MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, July 2019

MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, July 2019

Why won’t my ‘C’ start!
Hello again, it’s Richard here.  Well, the other day I went out into the garage and hopped into the old ‘C’.  I turned the key and waited for the old six to fire.  I waited and waited and thought this is taking longer than usual.  Sometimes, I remember the instructions from my old mate from up yonder, you know who I mean, that nice old Queenslander, Bruce, who says turn the engine over for a couple of seconds, then go inside and kiss your wife goodbye, then back to the ‘C’  and turn the key and it starts instantly.  Quite often I feel that involves far too much exercise, so I just sit there turning the engine over until fires.  Today it wasn’t going to fire!

So, what was going on I asked myself?  I opened the bonnet and supported it with my trusty broomstick, specially designed and shortened and given to me by the previous owner, Mel.  I peered into the engine bay at that lovely six-cylinder engine and thought today it is not so lovely, in fact it was being annoying.  I checked the plug leads one by one, ouch, yes there’s six sparks there.  Fuel supply was next.  I checked the fuel bowls and yes there’s fuel in each one.  Then each plug came out and yes, they all worked, then I sniffed the plug hole and there wasn’t much in the way of that petrol aroma.  Hmm, what next. Yes, I wondered if a few passionate words might help?  Nope, that didn’t work either.

So, I called my neighbour, Phil, to see if he had any good ideas.  He’s older than me so he must be wiser, well, in fact being wiser is just what I wanted right now.  His wise comment was, “do you have any Aerostart?”  “No” I said, “well, I have somewhere in the shed, I’ll have a look.”  I didn’t hold much hope because his shed, while quite large, has more stuff in it than AC Pearson.com has in his labyrinth of sheds.  If you are mildly overweight, say anything larger than a slim rat, well, you’d never make it down the corridors.  I pity his wife when he dies.  With any luck she’ll died first, but then I’ll be left with emptying the darn thing out.  Anyway, he couldn’t find the can.

Maybe it’s time for a cuppa, yes, English Breakfast.  Well, while sipping away and pondering the problem at hand, Mrs Mixture, that wonderful Director General of Indoor Duties, came up with a wonderful idea; “ring the RAA” she said.  “Me” I exclaimed, “ring the RAA!  What would they know about our ancient old thing?  It doesn’t have fuel injection, nor sensors for this or that, there’s no blueteeth to plug in your cordless mobile phone and you can’t plug in a scam tool, whatever that is.  No, I won’t do that.”  So I went back to the infuriating old ‘C’ and turned the key once again … still nothing, so I came inside and called the RAA!  I had an hour to get the old thing going before they arrived, so the pressure was on.  I can’t be beaten, I can fix this bloody old thing, I can get it going.  Sadly, I did not.

The RAA arrived and the well-dressed technician said his boss had lots of MG laying around in his workshop and promptly gave me a business card for AA Automotive.  He then went back to his van and returned with a can of Aerostart!  I removed the air filters, he squirted and I turned the key and the old six cylinder burst into life then stopped.  We did that two more times, each with success.  I returned to the engine bay and noticed the piston in rear carby was fully open.  I wriggled it a bit, it dropped down, I turned the key. It started and then idled beautifully.  Problem solved.  The RAA indeed!

I now had a new problem, why did it stick open?  I checked the carburettor piston, damper and the suction chamber/bell, cleaned them and reassembled them.  They were much better but still not perfect.  I tried starting the engine one more time before closing the bonnet and it started beautifully and idled as it has done for the past 20 years.  Ahh, I fixed it, well with a little help.

The following morning I hopped into the old ‘C’, turned the key, it started but was running roughly.  “Oh no, what now”.  Actually, that’s not what I said but I will not write that here in this respectable magazine.  I opened the bonnet, checked the carbies, they seemed OK.  Next thing to check was the plugs and I removed each lead one by one and found plug number five was not firing.  I had an old plug so I replaced the missing one and the engine idled like it should.  So off to the shop to buy six new NGK BP6ES.  I checked the gap at 0.024-0.026” and replaced the old plugs.  I started her up again and presto problem fixed.   A big sigh of relief, and thankfully no more problems.

Why do problems often occur in twos or threes?  Is it just me?  Maybe it’s just magic!  Bad Magic!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

The MGC SU carby with stuck piston

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, June 2019

The 2019 Torsion Bar Run
This year’s Torsion Bar run featured a cube, a d’Arenberg Cube. A loyal bunch of MGC drivers attended the run; there was Jim in his red roadster, Ron in his red GT and just for a change of colour I arrived in my red GT. Jim brought along a very polite Japanese, English student, Yuki, for the ride. Riding through the Adelaide Hills landscape was a new experience for him particularly in an open sports car.

We met in the usual place in the south Parklands and headed south along Fullarton Road. Up through Blackwood and along Main Road and Clarendon Road to Clarendon and along Kangarilla Road to Kangarilla. We turned right and went along McLaren Flat Road to … I’m not going to mention the town we were headed toward; you have to guess. A right-hand turn in McLaren Flat, oops, and we drove along those back-block McLaren Vale roads that seem to change their names at every intersection.

Taking a left-hand turn, another left-hand turn, and another and finally turn left into d’Aernberg Winery. Being a cloudy day, I thought finding a car park would be easy but there seemed to be hundreds of cars parked all over the place. Another left-hand turn and we were off toward the vineyards but before we got there we found a park under several Grey Boxes; I mean Eucalyptus macrocarpa.

When I was a little younger, I used to go to wineries in the McLaren Vale to taste wine but these days they are a whole different experience. At d’Arenberg here were sculptures, walking trails and restaurants with $125/head lunches (I wasn’t that hungry) and ones for $210/head if you were hungry, and of course there was the Cube.

We headed for Polly’s Wine Lounge in the old winery for coffee and cake but no wine; ‘cos we were driving. The coffee was good and the almond, jaffa brownie was delish. But best of all the conversation was about MGCs. Yes, the election was discussed but only briefly and we also had a short conversation about port. We were told of the impending trip to Oslo by one of own intrepid trio and then there was the quiz; what is the capital of Sweden? No one could think of it until Ron looked it up on his phone; “the first letter is a ‘S’”, he said. There were no answers; “the second letter is a ‘T’”. We got it but I’m not going tell you because you have to guess; or look it up in your phone.

The Cube was an interesting structure of five floors with the top two slightly rotated out of the cubic square. There’s the restaurant floor, the tasting floor, Alternate Realities museum floor and a 360degree video room and other tactile experiences. But we didn’t go in; it was $10! You need an hour at least to enjoy all the visual and touchy-feely delights and we had spent too much time chatting about MGCs and the day was nearly gone. Entry is free for members of the Cenosilicaphobic Club, created to support those people who have a fear of an empty glass. I’m sure we have a few Club members who are sufferers, especially in the T Register.

I’m told the urinals are worth a special mention; think of those open mouth, laughing clowns at side-show fairs with a turning head. Lucky these clowns don’t have teeth!

After such a visual stimulation none of us were sure how to find our way back to normality. We found McLaren Vale without too much difficulty and I pointed in the direction of South Road so that Jim could head home but he followed me in the opposite direction toward the Hills. He didn’t follow me far before turning off toward Scarpantoni Winery and I remembered Jim saying it was where he purchased his port. He must have been running low at home.

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, May 2019

MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, May 2019

Hello, it’s Richard here again with a story about cold cranking power.  Now, when that nice old Queenslander went to pick up his brand new MGC at the Brissie docks in his home state of Queensland, the batteries were new but totally dry.  He extracted them from the car and went off to his local Century battery shop to get them filled and charged overnight.  When Bruce went back and picked up the batteries there was no charge.  He’s been buying Century batteries ever since.

Anyway, Bruce sent me a little note the other day saying he had bought a new battery, yes only one this time and not two.  He says;

“As my old Century will be 8 years old in 2 weeks time, I decided to buy the new NS40ZLSX MF (410 CCA and 40 month warranty) to replace the excellent DIN44L MF (370 CCA), as Auto Barn were having a 30% off batteries weekend.

The battery cost was $118-30 after discount.  List is $166.xx something.  Battery World, the official franchise dealer for Century-Yuasa, retail price was $189.00 but with Seniors discount was $170.10, so I felt well pleased to get a new battery before Winter.

This new battery fits directly into the battery boxes without modification, a little bit narrower with no lugs on the bottom and much less deep, it fits exactly between the factory mounting rubbers. It is taller, about the same as the factory 6-volt Lucas batteries.

I will make a pad to sit the battery on and strap it down with a couple of adjustable straps after seeing what Bunnings have to offer with straps.

My first 12-volt battery was a Century M9612 (300 CCA) and I could not believe how the starter ran after the old twin 6-volt units with only 270 CCA. 410 CCA should start the car easily on any cold winter’s day.

Cheers, Bruce.”

Automotive batteries are designed to deliver maximum current or amperes for a short period of time.  Now, many years ago I wondered what CCA actually stood for and was it important?  Bruce mentions the original batteries were 270 CCA and the new one is 410 CCA.  For those people who did not do well at primary school arithmetic that’s a 140 CCA increase, which is over 50%.  Quite a difference!

But what does CCA mean?  “Cold Cranking Amps” (I said amps not ants) is a rating used in the battery industry to define a battery's ability to start an engine in cold temperatures. The rating refers to the number of amps a 12-volt battery can deliver at 0°F for 30 seconds while maintaining a voltage of at least 7.2 volts.

CA or Cranking Amps are different and are the numbers of amperes a lead-acid battery at 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) can deliver for 30 seconds and maintain at least 1.2 volts per cell (7.2 volts for a 12-volt battery). In other words, CA determine how much power you have to start your car in most climates.

Many engines in cars today tend to have less resistance from being turned by the starter motor, i.e. they have less friction, but modern cars do have higher compression so more cranking amps are needed to turn the engine over when starting.  A 2005 MG ZS 180 requires a battery with 450 CCA.  What does a 2017 MG ZS require?  You know it’s one of those big fat truckie things that fill the roads these days.  If you have a V8 diesel under the bonnet you will probably need a battery with 1,000 CCA just to overcome the higher compression.

If you are the owner of an MGB their battery box is not as deep as the MGC so check the hight of the battery and make sure it will fit.

And remember EVs are coming so batteries will be much bigger!

“CCA® or Certified Coding Associate is based upon job analysis standards and state-of-the-art test construction” and has nothing to do with car batteries so please, just ignore this sentence.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

 

 

Two original 6 volt batteries are often replaced with one 12 volt battery

 

Bruce’s new 12 volt Century battery

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, April 2019

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, April 2019

Hello again, it’s Richard here with a story about body shell problems.  When MG decided to do away with a steel chassis when they introduced the MGB, I often wondered what stopped the body folding in half. You know, just like some of those funny bikes that fold in half to fit into your boot.  Although you’d need a rather large boot to fit an MGB in.

Back three decades ago Practical Classics published an interesting story about body shells.  Now remember girls and boys, MGC body shells may be a little different from MGBs, but the problems are still the same.

“The body sills and under wing areas are especially prone to disintegration on older MGs.  Starting at the front of the car, check around the head lights for evidence of hasty filler repairs and, from below the vehicle, check how much mud has been allowed to collect in the vicinity of the lamp units.  Moving further back, but still beneath the wing, reach up to the upper rear section of the wing and examine by hand and by eye the state of the 'turret' strengthening section.  This forms a horizontal ledge on which mud, salt and water can collect.  When the ledge rusts though, road debris and moisture work their way backwards, gradually eating through the inner wing, bulkhead, 'A' post and sill areas.  Tell-tail bubbles of rust in the outer panels surrounding the affected areas can give the game away.

Fortunately, the front wings unbolt to allow access to rusted sections beneath them and repair sections are available.

The sills – especially on roadsters – are vital to the structure of the car and should extend beneath both front and rear wings.  If you are looking at a car to which 'cover' outer sills have been fitted, as evidenced by join lines under each end of the doors, take care!  It is likely that rust still exists beneath the cover panels and behind the lower edges of the front and rear wings.

If the inner and outer sections of the sills are rotten (they usually rust in unison), it is best to replace all the sill components together.  This is an involved job, especially on a DIY basis, so it may be preferable to leave it to the experts.  To start with, and before cutting away any rusty metal, the bodyshell should be braced by bolting a temporary strengthening bar between the 'A' post area and the forward section of the rear bodywork, just inside the top of the rear wing.  It is also essential to tackle just one side of the car at a time or it may fold up in the middle!

Normally the front wings will still need to be removed for attention to the inner wing areas; it is best to remove the wings anyway to give access to the front ends of the sills.

With the windscreen and relevant front wing unbolted and removed, the bottom of the rear wing should be chiselled away (leaving enough metal for a repair patch to be attached!).  The rotten metal in the sill area can then be cut away.  This can be done using a hammer and bolster, cutting as far back as the floor panel (repairs to or replacements of floor sections are carried out at the same time).

The lower end of the 'A' post is now free to move and should be left unattached while the new 'floor to door step (inner) panel is welded to the car at the rear end.  The lower chassis ('castle') rail can then be attached, forming a shelf for the floor pan.  The chassis section holding the jacking point, the jacking point itself and its support brace should then be welded into position and the floor seam-welded to the lower chassis rail.  The vertical inner sill panel is then attached, after which the welds can be cleaned up with an angle grinder and the inner surfaces of the panels treated to an anti-rust paint before being finally 'boxed in' by the outer sill panel.

Before trial-fitting the outer sill, the door should be re-hung so that door fit and gap widths around it can be gauged accurately.  Next the outer sill is attached with self-tapping screws or self-grip wrenches and the door lined up so that the body swage lines meet neatly with the door aperture gaps equal all round (the 'A' post and the sill panel can be moved to achieve this).  When all is well, the 'A' post and outer sill can be welded into position.”

Well, all I can say is that I’m glad my ‘C’ came from the US of A and not the UK.  Although sunny California is certainly better than New York.  Lucky most US imports came from the west coast.

Automnal Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 4th May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off Greenhill Road. 

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

Thanks “mgb-stuff.org.uk”

 

The Ferrous Oxide Special

 

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, March 2019

Echoes from the Shop Floor
Hello, it’s Richard here again. My daughter gave me a wonderful little book for Christmas, it’s called “MG, Made in Abingdon: Echoes from the Shop Floor.” The 160 pages was written by Bob Frampton and it was published in May, 2018.

I was having a chat over a glass of Old Speckled Hen when my younger friend started complaining about BookFace. He told me that his friends kept on sending him photos of a cup of coffee or their lunch that they had just received or a picture of their front gate or a …

While I had no idea of what he was talking about, I immediately thought of this book. It’s a collection of mindless boring titbits taken from interviews from workers at the Abingdon Factory. Of course, I don’t need to tell you that it’s where MGs were made from 1929 to 1980.

Basically, it’s a collection of recollections by a bunch of old men plus a few ladies as well. By about half way through the book, a picture was building giving a wonderful reference of what it was like to work at MG on the ‘line’ or in ‘stores’, rather than a manager’s point of view or in fact a racing or rally driver’s perspective.

Many of the worker’s tell their short stories of where they went to school and how they started at MG at 14 or 15 years as a teaboy or a message boy and some progressed to an apprenticeship and studied at the College on Conduit Road.

One of the first things I looked at was the index to see if our beloved MGC is mentioned. The MG models started with ‘MGA’ then ‘MGB’ then ‘MGBV8’ and then ‘MG Maestro’ but no MGC. Then on page 47, the author wrote about Steve Palmer’s recollections, “He was one of the few ‘outsiders’ working on contract at the MG factory in 1967, the time when the Austin-Healey ‘badged’ MGC was being developed. This project may have eventually failed because its performance was heavily criticised by the press, in particular the fact that it was ‘nose-heavy’, but also there was a good deal of competition from the Triumph TR6 at the same time. Steve says he was one of the few non-MG people who actually saw the car during its early development.

It happened like this: Steve, at the time (1967), was an apprentice at his family’s firm, Palmer’s the plumbers. The firm was working to install an overhead gas supply at the Abingdon MG Works on behalf of Southern Gas.

Their supervisor, Tony Bell, drove Steve their to help with the work. Knowing of Steve’s interest in cars generally, Tony mentioned that there were some MGBs there with bulges in the bonnets. These were parked in a group around the back, near where the installation work was being carried out. The cars were soon to be announced as the new MGC.

They pulled up behind a silver GT. It was badged not as an MGC but, as Steve recalls it, an Austin-Healey 3000. This was the Austin-Healey version of the MGC range that was cancelled at a late stage of development. It appears that Donald Healey declined to lend his name to it due to its handling characteristics. It had a heavy six-cylinder engine and suffered from oversteer.

Steve recalls an MG worker offering the plumber ‘cheap car cigarette lighters’ on a number of occasions.

Yes, “cheap cigarette lighters”; the start of chapter 7, “Suspicious Behaviour at MG”, begins with a heading “The Dark Side – Pilfering ‘Rife’ at MG”. Several stories are told such as a propeller shaft being taken out of the factory disguised as a Christmas tree, a battery wrapped in Christmas paper, Bluecol anti-freeze taken out in a Thermos Flask and a dynamo being chucked over the fence and picked up by a girl, who wrapped it in a rag and when caught, told the judge that she “thought the rag would be useful for her grate.”

After a slow start I enjoyed the stories about “Boy meets Girl”, “Dick’s Wig”, “Music and Dance” and “I Remember You”. Do you remember Frank Ifield? Coxy Dixon gave up working at MG for £80 per week to get £120 to tour with Frank as his drummer and there’s a photo of both of them.

Automnal Run

Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 4th May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off Greenhill Road. 

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, February 2019

MG's in the new year.

Well, Happy New Year! It’s Richard here again for another year. Did the big fat man in the red suit slide down your chimney a couple of months ago? Have you got a chimney and is it big enough? Well, he came in the back door at our place and left me a couple of nice gifts that weren’t particularly big, well not as big as a K3 anyway. He must think that K3 is an Indian mountain just across the valley from K2. It’s a bit hard to shove one of those through the back door! Err … that’s the MG not the mountain. It would make a bit of a mess and Mrs Mixture wouldn’t like that.

