VotW – John Twist Demonstrating Cut-Away Transmission

John Twist has decided to sell the 1973 MGB-GT that he built and recently restored for his late wife Caroline. This is a rare opportunity to have John Twist sign the title to your new car. John has hired GR Autogallery to handle the sale, and is not taking questions as he’s bad at selling cars! He’s really good at fixing them though! John Twist of University Motors located in Grand Rapids, MI is a name that has been associated with unprecedented MG service for years. John and his staff have been exclusively specializing, servicing and restoring MG Automobiles for decades earning him international recognition in all MG circles. People that know John also know that he has a wealth of knowledge and is happy to share it. Staff

Note: This week we are very pleased to have a piece from John Twist of University Motors on the dangers of ethanol, or alcohol, in modern gasoline. Those of us who drive classic British cars, especially ones with original fuel system components, need to be aware of what modern fluids can do to our rides. We appreciate John letting us reprint this article from his most recent newsletter. “Nearly all of the gasoline sold in the United States contains 10 percent ethanol, which can safely be used in all of today’s gasoline-burning cars and trucks.” (From http://www.ucsusa.org) The operative word is “today’s.” Ethanol is a cleaner burning fuel than gasoline. It is created from biomass, especially corn. Arguments rage about the true environmental impact of growing corn to create ethanol versus drawing crude oil from wells and then refining it. But […]

Vintage racing isn’t just a hobby, it is a passion. And an art. We are quite pleased to have a guest article by Don Racine of Mini Mania about using the ribcase transmission from the ubiquitous “Spridget” in the vintage racing application. The most conventional gears in the everyday manual transmission are helical cut. The single biggest advantage of this design is the reduction of noise that is inherent in the more efficient, easy to manufacture straight cut gears. The helical patterns allow for a much less violent meshing of the gears. But, the decreased noise comes with a few penalties. The first of which is sideload – because the gears are helical, some of the thrust is lost in the rotational direction and thus must be controlled with a thrust surface. The thrust surface most often used is called thrust […]