s son entered his blue Austin Mini, which they say was parked next to a lovely Ford Corsair. The event was a short drive from where Gary lives, and he sent in a great series of pictures as a report from the event. According to the event organizers, despite some overnight rain and a mad dash in the morning to lay straw over the entrance they had a great show with over 1,000 people attending and 100+ classic cars and tractors on display together with a show of classic motorbikes next to the village hall. Sounds and looks like a fun event! Thanks to Gary for sending in the report, and we hope to have a report from him, and his son, on […]

Our video this week is a quick, very quick, look at what it means to own a Triumph Spitfire or MGB. Both of the people and cars in this video are unique, but even with the choices and differences, they hit upon some of the common threads of classic British sportscar ownership. I will admit to finding this video interesting partially for the reason that I have both an MGB and a Spitfire in the stable at the moment. The Spitfire is my daily driver and the MGB is undergoing a very slow version of a restoration. In a short period of time, with either car, you become intimately familiar with their quirks, charm, and personalities. And yes, unlike a lot of modern cars, the little roadsters have a ton of personality and no two – even of same year […]

Our video this week is a features the sights and sounds of MG2016, the all-MG national meet held in June, 2016. The Ohio River in Louisville made a great backdrop for the 700 plus MGs on the show field. Get a short taste of the happenings. From the official “closing document” from Rick Ingram, Executive Director – North American Council of MG Registers: There were 829 registrations for this gathering. “On The Field” were 715 vehicles comprised of 2.66% ”pre-war” cars, 13.15% T-series cars, 22.52% MGAs or variants, and 56.78% MGBs/Cs/Midgets/1100s-1300s/or “Post-Abingdon” MGs. Additionally, 4.9% registered as “Other British” or enthusiasts participating without their MG. About 700 folks enjoyed our “Churchill Downs Experience” on Monday evening, and another 325 folks had the same experience on Wednesday evening. … Two hundred twenty enthusiasts visited the Corvette factory and museum over Tuesday and Wednesday on event-sponsored tours. About the same […]

Compiled from the original 35mm filmstrip and vinyl LP record soundtrack, this is a training film from 1970 which introduces the BL salesmen to the new Triumph Stag. Well, new to 1970. I love using our video of the week to look back at how cars were viewed in the period versus how we think of them now. OK, I will admit that it is also fun to view the world pre-PowerPoint. Even though Time lists the Stag as one of the “50 Worst Cars of All-Time“, I have always liked them. And, they have a pretty good following these days. The issues can be sorted out these days, the wrongs set right, and then you have a very stylish, comfortable, touring sports-car. Sure, the Stag should have gotten the Rover V8 that went into so many other cars of […]

Jaguar XK DIY Restoration & Maintenance by Bob Exelby is an impressive book. This is the story of how one man completely restored his XK 120 roadster, transforming it from dereliction into a thoroughly beautiful example of this iconic sports car.  Bob Exelby also took the time to investigate and incorporate numerous detail improvements, making the car even more usable and practical for today’s roads, some 65 years after it was built. All of the modifications were tasteful, though some might still argue with their applicability to a true restoration. Exelby wanted a useable and dependable car in addition to a valued classic.

Our video this week represents a comparison of classic British six-cylinder roadsters – the ‘big’ Austin Healey 100/6 versus the Triumph TR6. My only wish is that the MGC were included in this matchup. Yes, there were other six-packs out there, most notable may be the Jaguar E-Type. But, it was always in a different league than the common-man roadsters of Healey, Triumph, and MG. This video, coming by way of AutoWeek, features European spec cars which were a bit different, especially in fuel delivery, than their US shipped counterparts. Oh, and yes, the video starts off in non-English, but most of it is actually in English. So stick with it. Plus the visuals are beautiful.

Just a quick post to announce the lucky winner of our Show Us You Sticker contest. And the winner is … John Huber of Maryland!  As you will remember, the prize for this contest was a Meguiar’s Complete Car Care Kit. This should serve to get your ride shining for those Fall shows. I have used most, if not all, of the products in this kit and can personally attest to the quality. Though from the picture he sent, it looks like John’s B is already quite the shiner. In addition to that fine Just British Online Motoring Magazine sticker, check out the other bumper sticker. Love it! And even better than that, well to me anyway, check out that license plate. Must admit that I am quite jealous of that one. Honestly, I love getting these pictures and hearing the […]

We love reading the stories of people and their cars, so we have decided to start running some reader profiles. This is kind of like our sticker gallery but goes a step further to really focus on the people and cars behind the picture. Our first profile comes to us from Bill and Joanne Burroughs of Vista, California. Bill and Joanne have a 1968 TR250 and a 1970 TR6.

Our video this week is of a rarely heard of, and even less seen, Mini-based beast, the Unipower GT. Not a kit, but a true production sports car in the vein of TVR and Marcos. To quote Wikipedia, because I honestly didn’t know much about the cars… The Unipower GT was a British specialist sports car first shown at the January 1966 Racing Car Show, and produced by truck maker Universal Power Drives Ltd in Perivale, Middlesex and later by U.W.F. Automotive in London until production ceased in early 1970, by which time around 71 cars are believed to have been made, including about 15 built by U.W.F. Originally the brainchild of Ernie Unger and Attila sports racing car designer Val Dare Bryan in the early 1960s the design of Unipower GT was actually said to have been penned by […]

An Estate Car Named Desire: A Life on the Road by Martin Gurdon, is a delightful collection of short memories of various cars and motoring folk. Or at least that is how the publisher describes it. I would say it is an amusing trip in a series of cars all connected by personality. The personality of the owners, the drivers, the passengers, and of course, the cars themselves. The personality of one of those cars was strong enough to be used in a video on “How to Irritate People”. Even as a toddler, Martin Gurdon was obsessed with cars. Before he could read or write he could distinguish a vehicle passing in the street from the purr of its engine. His first car – not strictly legally – was as a fifteen-year-old, parked round the corner from his boarding school, and driven […]

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. […]

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.

Note: The contest is now closed and a winner chosen. Thanks to all those who competed. And you can still have your car and sticker featured in our gallery, so keep sending them in. Thanks! The summer contest is finally here, so you need to show us your sticker!  Yup, that’s right, to enter this contest all you have to do is show us your Just British sticker (you do have one, right?) as it is attached to your car, motorcycle, motorhome, space shuttle, cooler, significant-other, or … well, just keep it at least PG rated.  We love seeing our stickers on your cars out on the road and at shows, and so this is a chance for you to show off online. To enter, just do one of the following things …. Upload a picture of your applied sticker […]

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 […]