Anyway, the flat present was a 2019 MG Calendar. I couldn’t wait until August for the picture of the MGC came up, so I guess it will have to be August all year long. The other flat present was a little smaller and a little thicker. It was an MG book “MG Made in Abingdon, Echoes from the Shop Floor” by Bob Frampton. It looks like an interesting read with interviews and stories from the Abingdon employees. It’s nice to get useful presents and certainly much more practical than a chocolate tea-pot.

Talking about the big fat man in the red suit, travelling through the Adelaide Hills was entertaining. It almost seemed as if some towns were vying to create the most imaginative Santa in an Australian context. I was driving toward Echunga and there in the corner of the paddock was Father Christmas in a red canoe paddling down the slope. Then in Meadows, there he was wearing a butcher’s apron and holding out a string of sausages, then around the corner was an old Caprice with its boot open and full of presents while the big fat man was sticking out through the sunroof waving. A bit further on was a pair of red trousers and black boots hanging below the canopy of a street tree. The residents of Kangarilla were also very creative. There was Santa hanging from a tree in a parachute harness all decked out with leather air helmet and goggles, another one looked a little like Elvis playing a guitar. In Mylor a trail bike had just run into a large round hay bail which had a pair of red trouser legs and boots sticking out of it. And the list goes on. Our German guests were highly amused as they had not seen anything like it before, but then they had not seen anything like Hahndorf before either.

That young whippersnapper who lives over the fence was showing me his Christmas pressie, it was a new computer. He started telling me all about it but the speed of the information part of ‘Information Technology’ seems to have sped right passed me as I had no idea about what he was describing to me. He then gave me some advice. He said, “Mr Mixture, never let a computer know that you are in a hurry.”

Anyway, he showed the MGC Book Face screen on his new computer. I think he showed it to me before, but it was very interesting. Once he showed me how to scroll down I wouldn’t let him have his Chrissie present back. It was full of interesting photos with their little stories. There were photos of MGC's at car shows, in garages and with and with out engines. There were MGC nuts and bolts, stickers, reproduction bonnet cables and body panels with and without rust. There were MGC steering wheels, wire wheels, replacement panels and parts.

Of course, there were photos of some very proud owners. For example, Mr Smith, (of all names), owns a beautiful 1968, Snowberry White, GT. There were many photos of Mr Smith, with child and MGC in front of an old English pub and one in front of a stone bridge and one in front of the Black Sheep Brewery, even one taken on a beach and it wasn’t Aldinga, SA.

The stories came from all over the world, from the US of A, Europe, Australia and of course, the UK. He said I could find it at the following address; https://www.facebook.com/groups/497393340372918/about/. I have no idea what the Post Code is?

Well, have a wonderful 2019 and I hope the year fills all of your desires.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS, from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, December 2018

The 2018 Torsion Bar Run

This year’s Torsion Bar run was full of apologies. So, who wasn’t there? Well let me tell you who was there to start with. There was Jim McCrickard in his RED roadster, Ron Telford in his RED GT and I was there in my RED GTs and yes, they were all clean and shining.

The fastest MGCs in Adelaide – it must be the colour - RED!

Shiny power bulges

There were several apologies, Robin was celebrating the first birthday of his grandchild, Lynton was competing his dogs, Dennis was in Bali and the weakest excuse goes to David who said he was climbing mountains in Ireland, to be sure, to be sure.

We left Beaumont Road in the Adelaide Parklands and travelled along Fullarton Road and up into the Hills passed Belair National Park and headed to Upper Sturt Road. We then took a right turn to wind our way down Sturt Valley Road and up the other side along Ironbank Road. The torque of the big 3 litre engine was quite happy pulling up the hills in forth gear. We turned off at Morgan Road and on to Scott Creek then left along Red Hill Road. The road opened up a little through Longwood and then down Leslie Creek Road and into Mylor to visit the Harvest Café.

We parked in front of the Memorial Hall and walked across the road to order coffee from the lovey Amy. The weather was gorgeous, so we sat outside in the sunshine at a rustic, chunky, timber table. Ron must have been watching his weight and ordered a small biscuit while Jim was not and tucked into a delicious teacake and I ate a colourful raw something or other that was rather tasty.

I brought along a couple of items that I thought the MGC owners would be interested in. Earlier that week I received an interesting document that listed the technical details of the North American MGCs. The 13 page ‘Leyland Technical Service Bulletin’ was from Leonia, New Jersey, USA and covers a lot of detailed specifications of the NA MGCs.

I also received the NZ, ‘MGC Register Newsletter’ from Ian Grant the Secretary/Historian from across the ditch (‘dutch’ interpreted for McNobb). His newsletters are always interesting and includes a story about their Register technical man who is reconditioning MGC water pumps for a modest fee of $70, that would be Kiwi dollars I guess. You can contact Harvey Heath at Home: 09 8342552, Mobile: 021 1721033 or Email: harveyheath@xtra.co.nz if you’re interested.

To celebrate 50 years since the first MGC rolled off the production line, the Kiwis have organised an 18-day Magical Grand Cruising Tour of the South Island that started on the 4th November and travelled for two days from Auckland to Wellington. Across Cook Strait to the South Island the tour spent the next 16 days visiting look-outs, passes and motor museums including Warbirds & Wheels at Wanaka. They met other MGCC members and also caught up with Austin Healey owners along the way.

Ian has up loaded several videos to YouTube that he took at the MGC50 in the UK last year. You can search for them by typing in ‘UK MGC50 Ian Grant’. If never seen so many MGCs in one car park before.

Southern Expressway problem:
As retired electrical engineer Ian Cartwright was driving his old Corolla down the Expressway, his mobile phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, ‘Ian, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on the Southern Expressway. Please be careful!'
'Botheration’ said Ian, 'It’s not just one car. It’s hundreds of them!'

C ya soon, Ian

MGC NEWS, MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, Nov 2018

The Price of a ‘C’

Hello again, it’s Richard here.  Have you ever heard of ‘inflation’?  It’s when you use your month to blow up one of those colourful, round, rubbery things at a child’s birthday party.  When you sit on it and it goes pop, well that called deflation.  Now, if you keep your wealth as physical assets the value usually keeps up with inflation.  If you keep your wealth as money, given enough time you won’t have enough to buy any assets.  So, if you have an account full of cash, go out and buy an asset and may I suggest that you buy an MGC ‘cos if enough of you do that, it will push the prices up.  But that’s not called inflation that called demand and supply.

So how much are they worth right now?  Well a lot more that an MGB I’ll tell you.

If you live in the UK you can pick up a beautiful roadster for only £33,000 (that’s about AUD59,000).  In the Netherlands one was available for €17,000 ($27,000) or choose a better one and spend €30,000 ($52,000) complete with the US Abingdon pillow.  The asking price for another beautiful UK ‘C’ was €34,000 ($55,000).

If you want a ‘C’ that starts easily and doesn’t use as much fuel as a standard car there’s a beautiful European build (Benelux/Belgium) MGC from 1969 in primrose yellow with overdrive for £27,000 ($49,000).  The roadster has a fuel injected engine.

Now, if you’re reading this magazine you are probably living in Australia, so if you fancy a lovely MGC two were advertised recently, a roadster in NSW for $34,999 and a GT in Victoria for $40,000.  Both ‘C’s look like nice cars.  Cheap ah!

Victorian MGC GT for sale for $40,000

If you still fancy a ‘C’ and have been interested in MGs for a while you may have heard about the poor handling and the heavy steering of the model.  Well, the British press of the day were pretty much correct but there are improvements you can do today to improve things.  Regarding the handling and power there are a few definitions that you need to understand:

"Understeer is when the front of the car hits the wall; 
Oversteer is when the rear of the car hits the wall; 
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall; 
Torque is how far through the wall you go." 

If you observe the speed limits today and drive slow enough these definitions are totally irrelevant.

A small number of MGC owners have fitted electric power steering to overcome the heavy front end and believe me it makes a surprising difference.  There is another option that works well too and that’s fitting trunnion needle bearings to the top of your king-pins.

“This amazing little invention replaces the bronze thrust washers in the top trunnions to reduce friction and give an almost power steering feel to your car without any major alterations to your vehicle. Makes the heavy manoeuvring of your classic a thing of the past. Very high quality and not to be compared with cheaper alternatives available on the market.”

SC Parts Group in the UK has them, Part No:489911 for £72.00 a set, but give Rodney at MG Sales a call and see if he can help.

Now remember, if you buy an MGC you probably have to be a Hoptimist.  A Hoptimist is a person who believes everything is better with a good craft beer.  Personally, I prefer a wee dram from the Scottish glens myself.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS, MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, October 2018

Smoke makes the lights go on!
Hello again, it’s Richard here. The “Antique Automobile Club America”, God bless their little socks, published this wonderful piece of scientific logic all about things British and MG Experience has published it as well. So, I thought, why shouldn’t we do it too?

They called it “ELECTRICAL THEORY BY JOSEPH LUCAS”        

I’m sure it had nothing to do with Joe Lucas (1834-1902) but was the recorded mutterings of some Octagonafiles with plenty of time of their hands and little else to do. It probably happen at night when you consider that slogan attributed to Lucas Electrics, "A gentleman does not motor about after dark." These gentlemen can’t possibly be English Gentlemen, can they? Anyway, it goes like this;

“Positive ground depends on proper circuit functioning, which is the transmission of negative ions by retention of the visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work. We know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of an electrical circuit, it stops working. This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing.

I’m sure you have all seen this photo of replacement smoke.

For example, if one places a copper bar across the terminals of a battery, prodigious quantities of smoke are liberated and the battery shortly after ceases to function. In addition, if one observes smoke escaping from an electrical component such as a Lucas voltage regulator, it will also be observed that the component no longer functions. The logic is elementary and inescapable!

The function of the wiring harness is to conduct the smoke from one device to another. When the wiring springs a leak and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterward.

Starter motors were considered unsuitable for British motorcycles for some time largely because they consumed large quantities of smoke, requiring very unsightly large wires.

It has been reported that Lucas electrical components are possibly more prone to electrical leakage than their Bosch, Japanese or American counterparts. Experts point out that this is because Lucas is British, and all things British leak. British engines leak oil, British shock absorbers, hydraulic forks and disk brake systems leak fluid, British tires leak air and British Intelligence leaks national defence secrets.

Therefore, it follows that British electrical systems must leak smoke. Once again, the logic is clear and inescapable.

In conclusion, the basic concept of transmission of electrical energy in the form of smoke provides a logical explanation of the mysteries of electrical components especially British units manufactured by Joseph Lucas, Ltd.”

“the transmission of negative ions by retention of the visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke"? Surely this phase is creative writing at its best. There are several creative, SA Car Club members that come to mind whose short circuit brains can put words together in such an innovative way and one of them owns an MGC!

I’m told that back in the '70s, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.

Torsion Bar Run
Now MGCers et al, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming so it’s time for an MGC run, put Saturday 20th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS, MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, Sep 2018

MG T-Types not MGCs

Hello, it’s Richard here again. One of the things that I find interesting is that some MGC owners also own a T-Type and many others have owned one in the past. I noticed that that young fella from across the pond as the Brits say, John Nikas, has written a book titled ‘The MG T-Series, The Sports Cars the World Loved First’. I asked Mrs Mixture to ask the local librarian if they had a copy but they did not, then that young wiper-snapper over the fence said he’ll have a look on the net and fish one out of the pond or something like that. Then he asked me for $38.26. I think he said he ordered it from Brazil and fished it out of a river of stuff. It’s a bit beyond me. What happened to letters and catalogues?

Well this little 95 pager was delivered in the post about eight weeks later. It was a pre-order I was told so it took a while. US author, John Nikas, appears to be a thorough Octagonapile with his knowledge of MGs. And, interestingly, this book is a perspective from a land that received exported MGs rather than one from mother England; it’s seen through, not rose coloured, but stars and stripe coloured glasses.

The book’s seven chapters make wonderful reading starting with “The Foundation of the Sacred Octagon” describing a young Oxfordian, Bill Morris, who started his “apprenticeship at a local bicycle shop as a fifteen year old in 1893 for the meagre wage of 5 shillings a week. An incredibly driven individual despite his youth, he went into business for himself not long afterward, performing repair and service work from a small garden shed behind the family home in Cowley”

“As motorcycles gained in popularity he began to provide them with support and service, eventually fabricating his own powered cycle in 1901.”

Of course his attention became focused on a “new and exciting form of transportation”, the automobile. “With financial assistance from the Earl of Macclesfield, Morris completed his first automobile using components sourced from third parties in 1912.” Development of the Morris Oxford and Morris Cowley throughout the 1920s is explained, leading to the support from his young Morris Garages sales manager, Cecil Kimber (you know who he is don’t you?)

The early photographs in this chapter were provided from that well known US, MG aficionado Richard Knudson, and include one of the Morris Motor Cycle Garage and another of the Oxford Garage with a row of automobiles out front.

Chapter 2 discusses “The Triple M Era” with some wonderful photos from David Knowles and Graham Robson. 24 pages are illustrated with colour photos of M-Types, L-Types, J-Types, P-Types and N-Types. The last sub-section headed “Change in the Wind” describes the sale of MG to Morris Motors which “fell under the supervision of the irascible Leonard Lord”. By this stage we are almost half way through the book!

The next chapter portrays the book’s title “Birth of the T-Series” and explains the successes all the way to the end of the book. The size and shape of the TA is described and compared with its predecessor the P-Type. He elaborates on the slow fuse between Lord Nuffield and Leonard Lord, the War activities, as well as the demise of MG’s founder, Cecil Kimber.

Chapter 4 is a “Matter of Survival”. While the UK may have been victors after the War in many ways they were “worse off than the nations that she had defeated.” The Chancellor of the Exchequer issued a mandate of “export or die”. The first TCs to hit US soil occurred in late 1947 and 2001 of them made an impression on their American owners and it was one that would last for many decades.

“Raising the Stakes” in chapter 5, is about modernising the anachronistic TC. “It was clear that the TD had been created with Americans in mind.” In a single stroke the devaluation of the Pound Sterling reduced the cost of the TD in the US to $1,850, compared to $2,395 for the TC.

In the next chapter “Holding the Line” tells how MG continued the T-Types with the TF while other manufacturers modernise. “at the 1953 London Motor Show one journalist calling it ‘a TD that’s been kicked in the face’.” And of course the TF 1500 was all about “buying time” until the release of the MGA.

The last chapter, the “Epilogue”, sums up the impact of the T-Types in the USA and other influential markets such as South Africa and Australia. There are a couple of wonderful photos of a young Phil Hill behind the wheel of a TC and Al Moss admiring a TC in 1948 who went on to establish Moss Motors.

Sadly, he doesn’t progress to our beloved MGC which is not surprising if I read the title again. It’s a wonderfully informative book that looks at T-Types through US eyes.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS, MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, August 2018

MGC Thermostats

Hello, it’s Richard here again to talk about a hot head or really it’s about keeping a cool head. If you remember that nice young MGC Co-ordinator had a hot head and fixed it by replacing the viscous fan clutch which he had first modified way back in 2003. The fan now keeps the ‘C’ cool but the thermostat was a 71° item which is too cool and needs to be replaced with a standard 82° thermostat.

So what is a thermostat, just in case you’re wondering?  It is a valve that regulates the flow of coolant from the engine to the radiator.  When the thermostat is closed (in a cold engine) it stops coolant flow to the radiator which accelerates the warming of the coolant until it reaches the correct operating opening temperature (or the prescribed temperature of the thermostat).  It then opens allowing coolant to flow through the radiator to be cooled.  With varying driving conditions the thermostat will open and close depending on the temperature of the coolant.

Directly below the thermostat opening in the head of an MGC is a bypass hole that allows coolant to flow to the water pump and through the engine when the coolant is cold and the thermostat is closed.  When the MGC engine was designed a non-bypass thermostat was specified which allowed coolant to flow through the by-pass hole when it was both hot and cold.  Modern thermostats have a by-pass valve (a secondary valve or foot valve) that closes off the by-pass hole when it is open.  When the by-pass hole is closed all of the coolant must go through the radiator to be cooled making the cooling system more efficient. 

A modern by-pass thermostat can be fitted an MGC but the foot valve is too far away from the by-pass hole to work efficiently.  It needs to reach a further 3mm closer to the hole.  To achieve this extra length a washer/washers can be soldered to the foot of the thermostat.

Thermostats often have a jiggle pin in the flange that allows trapped air to be released.  The jiggle pin should be rotated so that it is at the highest point in order to release any trapped air.  This rotation is not important in the MGC as the thermostat is located in a horizontal position in the head.  Cars that do not have a jiggle pin in the thermostat usually have a bleed notch or some other method to release trapped air.

When an engine has overheated it may have damaged the thermostat so it’s a good idea to check it and replace it if necessary.

So which thermostat works best in the old ‘C’?  After sharing information from my radiator man and with Bruce in Queensland, he did his own research and decided that a 71°C thermostat was the best temperature to use.  When that young fella replaced his thermostat some time ago, he used a DT 13C, a 71°C thermostat which is now too cold. 

The MGC factory workshop manual recommends the standard temperature thermostat of 82°C, or 74°C for hot countries and 88°C for cold countries.  While parts of Australia can be very hot, a 71°C thermostat is definitely too cold for where I live, so it’s back to standard for our nice young Register co-ordinator.

MGC Thermostats Brand	71° C	82° C Std MGC	91° C	Dayco thermostat
Tridon - Part No	TT 228-160	TT 228-180 or TT 265-180	TT 228-195
Dayco - Part No	DT 13C	DT 24A

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

The 14mm by-pass hole can be seen directly below the thermostat opening in the head

 

MGC thermostat modification.  Solder a 3mm thick washer to the foot valve to fill in the gap

MGC NEWS, MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, July 2018

MGC fan clutches

Hello again, it’s Richard here. Now, for an engine to run effectively it needs to operate at the correct temperature. When the engine coolant is cold its flow through the radiator is restricted by a thermostat and when it gets too hot, the thermostat must be open and a fan helps air flow through the radiator to cool it. All of these bits must be working correctly if you’re going to have fun in your MG.

Now, I’m sure if all of you MGCers reading this will think I’m trying to tell you how to inhale eggs, but if the old six pot lump of cast iron gets hot it won’t like it. Well, that’s what happened to that nice young Register Co-ordinator, his engine got hot and spewed coolant everywhere!

The suspected culprit was the fan clutch. Now those readers that are expert on matters dealing with MGCs will know that MGCs don’t have a viscous clutch that operates the fan. So why is there one on our nice MGC Co-ordintor’s ‘C’? Well he answered that question by saying the modification “sounded like a good idea at the time” (2003) and anyway Bruce did it. You know, that nice old Queenslander, Bruce. With the engine idling, the fan was checked by carefully inserting a rolled up magazine into the blades and it was easily stopped indicating there was no oil in the fan clutch.

Now, many of you will know that the ‘C’s six cylinder engine is a long one and there’s not a lot of room between the water pump pulley and the radiator core. The fan and clutch has to fit in a space of only 73mm.

There wasn’t a part number on the old clutch, so after some searching, a Tru-flow fan clutch TFC137 was found that suits GMH (Holden) and Nissan. The height was 60.5mm. The fan seat on the clutch allowed the fan to sit closer to the engine giving 23mm gap between the fan and radiator core but only 12.5mm between the clutch body and core which is not a lot. In other words the clutch body protrudes through the middle of the fan and is closer to the radiator core than the fan itself. You have to make sure your engine mounts are in good condition!

Taking a look at the original factory fan, the distance taken by the original spacer and metal fan leaves a similar space between the fan and the radiator core. The original fan spacer is 26mm thick and the metal fan from the mounting surface to the fan blade edges is also 26mm. Adding these two together and subtracting it from the 73mm distance between the water pump flange and core leaves a 21mm gap, 2mm less than the modification above.

The other modification that is needed is to drill two extra holes in the fan clutch mounting flange. Fan clutches are normally mounted to the water pump flange with four bolts. The MGC water pump pulley and fan are mounted using only three bolts. The original spacer can be use as a template to drill these extra two holes. One might wonder if the saving of one bolt was a cost saving measure imposed on Abingdon by BMC accountants?

The length of these three bolts is critical in order to fit behind the clutch mounting flange and its body and still have enough length to screw into the water pump flange and hold the pulley in place. This length is 18mm. While 18mm bolts fitted the old modification there wasn’t enough room in the replacement clutch so studs were made and Loctited in place in the water pump flange.

All the components were then reassembled and the clearances checked before starting the engine. All went well without any frightening sounds. So how did it work? Well there’s good news and not so good news. The fan and fan clutch worked wonderfully well and kept the old six cylinder engine as cool as a ..., even when left idling. The problem now is, it’s too cool with the temperature needle barely moving. So the next thing to look at is the thermostat.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

The new fan clutch and fan bolted to the water pump and holding the pulley in place. The gap between the fan and the radiator core is 23mm.

The new fan clutch, (right) and original spacer, (left, with copper dowel in the centre) used as a template for the drilling of two extra holes in the clutch flange, i.e. three holes are needed in place of the four mounting holes.

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, June 2018

The 2018 Automnal Run

The usual MGCers rolled up for this year’s Automnal run. There was Jim McCrickard in his red roadster, nicely cleaned after the wet run to The Bend a couple of weeks prior, Robin Gibb brought along his brother in the white roadster, Peter Carthy arrived in his green GT and Ron Telford and I were in our red GTs also cleaned and shining. Jim also brought along his Japanese exchange student Hidetoshi Takemoto who enjoyed looking at the old cars. His English was a lot better than my Japanese, “sayonara”.

Once again we headed east along Greenhill Road and turned right when we reached the top of the range at 700m or 2,300ft for the old imperialists in the Club. We skirted Mt Lofty and dropped down into Crafers. Turning off to Piccadilly, we veered right at the round-about and headed toward Stirling, along Old Mt Barker Road to Aldgate, then a right and a left and into Bridgewater. We travelled over the SE Freeway along Carey Gully Road and eventually found our way onto Greenhill Road again but heading west this time to the Uraidla Hotel. We found ourselves a park out front and headed inside.

The MGC boys outside the Uraidla Hotel.

I promised the MGC drivers a tour of the men’s toilets. The pub was renovated several years back and the men’s toilets have been very creatively refurbished. I thought ‘hands-on’ people like Jim, Peter and Ron might steal some of the creative ideas for their next home reno. It’s a bit Steam Punk! I fact I’ve even found women in there inspecting the men’s urinal.

I shared some of my trials and tribulations after my old ‘C’ over-heated again when lining up at The Bend waiting to be directed to our MG display area. I modified the cooling fan back in 2003 and the second hand fan clutch decided to say good night. I replaced it with a new one and now it’s running too cold. My next job is to replace the thermostat with a hotter one. These 50 year old cars always seem to need maintenance of some sort. Although, I must say 15 years service from a second hand fan clutch is probably not too bad especially when it first went into service in 1987! Richard was hovering about and taking notes while I was doing the work so I’m sure you can expect the full story in a future magazine article.

Peter shared his plans for his next trip away. When we asked him where he was going he answered “north where it’s warmer”. Anywhere specific? “We’ll probably turn right a day or two past Coober Pedy”. How long are you going for? “Probably until we get back”. That’s what I like a man with firm plans.

When we were leaving Jim took us over to his ‘C’ in the car park and showed us his new steering wheel and boss that he bought from Rodney at MG Sales & Service. We all oohed and aahed which tickled a happy response in Jim. He told as that “there are 3 different columns on the "C", such as a different spline diameter, so the correct one is required.” Yes Jim, it is very a nice wheel.

Robin parked next to a boring old white Hyundai when we arrived and while we were inside a fairy godmother had come along and turned it into a Ferrari Mondial in a lovely scarlet colour, what else?

C ya soon, Ian

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, May 2018

Smile You’re in the Movies

Hello again, it’s Richard here and I‘ve been watching a couple of films lately. Mrs Mixture popped down to the local library and brought back several books and a basket full of CDs. I find it a little mind boggling that someone can think that they can read all those books and watch all those movies within a couple of weeks. Anyway I know I don’t watch all of them and I have no idea what she does when I nip down to the local for a pint of Old Speckled Hen.

Sitting back in the old wing back with a cup of English Breakfast I start thinking about some of the iconic cars that have featured in TV programs or in the Movies. The first car that jumps into my mind is the DB5 that James drives in Goldfinger, yes that’s the same model that Bazz picked up in the UK for 2/6 pence back in the olden days.

I always remember the Avengers on the telly in the ‘60s and I just wanted to be like that bowler hatted Stead driving around in a vintage 3 litre Bentley.  I always liked them until I help an owner change a wheel one day.  I had to be like the Incredible Hulk to lift the damn thing. It was certainly heavier than a Mini wheel!

I never fancied General Lee, the orange ’69 Dodge Charger that those Duke boys used to drive around and around whatever tree it was.  Nor did I care for the yellow Chevrolet C-2500, Crew Cab Silverado, in Kill Bill called the ‘Pussy Wagon’. 

I thought the film was about a vet.  The ‘68 Mustang GT 390 in Bullitt that Steve McQueen drove was pretty good though.  He tried his darndest to shred those narrow tyres.

But what about our favourite MG the ‘C’?  Did it appear in any movies or TV shows? Have you heard of ‘Mannix’, or ‘Tatort’ – ‘Kressin stoppt den Nordexpress’, or ‘The Bank Job’ or ‘Die Screaming, Marianne’ or ‘Vild på sex’?  The last movie translates to Wild On ... ahem, Oh my goodness in Australia this 1974 Swedish film was called ‘Confessions of Sweet Sixteen’.  A primrose ‘C’ roadster features near the beginning and the end of the film but I had to watch it all the way through just in case I missed something and I didn’t miss a thing!  It takes be back to my teenage years when I went to some of those works buck’s nights.

Have you seen these films ‘La moglie del prete’, ‘Big Zapper’, ‘Chérif’ or ‘Prudence and the Pill’?  You may have seen these telly programs ‘Callan’, ‘Dalziel and Pascoe’, ‘Hawaii Five-O’, and ‘Division 4’, in black and white, that also had a short scene with a parked MGC GT.  Sadly the ‘C’ features in the background of most of these films/TV programmes, so no cameos here.

Series 6, Episode 16 of that 1960s series, the Avengers was probably the best programme featuring a white MGC roadster driven by Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney.  For only one episode Lady Diana filled in for Tara King who was Steed’s side kick during the series.

All models of MG feature in hundreds of movies and TV series but the MGC only presents itself about 20 times on the screen and mainly in the background as the main character drives past a parked ‘C’.

I have it on good authority that the Tuesday coffee run group was overheard discussing their medical problems recently.
'Do you realise,' said one, 'My arm is so weak I can hardly hold this coffee cup.'
'Yes, I know.' replied the second, 'My cataracts are so bad I can hardly see my coffee cup.'
'I can't turn my head,' joined in the third, 'because of the arthritis in my neck.'
'My blood pressure pills make me dizzy,' commented the fourth, adding, 'I guess that's the price we pay for getting old.'
'Well, it's not all bad.' piped up the first, 'We should be thankful that we can still drive.'

Automnal Run:
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 5th May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. 

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, April 2018

Fuel for the Fire

Hello again, it’s Richard here with a remapping story. Remapping? I always thought that remapping was when you go into the newsagent and buy the latest Gregory’s street directory. But it’s got something to do with computers evidently. Russell would know all about it ...err... that is if he’s not out-of-date already after six months of retirement.

How many MGCs out there have computer, measuring all sorts of things and then adjusting the fuel, air and timing. I’d say the number is a round one and equal to the number of MGs made by Austin. Re-graphing is the term or changing the advance curve as I was told many years ago.

Now, the spark plug in each cylinder has to light up at the right time to send the piston back down the bore and turn the crank etc, all the way to the back wheels, no matter what speed the crank is turning. So how do modern fuels, namely unleaded fuels, work in our old cars?

Once upon a time petrol was petrol and then some smart spark found that increasing compression ratios increased performance but that lead to pre-ignition or knocking or pinging. Petrol companies discovered that if they add lead to the fuel mix it not only reduce pinging by increasing the octane rating but also reduced the wear of the valves and their seats. In fact, when Curly was a lad, ESSO found that tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) worked wonderfully well and introduced it to their fuel in 1927. TEL worked so well it became an industry norm.

When TEL is burnt it forms a fine suspension of lead salts that is largely lead bromide which was the white deposits on the inside of your exhaust in the old days. This cloud of particles slows the flame front down in the combustion chamber, (this doesn’t happen with unleaded fuel).

So jump forward into the 1960s and some health professionals found that people who lived on busy roads were suffering from lead poisoning. Now I wonder where that came from? It was well known that petrol was not particularly nice stuff, think fire, and when I was a youngster washing up parts in petrol was the norm, you just sloshed it all about. While it wasn’t a good idea then, it’s worse now with modern fuels containing benzene which is a known carcinogen. Authorities started reducing lead in fuel by the mid 1970s in the USA and it was banned in Australia in 1985.

So the point of all this pre-waffle is that our old lumps of ‘Best British Cast Iron’ as Bruce calls it, were designed for leaded fuels which are unavailable these days. So before you start brewing your own fuels try retarding your ignition timing a little and winding your jets down a little to make a slightly rich mixture when compared to the settings written in the manual!

I have played around with my SUs but could never get the old cast iron lump to run sweetly throughout the rev range. I spent money and had a well known dyno-tune business arrive at nothing better than what I had achieved. In fact I had to re-tune the mixture because living in the Adelaide Hills I used higher revs more often than I did fluffing around in the city.

Of course that nice old Queenslander, you know who I mean, Bruce, says, “The ‘C1W’ needles supplied by Downton were too weak in our climate and I ended up using ‘ST’ needles. ‘SQ’ were too rich down low and no good at full throttle.

The cylinder head specialist who converted my head for unleaded fuel advised that ‘Weslake’ heads (Mini, MGB & MGC) do NOT like to run lean. If it were me I would start with ‘ST’ needles.”

Also, I’d hope that all current owners have had their cast iron heads modified with hardened valve seats to cope with the higher temperatures of unleaded fuel. And remember, Australia has the lowest quality petrol of the 35 countries in the OECD, below Mexico, Turkey and Estonia (according to the Sydney Morning Herald back in 2016) so use 95 or 98RON octane fuels in the old girl, she’d love it.

So before you start playing with benzene, paraffins, aromatics, alcohols, oxygenates and TEL sit back in your old wingback and have a good read of the SU Needle Profile Chart handbook.

Automnal Run

Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 5th May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, March 2018

More advance less speed

Hello, it’s Richard here again. That nice young Register Co-ordinator showed me a letter he’d received from one of the MGC owners in our Club. Putting it bluntly he wanted more speed. There can’t be too many MG owners who haven’t said that at least once over the years. Anyway, Lynton and his ‘C’ toddled off to Specialty Tuning, a business that evidently specialise in “distributor graphing and carburettor overhaul”. While I’m not sure what graphing a distributor is, anyone who can overhaul a carbie these days must be worth a look.

So this is what Lynton’s letter says;

“Thought I would share with you my recent ‘C’ experience.

Although smooth and easy to drive around the city the engine has always felt like it was running out of puff above 3500rpm. Towards the end of last year I took my friend in my ‘C’ on a high speed hilly run on a warmish day. I was concerned to notice the engine pinging (detonating) above 3500rpm uphill with more than 1/2 throttle.

I consulted Neville Smith at Specialty Tuning, Marion. He advised that, although he had not worked on a ‘C’ before, he had extensive experience with Lucas distributors and believed the distributor may be over advancing.

Neville took base line figures on chassis dyno as a starting point. He removed and bench tested the distributor and found a total centrifugal advance of 65° (28° is standard). The distributor had been modified (butchered) to give the extra advance. Neville commented he had seen this modification before with Lucas distributors and someone local is mistakenly butchering them thinking they are doing the right thing. He reversed the mod and replaced the centrifugal springs to correct the advance curve. Finally he chemically cleaned the induction system to remove built up gum and carbon.

The final dyno reading showed a 10% increase in total power but more importantly the engine now pulls easily to the red line with smooth and constant power.

I would recommend Specialty Tuning to anyone who is looking to get the best out of their MG.”

MGC distributor

Lynton and his prized and much faster now MGC-068

Well done Lynton, a bit less advance provides a bit more speed.  I recall attending to this problem back in 2008 along with several other Register members and wrote about it in the November Club Magazine that year.  We fitted electronic ignitions and had our distributors overhauled and found a wonderful improvement in performance.

Lynton goes on to say;

“I too have fitted electronic ignition. It was one of the first things I did. Purchased from eBay and fitted in situ with static timing reset. It made a big difference. 

I did not know the dissy had been butchered until Neville bench tested it. All I knew was there was something not quite right. The pinging and running out of puff above 3500rpm being the main issues. 

He quoted for a full tune including regular dissy remap and dyno run with before and after printouts $350”

Wow 65° advance sounds like quite a lot.  No wonder it was pinging.  Detonation that far ahead of TDC must have just about driven the car backwards.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, February 2018

MGs – Enjoy ‘em while you can

Hello, it’s Richard here for the New Year.  Well the pudding has settled, that’s the Christmas pudding and not the black one.  Did you enjoy your’s?

I have always bought my MGs for the joy of driving them.  That joy is certainly becoming curtailed as speed limits are reduced and speed cam.., sorry safety cameras, have been secretly installed on many roads.  Traffic has increased, even in the Adelaide Hills, and as we all get older many drivers are agonisingly slow and have trouble keeping their rather large SUVs on the left side of the white line.  Of course it’s not only limited to older drivers ...

Have you driven a modern motor car recently?  I know Arthur has.  They seem quite dead to me.  Comfortable?  Yes.  Quiet?  Yes.  Lots of electronic toys?  Yes.  Feedback through the steering?  No.  Feedback though the seat of your pants?  No.  Fun to drive?  No.

Cars are becoming more and more automated and driverless car are just around the corner.  I know some people don’t agree with my thoughts but if not the next corner it will be the one after that.  Yes I know there are many problems to be solved but it will happen. 

I remember the first boxy Volvo car I drove in the early ‘80s, a 264.  It was a higher car, oops hire car and it reminded me of my grandfather’s wing-back chair, quite soft and you weren’t sure what was happening under the seat of your pants.  I was always cautioned never to buy one because if the electronic ignition failed you were stuck and had to call a toe truck.  You couldn’t get the spare set of points out of the glove box and chuck them in the dizzy to get you going.  Can you buy a new car these days without electronic ignition/computer ignition plus ...?  Have I made my point about driverless cars?

After a glass of that nice Langhorne Creek sparkling shiraz (or two) my mind starts pondering the future.

A ‘driverless’ car with wheels

A driverless car without wheels

I can imagine that just around the next couple of corners you can hop into your mobile phone, if you’ve got one of those confounded things, tap on an app and a driverless vehicle will arrive at your front door within minutes (mind you mobile phones may well be in the museum by that time but what will replace them?).  It will also be handleless so as you approach the vehicle it will recognise you and a door will open.  While on the outside you notice it is windowless but as you step inside you can see outside for 360 degrees.  It’s a bit like that Time And Relative Dimension In Space vehicle that the Doctor runs around in.  You just have to ask this vehicle to take you to an address and off you go.  Will it have wheels?  Probably not, though I’m sure the early versions will have wheels.  Engine noise?  No way, it’s electric.  Will it accept cash?  No, but the numbers in your bank account will be adjusted by the time the bottom of your pants touch the seat.

While the world is embracing digital technology the concept of analogue may well disappear from the lexicon.  Try keeping a TC between the roadside verge and the white line as you go off on a car club run.  That experience may only be available after you put on the vertical reality suit.

So my New Year’s revolution will be to drive the old ‘C’ for every one of the 90 days that our historic registration allows in South Australia and enjoy it.  Jumping into my ‘C’ the first thing I notice is the smell, it has one and I like it.  Turning the key, yes it has one of those too, the six pistons jump into life and what a lovely sound it makes.  Then there’s the pleasure of driving it.  So enjoy your old, non-digital, piece of driving history, ‘cos, if you live long enough it might not be possible.

The speed limits have been reduced from 100 kph to 80 in the Adelaide Hills and 60 kph will be here soon at a road near you (for your safety of course).  While I may experience driverless cars in the near future, I may not live long enough to experience windowless, handleless vehicles with wrap around screens in the inside and automatic payment. 

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned and keep smiling, 2018 is here, Rich

The Torsion Bar Run from Ian Hobbs, December 2017

Or MGC Spring Run

I awoke to a lovely spring day for our Torsion Bar Run. My CGT needed a good wash which I did in the morning and was ready to meet the boys and girl at Beaumont Road at 1:30 pm.

Before the Run my email inbox was awash with apologies. First there was one from Jim who was back of Bourke trying to hold on to his caravan in high winds, then there was Ron who was paddling up Katarapko Creek with his son and grandson, then Robin, who had the weakest excuse of all, was painting his wheels (it’s a bit like arranging your bottles of nail polish isn’t it?).

So how many turned up? Two MGCs and one MGB. Lynton arrived in his primrose roadster with the passenger seat graced by his lovely wife Lyn and of course I arrived in my red CGT. Driving his blue MGB roadster was MGC Registrar, John Craven, with all the latest gossip on MGCs.

We set off up Greenhill Road leading us into the Adelaide Hills. It’s about a 475 meter climb up over the range then down through Summertown and Urailda and turning off at Rangeview Road. We wiggled our way into Bridgewater and headed toward Verdun, Hahndorf and finally arriving at the quaint little village of Mylor. The Harvest Cafe was our destination for coffee and an almond croissant. Lynton had some other chocolaty thing that looked equally as delicious.

Out front of the cafe hanging high on a post is a bicycle to encourage packs of bike riders to call in for a coffee and earlier that morning there were many. Do you call them a pack of bike riders or a peloton of cyclists? It’s amazing to think that some of these cyclists probably don’t take much longer to get to the Cafe, than we did driving our ‘C’s.

We sat outside and discussed many things such as our health, of which mine was excellent and our finances which we all decided we could do with an extra million or two more. Lyn then decided we had to adjourn to Tupelo Grove Nursery, just three minutes away, so she could buy some plants for her new garden bed. At the nursery, Lynton and I continued to talk about MGCs and other cars until she was happy and ran out of hands to carry all the plants (Lynton’s hand included). It’s amazing what you can fit into the boot of an MGC roadster. The sun was low so we headed for home.

The Kimber Run

Talking about MG runs, I thought the Kimber Run was another successful event for our Club with over 120 MGs driving along those well worn sports car roads of the Adelaide Hills.  Unfortunately my MGC disgraced itself by emptying the contents of its cooling system onto the pavement when I arrived at Edwards Park to start the run.  It was the first hot day of the summer season and I now know that the ‘C’s viscous clutch fan (a modification) is not working.  Any speed above 60 kph and the temperature was fine but I decided to follow a slow MGB to Edwards Park which was a mistake.  Why are MGB drivers so slow?  They didn’t use to be.

I’ve had over 15 years and 60,000 miles of pretty much trouble free motoring in the old girl and she even performed admirably at Mallala race track over the Easter Nat Meet this year.  There’s also a few other maintenance jobs I need to do, so the time has come.

I want to thank TC driving Thane, who was decked out in RAA gear, for coming to recue me with two containers of water so I could fill up my radiator and my spare supplies.  Then there was the kind man who gave me a lovely fluffy towel to wipe down my ‘C’s body which was covered in coolant.  If you got into trouble with the boss and she was wondering why the towel had disappeared, just drop me an email and I can return it fully washed.

Once a car’s bonnet is open it attracts all sorts of people and it still surprises me when I was asked ‘did MG put a six cylinder motor in an MGB or is it a modification?” 

Thanks for coming out on the ‘C’ run lady and gentleman.

C ya soon, Ian

MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, November 2017

Hello, it's Richard here again.

Did you read the English Motor magazine on the 4th November, 1967? Yes, that’s 50 years ago. That nice young Register Co-ordinator gave me a copy that he had received from that nice old Queenslander, you know who I mean, yes that’s right, it’s Bruce.

Well, 17 days earlier on the 18th October at the Earls Court Motor show the MGC was released to the public and all the journos were keen to test this new six cylinder MG. The Motor article was one of the best I have read. The heading says “Softly, Softly – Stable high speed cruising; smooth, quiet engine sluggish at low revs; good roadholding; clumsy steering; good brakes and economy; seats comfortable but lack support; dated finish and controls.”

The MGC they tested was NJB 649F which appears to be the only time this car was written about in a magazine. The engine was “described in detail in our October 21st issue, the new engine is a modified, lightened and seven-bearing version of the old Healey six:” “With 53% more power yet only 18% more weight the MGC can be expected to go much quicker than the B, and it does: top speed, for example, was 118.2 mph for our hard-top two seater, compared with the 106.5 mph attained by the similar version of the MGB which was tested in 1964.”

Talking about the positive aspects in the article it article says “Certainly the new model amply satisfies one of the prime requirements of grand touring – the ability to cruise with complete effortlessness at high speeds.” “Also GT in character are some improvements to interior safety and comfort: rubber winders for the windows, neatly recessed door locks and some welcome additional fore-and-aft adjustment for the driver’s seat.” It does say that rake adjustments for the seats are “primitive and inadequate as ever, the heater has inferior controls and remains an extra, the glove compartment is crude.” “Despite these faults, general comfort is quite good and there are few cars that can outpace the MGC at anything near its £1,163 price tag” You’d have to fork out around £20,000 to buy one today.

Performance and economy

"it pulls without hesitation, pinking or vibration making for pleasant driving around town – and the quiet hum of the exhaust is the predominant noise.” Yes, we all like that noise. In fact on leaving the October Register meeting that well known spelling error, TD McNobb, thought that Dean’s BV8 sounded wonderful until he heard that beautiful six cylinder throb, (err... should we call him McThrob?) “With the throttle floored at, say 1500 rpm, the car takes some time to build up speed until the engine reaches 3000 rpm when it begins to pull firmly and continues to do so with silky smoothness right up to 5600 rpm limit, at which it sounds quite unstrained.”

“As might be expected from a capacity increase of over a litre (compared to the MGB) the fuel consumption has gone up, but the difference is small. The overall consumption was 19.3 mpg compared to the 21.3 mpg of the ordinary MGB and the 20.9 mpg of the GT version.”

Handling and brakes

With 210 lb. more weight and an increase in front roll stiffness, pundits have been predicting tremendous understeer for the new MGC. But in fact the weight distribution is very little changed compared to the MGB, although the car is 3½ cwt. heavier overall. Other factors which work against an increase in understeer include an increase in power and the fact that the front tyres are run at 4 psi above the rears.

Servicing and accessibility

The rather heavy bonnet is released by a pull knob awkwardly located on the passenger’s side. The big six-cylinder engine fits neatly into the MG compartment and all the most important service points such as the oil filler cap, radiator filler cap, dipstick, carburettors, brake and clutch reservoirs, coil, distributor and oil-filter are easy to get at. Servicing is needed every 3,000 miles and the requirements are similar to those of the MGB.

Well it’s the most positive contemporary report I’ve ever read. The journo did recognise the fact that he was testing a grand tourer rather than a sports car like the MGB. Either that or he had been looked after rather well by BMC.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

Motor Road test MGC

The release of the MGC at the Earl Court Motor Show 1967

MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, October 2017

Hello, it's Richard here again.

I’m told that there has been a bit of chat about wire wheels lately. I can never work out whether it’s a clever idea to use several bits of wire to support a heavy vehicle, a vintage Bentley comes to mind, or maybe it was an invention channelled through the Black Arts. It does seem to create a lot of grief for some people.

I was settling into the old wingback browsing through the August 2017 edition of the MG Enthusiast and started reading a wonderful article called Wire Wheels. You might be able to pick it up now from the news stands. Anyway this chap called Oliver Smith runs a business called Motor Wheel Service International, MWS, which was started in 1927, yes that’s right, it during the Bentley time and he now runs this family business that his grandfather bought in 1947. He tells a wonderful story about Dunlop wheels and its competitors Dayton and Borrani which are still around today.

Oliver mentions the two common hub sizes: 42mm for most cars and 52mm mainly used for Jags and of course Rolls Royce used lots of other sizes. MWS makes their own spokes “the spokes are thicker (or butted) at the end which goes through the wheel centre to make the spokes stronger, but the spoke size is determined by the smaller diameter of the main part of the wire and not the butted end. We roll the threads into the ends because this gives a much stronger thread than removing some of the steel by cutting. The thread is the standard BSC screw thread system with 32 TPI (turns per inch). Oliver talks about the inherent flexibility of a wire wheel as it is made up of “loose parts”. He refers to the different lacing patterns and offset that are required by different models of cars and says they “try to keep to the original patterns as much as possible”. He goes on to say “most of the stock wheels we sell now are tubeless, which have a silicone sealant that covers the spokes to stop any air escaping” An excellent idea I thought. They have “safety humps either side of the rim well to prevent the tyre beads moving (this last point is important because we do have wheels with sealant that are not tubeless, a point that sometime confuses people).

He says that 72 spokes are generally the maximum for a British wheel although some vintage cars have more and 48 and 60 are more common and remember that earlier cars had less power than some of the older models have today. Sometimes people think that replacing a broken spoke will get them back on the road but Oliver says that “a spoke rarely snaps of its own accord. More likely it is a sign that there are also problems elsewhere, perhaps other spokes have lost their tension or threads are wearing out, and really the wheel has to be fully rebuilt.” He mentions that you tap each spoke with something metal like a spanner and a loose spoke will make a dull thud rather than metallic ring.

He explains the different types of spinners, or knock-ons (or is that knock-offs) as I call them, and how tight to do them up which is an experiential thing as I imagine a suitable torque wrench is a hard tool to find. “If your spinners keep coming loose, then it is probably because the hubs have been fitted on the wrong side and simply whacking them harder will not do any good." Do not over tighten as you can damage the thread on the hub. That’s right there are different threads (right hand and left hand) on each side of the car and when fitted correctly the spinners tighten up as you drive.

It’s a fascinating article and it kept me enthralled right to the very end. It’s one that every owner of a wire wheeled car should read.

Torsion Bar Run:

Now MGC'ers et al, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming so it’s time for an MGC run, put Saturday 28th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

IQ test: Is there a wheel in this picture that belongs to an MGC? Please place all answers in a self addressed envelope.

MGC with new wheels in front of MWS

MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, September 2017

Two Heads are better?

Hello, it’s Richard here again. Two heads are better than one but not when one is full of cracks. A head full of cracks was the dilemma facing Restoration Ron up there in them Hills, yes the Adelaide Hills.

A couple of MGC Runs ago, Ron invited us up to have a look at his latest restoration project, a lovely British sports car from the 1960s. I will not mention the make here in this respectable MG publication but I’ll give it a nom de plume of ‘TR6’. Well the ‘TR6’ is working wonderfully well but on the other side of the shed the poor old MGC was fluffing a bit with a leaky head. After an investigation Ron found the head had more welds than a Collins-Class submarine and more cracks than one too!

Now that nice young Register Co-ordinator received one of those electric letters from Ron, you know, letters over the inner-net, asking him if he “may know of someone with a good spare MGC head hidden in their shed.” He told that young fella Ron that he knew a few people with sheds but not any with MGC heads lying about. He made a few enquires and past them on but in the mean time Ron had found a price less MGC head in the UK plus a very nice option of an aluminium head “but” says Ron “the price scared me, around 3,000 pounds + shipping + duty + GST.” So he decided to wait for a price on the so far price less head from Steve Curtis in the mother land. When he was given a price he grabbed it as it was quite reasonable. Have a look at Holmes Racing, http://www.holmesracing.co

Once the head arrived Ron had it reconditioned, painted and fitted it on the old girl. He says “It is now installed & running like a clock, well that's a slight exaggeration.” I would hope so Ron, tick-tock, tick-tock. Even Laurie’s V8 runs better that a clock, although I have seen a cuckoo in there somewhere.

Ron's cast iron head

Holmes Racing alloy head

Now getting back to that alloy head, Holmes Racing reports; “The MGC alloy head updated casting has now been heat treated and is on its way to the machine shop. Plan is to machine it on the new CNC unit and this should be the final form for all following heads.

The main problem was wall thickness around the plug; the walls are thin even on the cast Iron head so for the first test head I used a 10mm plug. We have increased the wall thickness to the maximum without spoiling cooling round the plug. 

We intend to continue to use the 10mm plug which comes in all heat ranges as required for longevity of the casting this is the way to go. I am sure that at some stage someone will over torque a plug and will need to repair head; the extra meat around the plug will allow this.

A new set of valves has been made for us to use which will be a nice improvement in flow.

The amount of effort involved in bringing an alloy head to the C community has been huge by all parties from Steve and I, to our caster, machinist and finisher. In taking our time to get it right we will ensure that the C will have a replacement cylinder head for many years to come.

They go on to say, “The Alloy head is running well no issues and with over 1500miles now. The pattern has been adjusted to allow some more material in certain areas that we thought was needed. Casting will take place of one head and machined on a new 5 axis CNC”

Have you made the right decision Ron? I’m sure the alloy heads won’t get any cheaper so now is a good time to buy. Maybe you should buy one and then you can have a spare head hiding in your shed.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, August 2017

An Understeering Experience.

Hello again, it’s Richard here. Were you there? No, well you missed out on a wonderful celebration – MGC 50. Could you afford it? Yes, the long week end was quite affordable but the travelling cost was a little expensive – flying from Australia to the UK.

MGC 50 was a fantastic event listening to all those lucky people who attended. It was the biggest gatherings of MGC's since the production days at the Abingdon Factory. The event was based at Chateau Impney in Worcestershire, UK over five days. There were many activities organised including visits to the Royal Air Force Cosford Museum, the Gloucestershire/Warwickshire Railway and the British Motor Museum, and not to forget the MGC Show Day. The organisers, capably chaired by Ginny Cartmell (and not to forget the support from her husband Barrie), were over the moon to have 217 MGC's attend.

The MGC that travelled the farthest came from New Zealand along with several Kiwis and were joined by a several Aussies. People and MGCs attended from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Jersey, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Not to forget that 95% of the attendees resided in the UK.

Several of the cars that were displayed are well known by Cophiles. There was RMO 699F, FRX 692C and SGY 776F (now WGU 277F). RMO of course is one of the six aluminium MGC GTS, Sebring race cars, while FRX is the first development prototype MGC, #GCN1 0100G despatched on 1st December 1965. SGY was HRH Prince Charles’ MGC GT which he received at school and the Mineral Blue GT was his first car after receiving his driver’s licence.

There were other interesting cars such as KOV 257F, #GCD1 0122G, despatched on 1st Nov 1967 to BMC Chairman, Sir George Harriman and appeared in a magazine test in Oct 1968. There was even a 1932 MG C Type, a MGC ancestor maybe?

Tim Moore lives in Portree on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and drove 1439 miles (2316 km) door to door to the event. He said “Amazing event, amazing people at MGC 50. Incredible effort from the brilliant committee to make all 217 MGC's who attended so welcome.” There are lots of comments like that on the MGC Face Book page.

The MGC 50 Committee was so happy with the outcome of the event that they are now talking about MGC 60. So start saving now and I’ll see you there.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

Below are pics of MGC Show Day, further info found on the MGC Face Book page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/497393340372918/?sw_fnr_id=3910841671&fnr_t=0

Barrie and Ginny Cartmell chair of the organising committee	MGC Show Day
	MGC's outside the Chateau Impney

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, July 2017

The 2017 Automnal Run:

When I woke up and peered out the window to a lovely autumn morning, the sun was shining on the gum trees which was the first time in a week of drizzly days. A great day for the Automnal Run. When I arrived at Beaumont Road there were a couple of early birds, I said g’day and unfolded our MGC anniversary banner. It was well received. It was promised to be ready for Easter but was eventually finished two weeks later. So much for promises!

The roll call counted six MGCs and two MGBs. Jim McCrickard and Lynton Fuller were there in their roadsters, one red and one Pale Primrose. Robin Gibbs and his beautiful wife Maxine arrived in their White roadster and Mike Greenwood and Jan drove down in their red GT and I was in my red GT. We picked up Ron Telford in Clarendon in his red GT. We had an Ex arrive in a Damask BGT, Ex MGC owner that is. Current ‘C’ owner John Craven arrived in his ‘B’ to update us on the Australian MGC Register.

Automonal Run Beaumont Rd start

Arriving at Aldinga Airfield - note Mike's GT in the back with the brown soft top

As usual we headed for the Adelaide Hills along Unley Road and up all the way to Blackwood. We continued on to Clarendon where we picked up Ron, then on to the top of Willunga Hill and almost to Myponga. We then headed north down Sellicks Hill waving to the large Buddha on our left as he looked out over the sea to the west. Finally we arrived at our destination, the Aldinga Airfield.

The run to the airfield was pleasant and while several people were keen to extend their machines and travel at least at the speed limit, we stuck together. The trip did take a little longer as one driver, who shall remain anonymous, had trouble getting their ‘C’ out of first gear. Hopefully next time Robin comes along he’ll be able to engage the gear stick in a position closest to him and back. Once he’s mastered the gear stick we can tell him what the long handled switch does on the right hand side of the dash.

We parked in a row and wondered over to Adelaide Biplanes, situated in an iron clad building with Baltic Pine floors inside, a flight office and kitchen and some very comfy chairs. There are tables and chairs under the veranda outside looking over the taxi way and run ways. Every time a plane started its engines heads turned to see what the noise was about.

I called the meeting to order but no one had any formal business but Mike had something to share. I reopened the meeting and ask whether anyone was keen to take over as Register Co-ordinator. Mike kindly asked if I was happy to continue and I said yes so I was duly nominated and voted in for another term.

The coffee arrived together with some wonderful cakes. I can certainly vouch for the Moist Fruit Cake particularly when the cook had up-end a half bottle of Jack Daniels into the mix. Very tasty. Lynton brought up the topic of faulty brake light. It was suggested that the problem lies with the reproduction brake light switches which are made from poor quality metal and the contacts tend to arc eventually making poor contact unless you increase the pressure with the brake pedal. Then they fail. For the cost of less than coffee and cake, it’s not an expensive item to replace.

BTW, those astute members among us will know that Mike Greenwood does in fact drive a red roadster and not a GT but I thought I’d see if he reads this report to the end before flicking me an email reminding me that he has a soft top and not a hard top! I apologise Mike, for the previous report that referred to you driving a GT, although the previous report was written by Richard and not me.

C ya soon, Ian

MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, June 2017

An Understeering Experience:

Hello again, it’s Richard here with some exciting news. MGCs understeer! Oh, you already knew that? After many years of reading the understeer comments by journalist both old and new (yes both the journalist and the articles) that nice young Register Co-ordinator now knows from his Easter experience at Mallala.

He competed in both the Motorkhana at Pt Adelaide and at the speed event at Mallala. He told me that on the last run of the day at Pt Adelaide, while doing the slalom, he worked out how to turn and head in the opposite direction around the flag at the end of the line. “Coming to the last flag you head out wide,” he said, “touch the brakes and then floor it.” This manoeuvre brings the tail around and took 2.2 seconds off his time, wow, that’s almost a 10% saving. If only he knew that when he started!

Yes, definitely understeer.

Many years ago our esteemed ‘C’ Co-ordinator raced a historic clubman at Mallala and after some 30 years of not competing he reported that his right foot was as heavy as ever. “Turn one was easy” he said, although he had an interesting chat about the best line with that Formula Three champ, Dean Hosking. “Turn two was hold your breath, ah just managed to keep it on the black stuff” but turn three, he said “was a dozy.” This turn is the southern hairpin which opens out on exit and just as well. When you enter the turn, you head in a southerly direction and then turn quickly to go into a northerly direction but the MGC wants to take you in a westerly direction. Turn four? Well, I always thought it was a good idea to put a corner in the middle of the main straight, it keeps the interstaters guessing. Then there’s turn five, the northern hairpin. Well this turn was a “double dozy” according to that nice young fella. “I’m not sure about the rest of the track as it always took time to recover from the northern hairpin” he said.

So the key here is brake late and brake into the turn in order to bring the tail around, but not too much mind you. When he got this technique right in the southern hairpin he gained 5 mph by the time he got down the straight and arrived at the northern hairpin. But then there was another problem, he ran out of brakes and the car just kept going in a northerly direction and off into the dirt. Road pads are a wonderful thing for the road.

His major competition was Jason Goff from WA who had three SU carbies, a mild cam and a bit of head work plus a heavier sway bar at the front and one at the back so his car handled a lot better than that young fella’s ‘C’ GT. In fact it was about 7 seconds better.

"Looks balanced, but not in the hairpin turns!"

Did you have a look at that very nice MGC Roadster? The Melbourne mob call Allan Fabry a polisher and they are right but what a fantastic polisher he is. Allan has won five outright concours wins in six years in the post MG TF pre 1980 class. He competes in all the speed events and still manages to keep his MGC looking beautiful. Mind you he’s only done 6,317 miles since he first registered it in 2010 after completing the restoration.

Ron Hutton brought his green ‘C’ GT all the way from Wagga and Mike Greenwood and Jan brought their red ‘C’ GT all the way from Strathalbyn. And what about Garry Julian’s Sebring, tribute ‘C’? He’s done so much work in such a short time. I heard one woman say she loved the colour of the car, it’s just like velvet and indeed it is. The three Webers look pretty nice too but I expect that that woman would not find them so velvety.

Wayne and Geraldine Hough left their Italian job at home and brought their red ‘C’ GT down to Glenelg to support the MGC’s 50th. Wayne, wielding his large, long, lens, at Pt Adelaide and Mallala caught a couple of magnificent shots shown here. I looked at Wayne’s large, long, lens and thought it was nearly as long as he is high, but he sure knows how to use it. I’m sure you’ll agree.

A great Easter Nat Meet – thanks everyone.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, May 2017

An MGC link in Iran?

Hello again, it’s Richard here. How many MGCs were sold in Iran? Yes I’m sure you are right – zero. SAIC, that Chinese company that makes MGs these days has big plans to sell MGs in Iran. They recently launched the MG GT, a mid-sized four door, four seater sedan. And guess which old MG they used to link modern MGs with their heritage of Morris Garages back in 1924? It’s the MGC GT.

The modern MG GT is available in five colours so you can choose any modern colour you like such as white, black, light grey, dark grey and also red. The engine are half the size of our favourite C, available in 1.4 and 1.5 litre turbos putting out a max of 110 kW of power and 235 Nm of torque. What was the C? 145 bhp (that’s 108 kW) and 170 ftlb (and that’s 270 Nm). They are probably safer and handle better too, but are they as much fun? I wonder what the Persian letters say in the middle of the poster, ‘Safety Fast’ perhaps?

MG GT promotional poster for the Iranian market gets support from our beloved MGC GT.

That nice young Register Co-ordinator has been off interstate again this time for a BBQ in Melbourne with a few of his mates. It just happened to be on the Friday before the Australian Grand Prix although he told he didn’t go over there for the AGP, just the BBQ. Just as a coincidence which event do you think he went to have a look at? Yes you’re right the AGP although he said to me that he was only visiting the MG display and yes he did do that, see his photo.

Anyway, Victorian Club Captain and Vice President organised the display and guess what, he owns the beautiful MGC roadster in the photo. The other MGC GT belongs to David Jenkins and they are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the MGC launch at Earls Court, UK. In the background is a modern MG3 which is only about 12 months old. There were several MGBs, a Midget and a beautiful Peking to Paris MG SA. There was an F and a TC too.

Automnal Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 20th May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

Allan Fabry’s award winning roadster can be seen at the National Meeting in Adelaide over Easter.

MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, April 2017

A Supercharged Story
Hello again, it’s Richard here with supercharged story. You might remember last month’s story about the ‘MGCs Down Under’ book that that nice young Register Co-ordinator is writing describing MGC in New Zealand and Australia. Well he passed on a note to me about this young fella, John Caffin, whose been racing MGs since the late 1950s when he started racing a MG TD that was supercharged. John, found it easy to maintain and very reliable. So, what better thing to do but supercharge an MGC.

John has been involved in historic racing for most of his life and has raced many different cars including a Ferrari, a Lotus Elite and a Cooper Climax with a 2 litre, twin cam engine. He decided to return to supercharging a car and chose a car with a roof but found he had a bit of a barrier with his Director General of Indoor Duties.

Here’s what the note said;
I had purchased a GEN3 M90 Eaton supercharger on E-Bay and at the time I was negotiating to buy a Porsche 912 with the intention of supercharging it. This was the 4 cyl model based on the VW. In the early 1970’s two of these had been supercharged here in Melbourne and they were very successful according to the Porsche Distributor who had told me about them. The only problem I had was my wife did not want a Porsche with a roof on it, see wanted another MG. There just happened to be rust free automatic C Type Roadster for sale here so that’s just what we purchased.

The C Type didn’t require much examination to see that there would be no problem accommodating the M90. There were two bolt holes in the bottom left hand side of the block to locate the belt adjuster pulley and to support the front of the supercharger. The harmonic balancer also had 4 tapped holes where the air pump pulley was mounted (for North American MGCs), so there was no problem with the crankshaft pulley.

I fabricated the manifold out of 1.6mm steel tubing clamped to a large piece of C section steel to avoid distortion. I bored the holes in the C section using an exhaust manifold gasket to locate the flanges for the head. Initially I made the carburettor to supercharger manifold to suite a single 2” SU. It was just not up to the job and it was replaced by twin 1¾” HIF6 SU’s. Which are easy to tune.

After sorting out a few teething problems John was out for a run in his white MGC when he noticed a flash from flames trying to escape from under the bonnet. Fortunately he had a small fire extinguisher so he popped the bonnet open and squirted it at the flames. The flames were reduced until, unfortunately, the extinguisher was empty and they were back with vengeance. I’m sure you can imagine what happened while John waited 20 minutes until the fire brigade arrived. It was back to square one!

The car was rebuilt and repainted red. I guess that’s so the flames won’t be so noticeable next time? Fortunately there hasn’t been a next time and the C is performing very well. John fitted a digital speedo which coincidentally looks very close to the original one. Depending on the program selected the speedo is able to give him speed, time and distance. So his best standing ¼ mile has taken 14.55 seconds at a speed of 157.6 kph. Not bad considering the time tested by Autocar in 1968 was 18.2 seconds for an auto.

‘MGCs Down Under’ will describe John’s modification of his MGC in detail with lots of photos. John shared his supercharged plans with long time mate John Sheppard (HDT team manager 1978-79) who thought it was a great idea and wanted one himself. A photo of his engine bay appeared in last month’s car club magazine. So, there are at least two supercharged MGCs in Melbourne!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, March 2017

MGCs Down Under
Hello, it’s Richard here again with another story. You know that nice young Register co-ordinator, Ian, well he and his wife invited Mrs Mixture and me around for lunch one Sunday recently. His wife asked Ian and me how many articles had we (I think she meant me) written for the Club? I thought maybe 25 or so and Ian thought it must be at least 30! Well it turns out to be 130 articles over the last 12 years. I was so staggered I had to sit down and have a cup of English Breakfast.

Well that nice young fella’s wife, pretty thing she is too, ask “why don’t you two write a book?” Ian rolled his eyes and said “yeah one day”. Well that was last year and now Ian tells me he has a book nearly ready to go! Blimey, he’s a fast worker. He’s been to Melbourne and he’s been to Brisbane talking to MGC owners, even to that nice old Queenslander Bruce, and he’s taken lots of photos, hundreds he tells me.

He showed me the contents page the other day and it looks very interesting. He’s going to call it “MGCs Down Under”. What a good name. The first chapter describes a bit of MGC history, just for the uninitiated mind you, and tells about the Aussie link, you know the Australian built Blue Streak engine that the Factory trialled in a ‘B’. The next chapter is about Bruce’s story; yes he is a nice old Queenslander. Then there are Bruce’s tech tips. Well, after owning an MGC for nearly 50 years I guess you’d have to know a thing or two about them wouldn’t you? Then after that there are more tech tips from yours truly, I bet you were wondering when I’d be featuring. This will include some of the articles that have featured in the Club magazine over the past 12 years. I still can’t believe it’s that long!

Next there are several personal stories of eight MGC owners both in Australia and New Zealand. The Kiwi owners have been leading lights in the NZ Register endeavouring to identify every MGC in the islands of the Long White Cloud. There’s a story about the NZ Register Historian’s red roadster and one on his assistant’s Old English White GT. There are a couple of stories about two beautifully restored cars, again one GT and one roadster; the GT is an English car brought back to Australia by an Aussie visitor to that nascent land way back in the ‘80s and the other is an imported North American car. Then there’s a story about the historic racer that needed a bit more grunt so he supercharged his MGC and a mate who thought it was a good idea and wanted one too. Both supercharged cars are red roadsters. Of course red is a good colour for a roadster so there’s a story about a grey haired gentleman with a nicely restored English car up thar in them hills and one describing a blue one up thar in them Hinterlands. The blue roadster is the earliest Car in the Australian Register #0365 so it illustrates many of the early things done to the first one thousand cars.

Oh, did I mention the Australian Register? Well, there’s another interesting story. That fine young gentleman John Craven had been busy collecting car numbers from around Australia for the past 18 months. He’s identified nearly 100 MGCs in Australia and he cross referenced them with the MGCC UK’s factory records. Most owners are keen to see their car noted in print, but a couple aren’t. John looked in detail at the 9,022 entries in the UK list and worked out how many cars were Tartan Red and described an interesting story about all the other colours too. He’s worked out what countries took delivery of MGCs and listed the numbers that went to the various North American states as well as the UK dealers. He’s also looked at the ID plates on the inner guard and what they mean and when they were attached to the cars from the body builders at Pressed Steel to the Abingdon Factory. He’s also made a few discoveries and there will be pictures of these ID plates in the Book.

So while “MGCs Down Under” will be essential reading for MGC owners it is not intended to be a definitive description of all the details but just a thorough collection of photos and experiences of Australians and New Zealanders over many years.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

John Caffen’s supercharged MGC is just one of the supercharged cars featured in the Book	Victorian Vice President Allan Fabry’s beautiful restoration of a North American imported MGC

MGC conversations by Richard Mixture, February 2017

MG's on Patrol

Have you ever wondered how many MGs the UK police bought? No, neither had I until the Director General of Indoor Duties, you know who I mean, yes, Mrs Mixture, bought me a wonderful book for Christmas. Oh yes, it’s Richard here for the New Year. I hope it’s wonderful for you too! Now where was I?

Police cars. How does 955 plus a few modern ones sound. That’s a hell of a lot of black cars, plus a few white ones and the odd red and blue and BRG cars. Next question, what was the most prolific MG model bought by the police? MGCs maybe? No, but Met bought 31 MGC roadsters and the Lancashire Constabulary bought 21 CGTs. They were all white ones. If you said MG TCs, well you’re close. They bought 113 TCs and found them a little cramped and were pleased to move on to the roomier new model, the MGA! All up they bought 65 1500s, 1600s and MkIIs MGAs. Thankfully no Twin Cams Allan. The answer is MGBs of course. 79 roadsters and 129 BGTs.

All these numbers are listed in “M.G.s on Patrol” by Andrea Green. She tells a fascinating story about the development of the police force in the UK starting with the formation of the new ‘Police’ in 1829. The new name was taken from the Greek ‘politeia’. As early as 1904 the Metropolitan Police purchased two cars but the mechanisation of the force was slow even for the authorisation to use bicycles. However, in 1933 the then Chief Constable of Bedfordshire, Lt. Col. F. A. D Stephens, found that experience with motorcycle combinations showed they were not really suitable for police work and these should be replaced by cars.

This is the second edition published in 2011, $29 from the Book Depository	Policewomen on duty

Also in 1933 the Home Secretary announced that “telephones are installed in practically every police station in the country ...”. In 1935 the Home Secretary informed Parliament of the development of a rapid wireless communication system that can be installed in police motor vehicles. However the wireless created problems in small sports cars due to its cumbersome size and it required the use of heavy duty batteries.

Women on patrol are also discussed and there are some wonderful stories told the women themselves. One of the earliest women police officers was Bettie Norwood “who had studied at business college before joining the Blackpool Borough Police to work in communications.” At the age of 20, she was one of 50 policewomen to join the Lancashire Constabulary. She was an advanced driver with considerable experience of the MGA.

There is a brief mention of a shining new MG TD used by the Fire Chief of Concord, Ohio in 1954 and reported in the Nuffield News Exchange, “Equipped with a six volt siren, three blinking, red lights, a short-wave two-way radio, and an instrument panel that looks like it had come from a B-37 bomber, the car was owned by Dr. T. C. Hobbs who, in addition to being a medical man, is chief of the township’s fire department. "Dr Hobbs is a sports car enthusiast" It will do 80mph he claims, and it is highly manoeuvrable. A locker behind the seat holds an axe, fire hat and coat and a one gallon fire extinguisher.

Retired Chief Superintendent Terry McCabe tells a little about the MGC, “The MGCs were able to hold more equipment, traffic cones and accident signs were carried, but once again you took a chance if you conveyed a prisoner. "the conveyance of a prisoner was not encouraged" You were required to radio for a saloon car; if one was not available there was little choice. I well remember arresting a young chap one summers day and he made a special request that en-route to the police station I should drive through the area where he lived so that his mates might see him in the much-admire MG!

In writing the book Andrea covers a lot of detail describing each new model of MG and she seems to have got all her facts correct. Such as the extra power offered by the MG NB which replaced the MG NA and the front-hinged doors which included extra door catches, fitted as part of the pre-delivery modification. in nose to tail traffic the MGC “would often become choked-up and misfire.” Accurate indeed!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

The Torsion Bar Run from Ian Hobbs, December 2016

Or MGC Spring Run

And Francis Burnett wrote “‘Is spring coming?’ he asked. ‘What’s it like?’” I think we were all wondering that. Well one Saturday afternoon in October it didn’t rain and the sun shone but the wind was trying hard to blow it all away. But MGC drivers are a committed bunch and five of us arrived at Beaumont Road for our Torsion Bar run.

This time it was a tomato and lettuce sandwich with a little bit of mayonnaise. Jim McCrickard arrived with his red roadster and Ron Telford came in his red GT as I did. Lynton Fuller came in his pale primrose roadster and Peter Carthy arrived for the first time in his Green GT. Wonderful to see you Peter. We had apologies from Robin Gibbs and John Craven.

We headed for the hills, the wonderful Adelaide Hills. Up Greenhill Road to Uraidla and left onto Basket Range Road, right onto Lobethal Road to Lenswood and right onto Tiers Road and into Woodside. Along Onkaparinga Road behind the Earth & Fire gift shop is a two story stone building that is the Avalon of Woodside cafe.

After ordering coffee and cake we settled down around a large wooden table in the courtyard. Lynton had been carrying a large mystery box and after a few questions about our ‘C’s he started giving out gifts of ‘303’ products. His business needed to clear some products with old labels so we were the recipients of some of these wonderful car cleaning products.

I called the position of Register Coordinator open and was immediately re-nominated and re-elected.

Ron Telford showed us a copy of a couple of pages of a C Register newsletter, NZ I think, with a detailed drawing of an engine removal bracket. All in inches! He also popped a page on the table showing a needle roller bearing that replaces the bronze thrust washer in the top trunnion of the king pin assembly. SC Parts Group have then available for MGBs and MGCs for £40. These bearings reduce friction and make the steering lighter.

I had a few things to report. MGC owner John Craven has been very busy scanning the web and collecting information on MGCs around Australia. John responded to a discussion in the MGC Report in July last year regarding the number of cars in Australia. He has compiled an Australian MGC Register of 80 identified cars with about another 75 known cars but still to be fully identified. We’d like to build on that and make a list of MGCs publically available in a similar way to the New Zealand MGC Register. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the launch of the MGC so what better time to make the list public than the MG National Meeting 2017 in Adelaide.

Having a list of identified MGCs can add to the security of the model. Some years ago a register list of Torana XU1’s was used to identify a fraudulent copy. The new owner of this freshly restored XU1 was not happy having paid a lot of money for a car that was not genuine so he involved the police.

John has also been reviewing the colours of MGCs and their relationship to other marques in the BMC/BMLC group. ‘Glasso White’ was a bit of a mystery colour until the UK Register people told us all police cars were painted this special shade of white.

The other MGC project that John has been working on is titled “Where Did They Go?” He lists the numbers of cars recorded in the Factory records that were dispatched to the different centres in the UK, the different States in the USA and to various countries. We wondered why 10 MGCs were exported to Zambia and eight to the Congo. 26 MGCs were dispatched to the South American region including the Bahamas and even one to Surinam, have you heard of that country? In the Asia/Pacific region one car was dispatched to Cambodia, four to Australia, 10 to Japan, 26 to New Zealand and 17 to the Australian Territory of Papua. Does anyone know why 17 MGCs went to Papua? Two are now in Tassie and one in NSW and we’ve discovered one that was personally exported to Port Morseby.

Thanks for coming out chaps.

C ya soon
Ian

Hidden behind Peter’s green GT is Jim’s red roadster, then Ron’s red GT, Ian’s red GT and in front is Lynton’s primrose roadster

Jim’s red roadster in front of Peter’s green GT

MGC NEWS MGC merblings from Richard Mixture, November 2016

C is for Cwick Coupler

Hello again it’s Richard here again and I’ve been having fun playing with some nipples. Well actually it’s the Cs nipples and actually it’s an Alemlube Quick Release Grease Coupler.

Earlier this year, actually it was in the March MG Motoring, Kym Dubrich thought this nipple Coupler was worthy of a nomination for the Tool of the Month. After seeing the article in the Club magazine Graeme Menz bought one and was so impressed that he bought another one to keep at the farm. He shared his experience with our nice young Register Co-ordinator, you know Ian, who was given one for Father’s Day a couple of months back. Ian reported that it was the best Father’s Day present he’d received, except the sample bottles of Talisker scotches he received a couple of years ago, anyway it was better that socks or underpants again! Pity the bottles weren’t full size rather than samples!

The Talisker sample pack, hmm delicious!

So I had to buy one too and what a marvel. I always had a couple of sheets of paper under my kingpins to collect and wipe the excess grease off the nipples, you know the grease that doesn’t want to go into the nipple. But now, what a doddle. I’m greasing all sorts of nipples and loving it!

The Alemlube Coupler is a bit like one of those pickled onion pickers with a syringe like handle, that, when you depress the syringe button at the top a number of spider legs come out from the bottom and gap the pickled onion in the jar. The Coupler has a lever that when you depress it four nipple grabbers come out at the bottom which can be pressed around the nipple and holds it fast when you let go of the lever. Very clever, very simple and very effective.

If you order an Alemlube Quick Release Grease Coupler you probably want the one with the 1/8th BSP thread, part #14512, so that you attach it to your grease gun.

The Alemlube Quick Release Grease Coupler in the closed or locked position.	The Alemlube Quick Release Grease Coupler in the open position ready to be placed on your grease nipples.

Cold Starting an MGC

That nice old Queenslander, you know who I mean, Bruce, found that if his ‘C’ was not used daily as many cars are not these days they can take a while to start, particularly in cold weather. This is something that I have noticed and I couldn’t make up my mind whether it took a while for the fuel to make its way from the rear of the car to the front or whether it took the electricity time to make its way from the batteries at the back of the car to come to the front. Maybe it’s both?

His simple method applies to the standard factory cars and to the triple SU conversions and saves the starter & battery.

Give the car full choke and turn the big six cylinder over 5 or 6 times with a light throttle and then switch off.

Go away for about 1 minute or so, or in SA you could slowly fill out you registration log book. I’m sure it’s not dependent on you actually leaving your car. Then restart the car and it will start almost straight away and the choke can be reduced quickly the second time.

Bruce says “I forgot all about this until a friend reminded me that I told him of this method years ago and it works with both of his ‘C’s’ every time.”

And yes it works for me too.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS - MGC merblings from Richard Mixture, October 2016

C is for Cooling

Hello, yes it’s me again. Well, I received a letter passed on to me via that nice young Register Co-ordinator, Ian Hobbs. Now, Lynton has owned his MGC for a couple of years now and was checking his cooling system and found a few problems.

He says “I have just finished working through the process of checking the coolant gallery behind the coolant pump in the hope to elevate high engine operating temperature.

Turns out someone had been there before me. Too much silicon sealant and the gallery was all good.

I was cleaning parts and found the fan was previously been install backwards. From the look of the paint it was like that from new.

I had the radiator flow tested. 20% blocked and hence not an issue.

Reassembled with the fan on the correct way and the air draw is significantly high.

Road tested with temp gauge fixed on 85. While only cool weather today my car would usually run hotter than 85.

It never ceases to amaze me how people are always wanting to re-invent the Jelly Bean! But I guess as MG owners we are always tinkering about with all sort of things we know nothing about, until after we’ve stuffed it up or in fact we are fixing someone else’s creative endeavour some time after we stuffed up previously and have remembered we stuffed it up and remember how to fix it.

When experiencing overheating problems the first thing many owners do is get the radiator checked but there are several things to do before you take it out of the car. One of my learning's many decades ago was from watching that would-be sleuth, agent RRB 007, attend to an overheating MGC GT. The first thing he did was check the ignition timing and then the carby mixture. Retarded timing will contribute to overheating, as does a lean mixture.

The next thing to do is check the water pump. Make sure it is not leaking and that the correct size pulley is on the front. If the pulley is incorrect then the coolant can be circulating too fast or too slow which can cause overheating. I’ll mention the water pump again a bit further down.

Getting air to flow through the radiator is critical in an MGC and in fact in most cars these days. The MGC has a larger radiator than an MGB and for very good reason. There are a few gaps around the B radiator and these are often filled in with foam rubber where owners are forcing the more air to go through the radiator and not around it. The MGC on the other hand came from Abingdon with no gaps of any size. Have a look at the panel and rubber seal placed above the radiator that follows the profile of the bonnet for instance. The shroud around the fan also helps pull air more efficiently through the radiator so it’s important to keep these factory components.

Note the panel and rubber seal over the top of the radiator that stops air flowing around the radiator.

Lower octane rated fuel can have some effect on overheating. With increased octane fuel the ignition can be advanced a little without pre-ignition. Finding the correct timing can help reduce overheating.

If the radiator is taken out and checked for blockages as often occurs with old cars take the water pump off and check it for a wobbly bearing. If it is wobbly it is probably leaking so look for any signs of leaking coolant. One critical thing to check on an MGC is the water gallery in the block which is behind the water pump. When these blocks were cast the sand core for the water gallery often does not meet the core for the space behind the water pump. Hence a factory worker would knock a hole to allow coolant to flow from one space to the next. Sometimes this hole was large but if it is small overheating problems occur particularly in warmer climates, err, that’s warmer than the motherland of course. My block was about 25% blocked so I filed this hole larger to allow better flow of coolant. A dremel would have made the job a lot easier.

And always remember to check the coolant level. I have heard of people having overheating problems with their car and eventually find their coolant level is low. If this is the case check for leaks!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS - MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, Sep 2016

Hello, it's Richard here again. The Director-General of Indoor Duties, you know who I mean the wonderful Mrs Mixture, was at the library the other day and saw a new book - just released - that she thought I might be interested in and it wasn’t about MGCs! She brought it home for me.

It is called “What Happened to the Car Industry?”. Freelance motoring/industry journalist Ian Porter starts in chapter 1 by describing the early days of automotive manufacturing in Australia prior to World War 1. He even mentions the innovative Shearer steam car rumbling down the main street of Mannum in 1899. He discusses how the Australian car industry has become part of the nation’s industrial and social fabric. “With protection from the federal government in the early years and co-investment more recently, the industry thrived and dragged Australia out of the farm era and into the ranks of the industrialised countries”.

Do you remember the first Japanese imports after WW2 that offered radios and heaters at no extra cost? This competition tipped the balance and saw Volkswagen, Renault, Peugeot, and Rootes pull out of Australia. Vanguard, Rambler, Triumph and Mercedes Benz stopped assembly and Leyland had gone by 1975. Chrysler sold out to Mitsubishi in 1981. In that same year the Fraser government’s industry minister, Phillip Lynch commissioned the Industry Assistance Commission which recommended the reduction of tariffs and dispense with all other assistance.

Under the Hawke/Keating government the Button Plan of the mid 1980s, (do you remember that?), was going to change the industry even more. Reduced protectionism opened up the market to the importers, local manufacturing companies had to achieve minimum volumes of 30,000 units and the minister wanted only three companies in Australia not five. While imports were increasing, the Aussie dollar compared to the USA $ was going in the opposite direction making the imported cars more expensive which was little comfort.

The second half of the 1990s was a happy one for the local car manufacturers as the Aussie dollar was down making the imports more expensive. The Aussie dollar bottomed out in 2001 and then started its upward trend crossing the 75 cent mark in 2006. Things started getting difficult for the local manufacturers and they were anxious to see what Labor minister Carr’s plan was beyond 2010. The heart of the policy was a $3.4 billion Automotive Transformation Scheme (ATS) from 2010 to 2020.

After a small reduction in 2008 the dollar soared to new highs (since 1984) in 2011 until returning to 75 cents in 2015. During these few years the Aussie manufacturers found it difficult to compete with the imports. On the brighter side GM were exporting and Toyota were sending 60,000 Camrys to the Middle East and Ford exported nothing. A little government help, as promised in the ATS, would tide them through until the dollar dropped to historical norms as of course it did.

When the Liberal Coalition came to power in 2013, the treasurer Joe Hockey had his eye on the annual $330 million ATS allocation. The Abbott/Hocky government thought it was a good idea to save that money and asked/bullied the three manufacturers, GM, Ford and Toyota to go it alone. While the government saved its $330 mill the car makers decided to call it a day and automotive manufacturing will cease in 2017. Up to 200,000 people are employed directly and indirectly in the automotive industry and pay the government over $1 billion in income tax plus GST revenue. 45,000 people are employed directly by GM, Ford and Toyota. If these people do not get full time employment the unemployment benefits that the government will have to fork out is over $1 billion. So the government saves $330 million to receive $1 billion less in revenue and it costs them more than a $1 billion in payments. I hope ScoMo’s (see note 1) arithmetic skills are a lot better than Joe’s. You have to wonder if there is another agenda here that the Australian people are not being told about.

Ian Porter continues, “When you add in the intangibles such as balance of trade, export income, rapid technology adoption by the carmakers and technology spin-off to smaller, Australian suppliers, the car industry's absence will be felt long after 2017.” Chapter 5 is titled “There will be a recession” and explains why and Chapter 6 asks “Is there a future?” A number of small innovative automotive companies already exist and are exporting and several other large international companies are keen to manufacture cars and busses here but require government assistance like every other car manufacturing country provides. Australia was offering the lowest amount of assistance compared to all other countries. These companies are keen to utilise the world leading expertise that Australian manufacturing has to offer. Will those skills be lost?

It was a fascinating book that’s easy to read. I’m glad Joe doesn’t organise our finances at home. I’ll just leave that to the Director General of Indoor Duties AND Finance!

Torsion Bar Run
Now MGCers et al, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming so it’s time for an MGC run, put Saturday 15th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

Note 1 - ScoMo nickname for Australian treasurer 2015-, Scott Morrison.

Mr Abbott has another funeral to go to!

MGC NEWS - MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, Aug 2016

Hello again, it's Richard here. A couple of months ago I mentioned that one of the six aluminium MGC GTS's was going to auction in Monaco on May 14th and if you thought that it might fit in your garage you should head off to the Sotheby’s auction. Now a couple of our members were in Monaco at the time but Trevor and Andrew failed to make it to this auction. There was some excuse of too much traffic as well as many other distractions such as evading the pickpockets. I thought wearing a loincloth might be one way of evading them but you’d have to make sure you were wearing one without pockets! Can you imagine Trevor or Andrew in a loincloth? No my imagination doesn’t stretch that far either!

Well back to that wonderful light weight MGC, the new owner parted with €140,000. Now that is about AU$200,000. Cheap hey! Well it is if your budget is a few mill.

On another subject, I changed my gearbox oil the other day and over the last few decades I have found it easy to drain the stuff out but always found it difficult to put the oil back in. Access to the gearbox filler is easily found under the dash, behind the speaker in the centre tunnel and on the other side of a rubber bung which can be found underneath the carpet. It’s not complicated to know where it is but it’s just difficult to get to it. When you have extracted the bung and stick your fingers down through the hole you can feel the top of the dip stick that you have to get out but your fingers are never quite long enough to pull the thing out of the top of the gearbox. Sadly I do not have fingers twice as long as they are nor double jointed knuckles and wrist. I solved that problem with a looped cable tie around the dip stick handle which gives you an extra inch or so to lift the dip stick out though the hole on the tunnel.

Whoever designed this system certainly didn’t rise up through the ranks from the Service Department did they?

I’ve tried many different funnels over the years and sticking a piece of plastic tube on the end of a funnel wasn’t much help either. A two handed person can easily hold the funnel with one hand and the filler tube in place in the gearbox with the other in order to avoid the hose flicking out and pouring two and a half litres of oil all over the garage floor. Of course a three handed person can hold the tube in place, hold the funnel and pour the oil in the funnel all at the same time. But a three handed person is never about when I need one and Mrs Mixture is certainly no help but she does cook up my porridge in the morning which I enjoy.

That young MGC Register co-ordinator told me about a filler with a flexible filling hose. I told him I’ve tried that but he showed me his latest purchase which was a metal funnel with a flexible metal tube. It was wonderful, I twisted the tube to fit into the gearbox and the funnel sat just out from the dash and it did this all by itself without needing any of my hands. So now I had two hands to pour the oil into the funnel. Why didn’t I ever buy one of these funnels when I bought my first MGB back in 1970! I guess you are never too old to learn.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

Look no hands holding the funnel	THE funnel

MGC NEWS - MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, July 2016

MGC NEWS

Hello, it's Richard here again. Now the Director General of Indoor Duties or ‘she who must be obeyed’ as Rumpole use to say, won’t go anywhere without her little RAA card or plastic as it has now become. Clearly she doesn’t trust my abilities in the automotive department to get her out of any sticky road side problems! But ... maybe it’s just those nice young RAA gentlemen who can attend to her needs.

Well, the ‘SA Motoring’ arrived the other day, you know the Royal Automobile Association magazine, and I noticed a green sticker on the cover that said ‘Australia’s Best Cars, Winners inside’. Well, I flicked the pages over and the best small car under $35k was Korean, over $35 was German, best micro car, Japanese, best light car, Korean, best medium car under $50k, Korean, best medium car over $50k, German, best sports car under $50k ... best sport car! I better read this. I looked for a photo and I could not see a sports car until I realised their Best Sports Car photo was a four door, four seat Ford Focus! And what was the best sports car over $50 you might ask? It was a four door, four seat Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG! The rest of the ‘best’ cars were Korean, Japanese and a Swede! Not an Australian car to be seen. Do you think there’s a trend here?

I must be a little old fashioned but I thought a sports car only had two doors and two seats and are convertible! The last MG to fit this definition left the factory over 10 years ago. During 2001 to 2005 the Phoenix Group not only produced the ‘F’s and ‘TF’s at Longbridge but also sporting saloons with the MG badge on the bonnet. In fact today the hatch version, the ZR, is popular in the UK with young lads with only a couple of hundred pounds in their pocket. With the popularity of touring car races these days, I wonder whether these young drivers think that all sports cars have four doors and four seats and that two door sports cars are just a bit vintage.

Will the next MG sports car, the Chinese one, be an SUV? That Benedict Cumberbatch fellow is advertising the new MG GS and looking a little like a 007 character but the MG GS is hardly an Aston is it Bazz?

Why do so many cars these days look like 4WDs or SUVs, including the best sports cars selected by the SA Motor? What does SUV stand for anyway? Is it Stupid Ugly Vehicle? I’m sure many of you have pulled up at a T junction in your MG and have had to wait for a Stupid Ugly Vehicle to get out of the way before you see whether it is safe to proceed. I guess in China SUVs are the only car designs that the locals have ever seen, other than more normal cars that just look like SUVs. It’s just what is available over there as the automobile is a newish concept to them.

These days many youngsters throughout the automotive world have grown up thinking that SUVs are the new “Kingswood”. Can you imagine a telly program called the SUV Country? “The SUV! ... you’re not taking the SUV!”

I can’t imagine the Chinese owners of MG, SAIC, making a new two door, two seat convertible (unless there’s export money in it). I’ll be corrected by Inspector Buckley but the idea of going for a run in a car around Shanghai just for the sheer pleasure of driving just doesn’t seem to be part of the Chinese culture. Can you imagine a Chinese man saying to his wife “I’m just going for a run in the rickshaw dear”? No? Although a nice run in a rickshaw might be a healthier option! I guess it depends on whether you have your own runner or you have to do the running yourself.

Personally I think I’ll just stick to taking my MGC for a run in the Adelaide Hills!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

The new MG GS is promoted by Benedict Cumberbatch and has the Tower Bridge and Tower of London in the back ground and some funny squiggles down the bottom	The way to go!

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, June 2016

Hello there, it's Richard here again. Have you ever thought that one of the six aluminium MGC GTSs would be a nice fit in your garage? Well, if you were in Monaco on May 14th you would have had the opportunity to buy Chassis no: MGC 500757 at Sotheby’s auction. http://www.rmsothebys.com/mc16/monaco/lots/1969-mg-mgc-gts-sebring/1079915

The Catalogue describes the GTS thus;
“Est. 220 bhp, 2,912 cc OHV inline six-cylinder engine with triple Weber carburettors, four-speed manual transmission with overdrive, independent front suspension, live rear axle with semi-elliptical leaf springs, and four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes. Wheelbase: 2311 mm
* One of six genuine GTS Sebrings
* The only example built to “super lightweight specification”
* Driven by racing legend John Chatham
* Eligible for a variety of classic endurance and sports prototype events
* Complete with FIA paperwork

MGC GTS #MGC 500757. Do you have €150,000 to €250,000 say $310,000 Aussies

The MGC GTS Sebring is one of the most iconic creations to come out of the BMC Competitions Department in the 1960s. Work on designing the lightweight Cs began in 1966, to compete in the prototype sports car categories. Six body shells were built, with the centre structure built from steel similarly to the road-going version, while the exterior panels, such as the roof panel, doors, and the instantly recognisable bubble-arched wings, were formed in aluminium.

Ultimately, only two lightweight versions of the MGC GT were assembled by BMC at Abingdon. These Works cars ran in the 1967 Targa Florio and in 1968, the MGC GTS, as it was now known, raced at Sebring and the 84-hour-long Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring. Their final Works-supported outings were at Sebring in 1969, when the MGC competition project was cancelled.

However, four lightweight shells originally constructed at the Competitions Department remained. Legendary Austin-Healey man John Chatham was due to drive the GTS Sebring on the Targa Florio in 1970, but with the cancellation of the programme he was offered the opportunity to purchase the remaining chassis and components in order to complete the final four cars.

When John Chatham prepared this particular GTS for competition use, he used the very latest BMC components from the race programme, including an aluminium engine block, which this car retains, and which was mounted further back in the engine bay. Magnesium alloy wheels were also fitted, effectively creating a “super-lightweight”. It is believed that this is the only surviving original aluminium block.

Thanks to its lightweight aluminium construction, the car has a dry weight of only around 900 kilograms. Recalling his ownership of the car, John Chatham notes that the car was highly competitive as he raced the MGC at the United Kingdom’s most famous race circuits, including Silverstone and Castle Combe. Chatham also raced the car in club and mod-sport events throughout the early 1970s. He was evidently fond of the car, as it remained in his ownership until 2004 before passing it to the current owner.

As a lifelong enthusiast of British competition cars, the current owner set about restoring the MGC and preparing it for a return to competition. The car is eligible for Peter Auto Classic Endurance Racing, the Masters Series, and numerous other club events. Furthermore, an original set of 10-inch wide magnesium Minilite wheels will be included with the car.

I would have put in a bid for this GTS but sadly I don’t have the room in my garage for any more junk, let alone what Mrs Mixture would have to say!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, May 2016

The 2016 Automnal Run
Autumn was in full swing for this year’s Automnal Run. Some trees in the hills were full of colour in reds and yellows but most were just starting to change. When I arrived down in the south east parklands to meet the boys and girl it was just eucalypt green.

I arrived a little early but everyone else had already arrived. Mike Greenwood and Jan were there in their red roadster, as was Jim McCrickard. I finished off the reds in my CGT and it was a delight to see Mal Millard in his newly acquired silver GT. Jim of course brought along his latest exchange student, Yudai Tsukahara all the way from Tokyo, Japan; he’s here to study English.

A couple of ring-ins were welcomed in their MGs that were and probably still are, two cylinders short of a good thing. They did manage to keep up though. Should I mention their names? They were the delightful Ray Hill and Olaf Wegner driving red Bs or were they orange or maybe they were just vermilion, very 1970s! There were many apologies one each from Ron Telford, Lynton Fuller and Robin Gibbs. John Aslet apologised saying he was too busy trying to fix an O/D problem in son Justin’s C. Good excuse John, much better than one of the other C drivers who told me he was attending his daughter’s wedding and another who told me he was going to the same wedding! Maybe I should have organised the C run to finish at the reception!

The dynamics of a good idea often leads to a change in plans. Lucky my good idea was not set in concrete because Mike came up with another good idea which we chose. We headed up Old Belair Road to Blackwood, down a very windy road to Clarendon then let our Cs have their head a little more while we cruised through Kangarilla and ended up at the bakery at Meadows.

It was to perfect location good coffee, good cakes (Jan and Mike didn’t complain) and good space for us to deal with all of our business. I thought it was time to offer the MGC Co-ordinators position to someone ‘else’ but that person called ‘else’ didn’t arrive, so the assembled Cers decided I needed more practice and should continue in the Co-ordinators positions. I shared the Australian MGC Register around the table and added a couple of commission and engine numbers to the list. It’s probably time to share around the nation and see if any of the other C Register Co-ordinators can add some names to the 67 already on the list. We also discussed the proposal of meeting the Victorians (only the C owners of course) in 2017 to celebrate MGC50. Again another good idea was proposed to meet in Penola or Mt Gambier for a weekend of celebrations. Keep tuned!

John Aslet’s excuse of repairing a gearbox that presented an interesting problem. “The problem is in 1st gear if you put the foot down the thing revs up but you go nowhere. 2nd gear is the same but not as bad. You just can’t sink the boot in 1st & 2nd gear. 3rd & 4th we move along nicely thank you and she goes into O/D, in and out in both top gears.”

I told John about the problems in my O/D. “My C engages O/D effectively when it is cold but if I disengage it the O/D clutch mechanism will not re-engage properly until the oil is warm. Then if the O/D is engaged when the oil is warm it disengages when I put my foot on the accelerator just like an auto-box kick-down. Is your can having similar symptoms?” After I bought my C I drained the oil in the gearbox and found it had been filled with gear oil and not engine oil as per the manual.

John replied, “Justin topped up the gear box without the old fart around (me) and put in hypoid gear oil (1 Lt) we took it all out but if it was friction modified oil according to Austin Healy Guru, Ralf Board, that can cause slipping.

Adding to this story is Mal Millard who said ‘I would give the AFT DEXRON a try in the gearbox, it has been said to have fixed tricky O/Ds, the detergent factor helps to clean out all of the gunk. Run it for about 100mls drop it and then back to normal oil. Some guys in the states have just put it back in with no ill effect. The later Laycock O/D boxes used in Volvos used AFT. More on this matter a little later.

C ya soon, Ian

L to R, Yudai, Jim, Olaf, Ray, Mike, Jan and Mal	The Meadows bakery a beautiful scene

MGC NEWS, MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, April 2016

Hello again, it's Richard here. Now if you’re closer to MGC history, than Abbott is to Credlin, you’ll know that next year, yes 2017, will be the 50th anniversary of the release of the brand new MGC at the Earls Court Motor Show from the 18th to the 28th of October 1967.

I was told by that young whippersnapper next door that I should ask Mr Google about the “1967 Earls Court London Motor Show” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gOfDXh9Eqk) whatever that means. Please don’t get confused with the Whipper Snapper Distillery in Perth, now will you.

In New Zealand that genial, gentleman Ian Grant, the MGC Register coordinator had the idea to run from the North of the North Island to the South of the South Island to visit all the MGCs he has on the NZ Register. He told me recently that “in NZ we have a holiday weekend which will fall on the 21st to 23rd October 2017 so these are our target dates for our North Island event as it will be exactly 50 years since the MGC first appeared.” At present they are “looking to have the main meeting in Auckland followed by a tour to Wellington via the Bay of Plenty, Taupo, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu and Wairarapa as we have owners living in these areas.”

“We have a number of MGCs in the South Island so we are looking at a tour there during March/April 2018 to be in Wanaka for Easter Weekend (30th & 31st March/1st & 2nd April) for the biennial Warbirds Over Wanaka event. As well as a large aviation museum, there is also an extensive motor museum there and I am intending to ask the organisers if we can put the cars on display to mark MGC50.” Now that sounds like a good time to visit New Zealand!

In England Ginny Cantrell is organising a weekend from the 7th to the 11th June 2017, so put that date in your diaries and start planning your air fares and shipping to send your MGC over to the UK to drive around while you are there. Ginny says; “It will take place over 4 days, packed full of activities and adventure to entertain both driver and passenger. We will be taking in the counties of Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire and we have managed to secure a hotel with a motoring history that will be able to accommodate all of our anticipated attendees. Each day you will experience something different and each evening we will all dine together, at our chosen hotel.”

We of course have the Australian National Meeting of MG Car Clubs in Adelaide in 2017. While the organising committee will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the MG Y Types we should also gain a place somewhere in the proceedings. Watch this space.

If you turn the pancake over there’s another story about that young Register Co-ordinator’s daughter, Anna. Last year when Mr & Mrs Register Co-ordinator were about to leave for New Zealand the subject of plane crashes was raised at the dinner table. Ian asked if our plane ends up joining MH-370 and we don’t return what car would you choose to have from our small collection? As quick as a politician denying no new taxes their son Lucas (a Club member) said I’d like the Elfin sports racing car while Anna pondered for a while ... then said I’d like mum’s Corolla. ‘What’ Ian exclaimed ‘no MGs?’

Well, Anna knew what they were like to drive as she occasionally drove the MGC to high school during year 12. On one of these occasions she received a text from an old scholar who wrote ‘Cool car Anna, can I use it for a film shoot?’ Anna showed Ian the text and he suggested she should find out more.

The result was a 3:27 minute clip produced by Fragment Films called ‘Experience Hahndorf’ and you can see it on Vimeo, (https://vimeo.com/155327682?ref=fb-share). The first 20 seconds are the best! By the way what’s Vimeo, a new TV?

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

Graham Robson’s ‘MGC Abingdon’s Grand Tourer’ shows this photo of the MGC launch at Earls Court Motor Show in 1967

MGC NEWS, MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, Feb 2016

Hello there, it's Richard here again. I’ve been reading a newsletter from the Historic Racing Car Club of Tasmania and this article caught my eye. No, I’m OK, I can still see! The President, Brian Higgins wrote it.

The Evolution of Speed:

“Increased speed has been an essential part of motor vehicle development. More speed, within reason, is beneficial not only in motor sport but also in transport and safety and engineering development and efficiencies.

The evolution of speed in the motor vehicle is very interesting to follow. Starting with motorised carriages that were subject to the English Red Flag Act of 1865. Under that Act vehicles were required to have two occupants, and another person walking in front waving a red flag. The Vehicles were restricted to 3.2 KPH (2mph) in city and town areas. However once free of city speed restraints they could proceed at a furious 6.4KPH (4mph). Not much for the vehicles occupants but over a distance pretty tough on the flag waver.

At the time it was thought that if people travelled faster than 20 MPH (32KPH) they were risking death by air pressure on their heads. This assumption was so obviously false because a fast horse can exceed 32KPH, a point obviously overlooked by legislators of the time.

Happily for all concerned the Red Flag Act was repealed in 1896 and replaced with the Locomotives on Highways Act. Flag wavers rejoice!

Notwithstanding that some trains and locomotives had been faster, Frenchman Count Gaston de Chasselope - Laubat claimed the World Land Speed Record in December 1898 driving a purpose built machine powered by electric motors with chain driven rear wheels. He attained 64KPH. In January 1899 one Camille Jenatzy set a new record at 66.4 KPH, only to have another Frenchman Jeantaud Duc raise it to 70 KPH just ten minutes later.

Land speed record attempts became very popular, so much so, that by 1902 the recorded speed of Belgian Baron Pierre de Caters in a piston engined MORS was 123 KPH. However this was not officially recognised as the record. The official record was held by Frenchman Leon Serpollet at 121 KPH in a purpose built steam powered vehicle.”

“Significantly the breaking of the 100MPH (160 KPH) barrier accelerated the pursuit of such records that continue to this day. In July 1904 Frenchman Louis Rigolly at the wheel of his 13 1/2 litre four cylinder GOBRON-BRILLE' at Ostend in Belgium recorded 166 KPH. In November 1904 another French driver Paul Barras in a DARRACQ raised it to 168 KPH. Another DARRACQ driven by factory driver Victor Heinery on 30th December 1905 lifted the benchmark to 175 KPH on a road in the south of France. ...”

Wow, 100mph; that doesn’t sound too fast for me. I’ve nearly got to 200kph in my ol’ C and no, I won’t tell you where I did that. I had the radio on at the time and Normie Rowe was singing ‘Shakin’ All Over’.

The first death involving a locomotive vehicle was at Crystal Palace gardens in London, 1896, when Bridget Driscoll, a housewife of 44 years, stepped from the pavement and was crushed. The local police chief lamented, “I hope this kind of thing never happens again”!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS, MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, Feb 2016

Hello there, it's Richard here again for another year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and didn’t eat too much Christmas pudding. I like Christmas puddings especially when the Director-General of Indoor Duties, you know, Mrs Mixture, forgets whether she’s put the brandy in and has to put another lot in just to make sure. Sometimes I’m glad her memory isn’t getting any better.

That nice young Register Co-ordinator had a phone call just after Christmas from that pleasantly, pleasurable Peter Cathy who had a cryptic question. Ian, “do you know how think an MGC flywheel is?” Peter thought that if anyone would know it would be Ian but he had no idea, but he did know where to get that dimension.

Now if you ask that nice old Queenslander, Bruce, a question don’t expect a short answer. He has been rebuilding his engine and gearbox and wrote: “I have just put my Dial callipers on my flywheel [it is still not fitted, hasten very slowly these days] and it measures 1.030” thick which is about 1 & 1/32”. 1.0625 is 1 &1/16”.

It is the mass that is the problem with the heavy TRUCK flywheel. The crankshaft, rods, pistons and Harmonic balancer are heavy enough to use an aluminium flywheel as many in the UK are using. Much too expensive to import here.

Paul England [well respected Dynamic Balancing Engineer from Melbourne] took my car for a drive, as it was delivered to me, while we were visiting the Silverdale Hill Climb in NSW.

After he came back he made this comment. “The engine will not rev because the flywheel is much TOO heavy”. After we returned to Brisbane I pulled the engine down and had the flywheel lightened [see attached photos] then the whole engine was carefully balanced by Tim Harlock, a friend of Paul England’s. Tim ran a Dynamic Balancing company here until he retired.”

A question here might be ‘how much do you take off?’ I’m informed by that rascal teenager next door that there are bloggs stating the removal of 8 to 10 lbs. Now I didn’t realise that that rascal knew Joe but evidently he does. He then informed me that blog is short for web-logs. Well, he’s got me totally confused now.

Anyway, Neil from the UK says; ‘I have a 1968 UK C and I lightened the flywheel by 11lbs. It certainly made a big difference to the liveliness of the engine, with no or very little apparent affect on the smooth running of it. It obviously does not make the car go faster, but it does make the engine a lot more livelier when changing gear and gives the affect of a more sportier response.’

If you lighten your cast iron flywheel will it be more prone to cracking? If you lighten it too much it could be as useful as an inflatable boat anchor but with a bit more damage! Consider that a standard MGC flywheel weighs about 33 lbs, using the old imperial measures and an aluminium one ways about 15 lbs, that’s quite a reduction. Interesting to note that a standard 6 cylinder Healey flywheel weighs about 28 lbs and the Healey boys were quite happy to take off 8 lbs with no ill effects.

Kirks Auto in the good ol’ US of A offers a lovely looking aluminium flywheel for just US $670 – now specially priced today at AUD $964 plus freight, ouch! You should have bought one in 2001 Bruce! Parity is a wonderful thing when you’re buying.

It seems that the performance of a lightened flywheel is in direct proportion to your lightened wallet! Therefore it must be better!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

Bruce’s lightened cast iron flywheel is about 25 lbs c1969	Kirk Autos lovely aluminium flywheel is made up of a steel ring gear, alloy flywheel, a steel clutch friction plate and a bloody lot of screws. All up 15 lbs

MGC NEWS and murblings from Richard Mixture, November 2015

Who is the real Mr. MG?
Hello there, it's Richard here again. I had a birthday a few months back and I gave the Director-General of Indoor Duties, you know, Mrs Mixture, a list of possible presents for her to consider getting me. Guess what, she must have read it because I didn’t get more socks; she gave me a wonderful book titled "Mr. MG".

So who is MR. MG? Cecil Kimber may well to mind, after all he started the Company. But ‘Mr. MG’ is the title of a biography written by Peter Thornley, I’m sure the name Thornley rings a bell. Peter’s father, John, was general manager of MG from 1952 to 1969.

The book starts with a bit of history of the Thornley family which is interesting but the story wonders around like a sheep on a moor. Possibly the editor was out there too! Once the story gets to ‘Pre-war at MG’ the story has a little more context where it progresses to the post-war years. Pages 98 & 99 are especially interesting to us of course – they describe our favourite MG. See the following;

The MGC
“The size of the engine bay of an MGB gives fair indication that the thought of a larger motor had been in the designer’s mind from the beginning. The installation of a straight six came naturally. Austin was in the progress of designing a new six to replace their too large and too heavy three-litre unit. Abingdon was supplied with a wooden model and an estimated weight for an engine around which they could design the MGC. Time constraints were such that the orders for the retooling of the transmission tunnel and the suspension components had to be placed before the first engine was delivered. When it eventually arrived it was seventy pounds heavier than expected. The prototype MGC knelt down under the weight.

The new engine was intended as a lighter, more modern replacement for the old BMC C-series unit that had been at the heart of the big Healey and the Wolseley 6/110 saloon. The same constraints were imposed as with the twin-cam unit, a new boring machine had recently been purchased from Germany and so bore centres, if not diameter, were predetermined. In point of fact the new engine turned out to be very similar to the old engine, and where it was different, it was worse!

It was not possible to move the engine any further back in the car, because the tooling for the gearbox tunnel was already set. So the torsion bars were made larger to restore the ride height. Inevitably it was a nose heavy car, with a predilection for going straight on at corners and very susceptible to tyre pressures. The MGC, introduced in 1967, got much worse reports than it deserved. You could not chuck it about like the MGB. However, if it was not compared to the MGB but taken on its own merits, it was a very good grand touring car.

John:- ‘I reckon if you wanted to drive from Calais to Constantinople the MGC was the car to take; a beautiful long legged motor car, quiet and so on, it really was much better than its reputation. ’From my own point of view, I remember one afternoon going to Silverstone when they were putting miles on the pre-production samples. They had a manual roadster and an automatic GT that they were just driving round and round the club circuit to put distance on the things. The chaps were bored stiff, but it sounded like a free practice to me. The automatic was fun. On the Borg-Warner 35 you can request a lower gear as you go into a corner and when the speed and the revs get right it will shift down for you. If you are close to the limit and all ‘hub nuts and door handles’ a random gear change can make life exciting. Later I replaced my MGB with a used MGC GT, and I grew very fond of that car.”

The book continues with stories about ‘MGs in America’ and the ‘MG Car Club’, retirement and the last few years of John’s life. The Factory letters and memos in the appendices make very interesting reading. John could see the future direction of the industry much more clearly than the Board. Was John Thornley really Mr. MG? Absolutely, more MGs were built under his guidance and the Company actually made money!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

‘Mr. MG’ a biography of MG’s general manager by Peter Thornley

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, October 2015

Amazing – Road Manners Do Exist!
Have you ever wondered why the authorities reduce the speed limit on our roads and construct ugly crash barriers on the sides of our beautiful Adelaide Hills roads?

I have just returned from five weeks overseas where I travelled throughout eastern and northern Germany and spent a week in Scotland. The roads over there are generally well maintained as they twist and turn and up and down the rural landscape. They rarely have white lines down the centre as drivers in Germany seem to know which side of the road they should be travelling on. I didn’t see any crash barriers to interrupt the lovely rural views because the driver’s seem to be able to stay on the black stuff and also take care when they approach a blind crest or an awkward intersection.

Driving along the autobahn at 140 or 160 kph was quite safe and felt very comfortable as you could trust what your fellow drivers around you would do. I never saw any drivers dawdling along in the ‘fast’ lane. They appear to know how to use their rear view mirrors. If a driver came across a slower driver in their lane they would indicate for several clicks of their intention to change lanes, look in their rear view mirrors and if safe, quickly move into their indicated lane. They would pass the slower car and indicate to move back into the lane they had just come from. If you wanted to change lanes in order to exit the autobahn but traffic filled this ‘slow’ lane, drivers would indicate and drivers in the busy ‘slow’ lane would slow and allow you to move in. It’s an amazing concept really! I wonder if it is possible for South Australian drivers to learn such skills?

Driver etiquette was impressive.

Is it more difficult to get a driver’s licence in Germany compared to Australia? Yes. Does it cost more? Basically no.

You might be wondering how many accidents they have in Germany? Australia has 30% more road deaths (per 100,000) than Germany but the world average is three times higher than the Australian figure.

I was told a story by a German businessman who, when entertaining an American asked ‘why is the speed limit so low on US freeways?’ The yank answered because American drivers are stupid!

Oh, MGs, of course. I did see some over there in amongst all the black Mercedes, BMWs, VWs, Audis and Porsches. There was a light black MG ZT-T in Berlin and a red MGF in Eckernforde. Oh and I saw two Tesla Ss, one red and one white.

I was told by my brother-in-law that my nephew had just restored an exotic old-timer car. I was keen to find out what it was and have a look at it. A few days later he arrived driving it. It turns out that he had put new mags and a new white paint job on a Nissan 300ZX! Wow - very exotic!

Torsion Bar Run
It's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 24th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

C ya soon
Ian

Trying to follow the Tesla S but it was gone!

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs MGC Register Co-ordinator

The 2015 Automnal Run
It might be autumn but when I looked outside winter was certainly making its presence felt. In fact I thought for a minute that I'd missed the Automnal MGC Run by a month or so when I grabbed my keys and went outside to the garage and hopped in my 'C'. Up here in the Adelaide Hills it was blowy, drizzling and cold. When I arrived down in the south east parklands to met the boys it didn't seem too bad. The rain had stopped and the cold wind appeared to have abated.

Six of us presented ourselves in our woolly jumpers. There was Jim McCrickard chauffeuring a pleasant young German exchange student called Roman in his red roadster, Ian (don't call me pasty) Cornish brought along Mel Whinnen's old primrose roadster which he had just bought from Bazz. Peter McCathy arrived in one of those unmentionable large silver things that are so popular at the moment. What does SUV stand for? Super Ugly Vehicle, Stupid Useless Vehicle? Anyway he has a lovely 'C' in the shed at home and showed us pictures to prove it. And of course Ron Telford and myself were in our gorgeous red 'C' GTs.

I asked Peter if it's true that some psychologists view SUVs as a Freudian expression of insecurity and lack of sexual endowment. “No” he responded, “I have a grader up on the Gibb River Road for that!” “Ah” I said “that sounds a little bigger.”

I had arranged to visit Ron's freshly restored example of the dark side of British Leyland which was sitting in the other side of his garage. We left our Parklands meeting place and travelled south along Fullarton Road, up Old Belair Road and around National Park to Upper Sturt. We wound our way down Sturt Valley Road, up Iron Bank Road and left onto Cherry Gardens Road and left again onto Main Road to Clarendon. A right then a left and left again then a right and I was nearly lost. Lucky Ron knew where he was going!
We parked in his large parking area in front of his garage, lifted our bonnets (no ladies car bonnets not hats) and compared pedal boxes and brake light switches. Then Ron lead us into his darkened garage. When our eyes adjusted to the light we could see his beautifully restored sports car. I can't mention the make here, not in an MG magazine. But it was build in 1974, has a chassis and separate body, a six cylinder engine and the early models competed with our beloved MGC's.

He told us BL made over 94,000 TR6's between 1968 and 1976. TR6s may have out sold MGC's by a factor of 10, not because of popularity, but because the Leyland people outnumbered the BMC people in the board room. MG's with all its history and faithful followers around the world were not seen as the way of the future. Funny isn't it, some people just don't realise that the future is going in the opposite direction to which they are facing. All those years have gone by and I can still buy a new MG from the show room.

Ron has done an enormous amount of work painting the chassis, rebuilding the suspension and mechanicals and repairing and refitting the body. The gaps in the body panels were so even that when I fitted my little finger between then I couldn't find any variation at all. Ron even made the dash from a large piece of timber and coloured it to match the new upholstery. I think it was Jim who asked which one did he prefer to drive the 'C' or the TR6. Ron said “definitely the 'C'”. We all sighed. “The 'C' is more solid and feels totally together going around corners.” I asked him whether he has tightened the all nuts and bolts that joined the body to the chassis. He said “yes of course I did.” After five years work Ron has a beautiful quintessential British sports car and an MGC as well.

After an hour or so my nervous system was calling for a psychoactive top up so we adjourned to a lovely café in Clarendon, right next to the pub. Yes the coffee was good and so were the scones. And yes caffeine, that legally available psychoactive drug does wonders for my brain function. My fellow MGC drivers seemed to agree it was well worth the visit.
C ya soon, Ian

MGC NEWS for Sep 2015. MGC Mutterings from Richard Mixture

Ah! the Prince of Darkness
Hello there again, it's Richard here. Yes I bet you know what's coming. Mr Moss or should I say his successors posted a nice little story about young Joe Lucas or uncle Joe to some. My letter opener wouldn't work on the innernet, so I ask that nice young teenager to help me and the following is from his efforts. He didn't get the jokes about Joe Lucas inventing the intermittent windscreen wiper, nor why the Poms drink warm beer because they keep it in Lucas fridges and Lucas holds the patent for the short circuit and the three position Lucas switch – Dim, Flicker and Off!

Well the story goes like this; “Joseph Lucas was an unemployed father of six children who had to make ends meet by selling paraffin oil from a cart around the local Birmingham streets. With six mouths to feed he was a tireless worker and he soon had saved up enough money to start the business that would become Lucas Industries in 1860. Most of the small firm’s products were made from pressed metals like plant pots, gardening tools and water buckets. His son, Harry, joined the business in 1872 when he turned 17 and soon the company began to make lamps for ships out of a shop called the Lamp Works. By 1879, oil fired bicycle lamps joined the product line up and greater success followed this move towards making more advanced lighting fixtures for civilian and maritime usage.

The business incorporated at the turn of the century and began to trade under the name Joseph Lucas Ltd., with most of the business centred on the burgeoning field of paraffin and petroleum fired lamps. 1902 was the first year that the company began to make automotive components – mainly small electrical components – and by the new year, business was so good that Lucas took time off for a long European vacation. A hard and tireless worker, Lucas had long abstained from alcohol and that doomed him when he contracted typhoid after drinking contaminated water in Naples. He was buried on January 14, 1903. At the time of his death, Donald Healey was a child, Triumph was making bicycles and Lord Nuffield (William Morris) had just opened his garage in Oxford.

Substantial growth happened on the cusp of World War I when the company entered into an agreement to supply Morris Motors Limited with electrical equipment – mainly magnetos, starter motors, horns, lighting and wiring – and throughout the war manufactured shells, fuses and electrical equipment for the war effort. When peace arrived the company began to grow and diversify by making braking components, hydraulic systems and electronic engine controls. An exclusive contract with Austin was signed in 1926 and while other companies struggled with the Depression Lucas acquired several competitors including Girling, Rotax and Vandervell.

Lucas was integral to the war effort in World War II with their automotive electrical systems adapted for use in almost every manner of military vehicle and they took a major role with Rover working on the fuel and combustion systems on the Whittle jet engine for the Gloster E28/39 (the first British jet aeroplane to fly). In the 50s, the company continued to supply automotive electrical components and also moved into the new field of semiconductors. For much of the 50s and 60s, Lucas automotive components were the world standard and found use in cars as diverse as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston-Martin, Austin, MG and Triumph. Lucas built components were simple, durable, easy to repair and reliable.

A King of the Road automotive lamp	Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke

What happened? Mainly the passage of time; when the cars were new they were as reliable as any other new car – including the electrical systems – but decades of use, storage and a succession of previous owners whose understanding of electrical systems was limited to screwing in light bulbs have taken a toll on the reputation of Joseph Lucas and his later products. Curse his ghost if you must, but the man was long since dead before any of our beloved sports cars were built. If only he had opted for a nice chianti maybe he would have been around long enough for us to make fun of him for good reason.” Thank you Moss Motors.

I am sure it was that infamous SA MG celebrity, whose name starts with a 'B', who said that 'I have worked on a variety of English Cars and I have found only two problems with their electrical systems; 10% of the problem is corrosion in the connections used on many Lucas components and 90% of the problem is people who try to fix something they have no idea about.'

Is it true that the Lucas corporate motto is: “Get home before dark”?

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

MGC NEWS for Auly 2015. MGC Mutterings from Richard Mixture

MGCs Registered
Hello again, it's Richard here. Well what is a 'C' worth? In those famous words of a local 'C' owner “when you decide you want one and there is only one on offer and the price is X dollars you pay X dollars!” I guess it also depends on your budget. If your budget is 10 x $X you buy an Aston, isn't that right Bazz? Although, I think Bazz paid 10 x less for his Aston than a 'C' is worth, cheap skate! In fairness though he did buy the old DB5 in the 1870s or so!

Anyway, there has been a few sales of 'C's recently. The two old Whinnin primrose roadsters have found new owners and they are loving their new six cylinder MGs. David Fairbrother traded his 'C' in on a 'TC' and new owner Robin loves his 'C'. Peter Sutton went to the dark side and bought one of those Teutonic whale tail things. His car, I believe, went the the west. How much did they sell for? Well around the $20 to 25k. I paid just over $20 for my GT in 1997. So are they devaluing?

In the UK the prices have been sitting around the low teens now for several years now, but this summer they're fetching the high teens. Remember they use GB Pounds over on the top side. Buyers of really, really nice ones seem happy to pay over 20,000 Pounds for them but they are too good to drive!

The fruit trees look as if they are in need of a prune don't they?		Walnut dash and door cappings do look very nice

In May this year a new owner parted with £22,000 (that's roundabout $45,852.91 AUD) plus costs for a lovely, 1968, 'C' roadster (registered XLK 607G). The catalogue said, “As the accompanying Heritage Certificate confirms, XLK 607G was delivered to University Motors Limited, London, on 3rd April 1968, ordered in Mineral Blue with options of wire wheels, overdrive gearbox, tonneau cover and ‘pack away hood’. An extensive service and restoration file comes with XLK detailing the various investments made into the Roadster’s upkeep and improvement.”

“... having major chassis restoration work from Pleshey Motors in 2002. This included the replacement of the sills, the floor pans, both front wings and a host of minor details. In 2005 the really special MGOC seats were fitted, followed in October 2006 by a new set of wire wheels from Peter Edney.
XLK changed hands in May 2009 with the brokerage help of Doug Smith of MG Motorsport in Hertfordshire. It was shipped over to the Republic of Ireland into the care of the Mr and Mrs Kennedy of Dublin. Invoices show how the Kennedys prepared the Roadster to suit their desire to take part in long distance continental MG Car Club rallies.
Invoices from Doug Smith at MG Motorsport detail many thoughtful touches to ensure reliable service in far flung places. More major investments were made with Koni shocks absorbers, parabolic springs and Superflex polyurethane bushings, which account for the car’s sporting road manners today.
Imported back to England a couple of years ago, the car has had two UK owners since, both local to Leominster. Clearly a much-loved machine, the vendor states that the bodywork, chassis and running gear are in excellent condition, and although it has been used, it has also been pampered.”
“Inside, the cockpit has benefited from a walnut dashboard and door cappings and new carpets plus supportive MGOC seats. A new Mohair hood was also fitted June 2012. Supplied with MOT until October 2015, this lovely matching numbers machine will make a perfect companion on the long hot summer days that undoubtedly lie ahead of us!
A serial MGC owner, the vendor is only reluctantly parting with his last and best MGC to help fund his daughter’s extortionate University fees – indeed its last duty was to take said young lady to her Sixth Form Prom. Good old Dad, we only hope that daughter appreciates the sacrifice being made on her behalf and repays it with a First! Preferably followed by a high paid job in the City so she can reward his generosity with an equally good example of Abingdon's finest at a later date...”

Sounds a bit olde Astonish doesn't it? Or maybe I should say Lagonda. Walnut dash and door capping? Not original then. I can just see the nice old Queenslander rubbing his hand and saying well done!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

MGC NEWS for July 2015. MGC Mutterings from Richard Mixture

MGCs Registered
Hello there again, it's Richard here. Can you remember the May MGC Report? No? Well neither can I. Anyway, when I re-read it, I mentioned that our young Register Co-ordinator was chatting to Allan Fabry in Melbourne. The “conversation got around to a national register of MGCs. 'It's something we should have' said Allan”. Well, after reading it, that nice old Queenslander, Bruce, responded. He wrote;

“I do find it surprising that little NZ can have a National MGC Register and of course the Yanks have ‘C’ Notes for their MGC Register and the breakaway mob who are a sub set of the NAMGB Register formed while the original MGC Register was re-forming after being in the Doldrums for a long time.

I agree with you there must be 150 to 200 MGC/GT’s in Oz but there is only one State Register (yours) that I am aware of.

I tried to find out how many ‘C’s were registered here but Queensland Transport would not give out any information due to some stupid owner protection ruling or other, they were totally unhelpful.
We suspect that the majority of ‘C’s up here are not members of MGCC’s. After all I was not” (a member) “for many decades after resigning from the QMGCC ...”

“There is a guy, Steve Foldhazy, or some name like that in Sydney who estimated that there are over 150 ‘C’s in Australia at his last count. It does seem odd that if NZ can manage a Register that Australia cannot do so. Making contact with owners would seem to be an almost too difficult if the majority are not in MG clubs.

Were it possible to get numbers from the State registration bodies maybe it could be done. I guesstimate that there are about 7 to 10 up here in clubs, I knew of almost that many that were not in clubs. Some owners contact me [asking for help] and I don’t think they are club members.

I am too old and my memory for names and details are not good enough so I will not put up my hand to attempt to start an Australian MGC Register but we should have one. There must be some younger ‘C’ owner who could start the ball rolling [definitely NOT me] or you with your business to run.”

Ah yes a younger 'C' owner? Bruce, do you mean someone younger than 60 years of age? The idea went through my mind that an MG enthusiast with a sound computer knowledge could set up a web site so that Australians could register their own 'C's. Register Co-ordinators in each club could put a group of MGCs on the site. I guess in this day and age when Canberra is passing rules that restrict pregnant monkeys with drooping ears from entering coral reefs off Kalumburu and data collection that might interpret an MGC Commission number as a secret code to detonate a mixture sodium chlorate weed killer and icing sugar we need to be careful! Hmm, I remember when I was a kid I just used a match to detonate stuff like that. It was good fun too! Well we use to blow up … err … no I'd better just stick to MGCs at the moment.

Yes a National Register – what would we need? I guess for each car listing the body type and colour, the year of manufacture, the chassis number, the owner's name and state where the car resides would be a good start. Oh, a picture of the car would be nice too. We could also include the engine number, trim colour, gear box type (manual, manual/overdrive, auto), rego number and where it was first registered (UK, USA, NZ, Oz).

It seems that only the MGCCs of Victoria (have three 'C's listed), Sydney (no 'C's listed) and South Australia (seven 'C's listed) have model registers, none of the other Australian MGCCs list members 'C's on their website. I thought this was odd but in retrospect I think I'm just odd having an interest in this sort of stuff!

'The Pre-War MG Register of Australia' have quite an extensive list of models, not MGCs of course.

So coming back to Bruce's comment, “There must be some younger ‘C’ owner who could start the ball rolling”. Any volunteers? Give me a call.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

Example of our South Australian MGC Register

MGC NEWS for May. MGC Mutterings from Richard Mixture

A week of 'C's and other MG's.
Hello there again, it's Richard here. You know that nice young register co-ordinator, well, he's been gallivanting around that neighbouring state of Victoria. He went to the historic races at Phillip Island, visited a few Elfin mates and watched that incredibly boring Australian Grand Prix and returned home all in that ZS that he owns.
Phillip Island was interesting he said, with a white competition MGC GT on the track and an immaculate concours 'C' in the car park. Ivan Michelsen travelled all the way from WA to put his C GT around Phillip Island and had plenty of fun. You might remember the 'car park C' when it visited Adelaide for the National meeting. It was and still is a beautiful car! Its owner, Allan Fabry, is Club Captain for the Victorian MGCC.

Allan and that nice young fella from SA started chatting about 'C's, can you believe it! Allan told him about how he tracked down the correct headlight lenses (Lucas of course) and the correct clip and plug that inserts into the rear end of the alternator. Then conversation got around to a national register of MGCs. "It's something we should have" said Allan and that nice young Ian agreed but didn't volunteer to be its coordinator. He said 'What we need is a good program that can record owners, owner changes, a photo or two, oh! and the details of the cars of course.' So there lies a problem to be solved by someone who has lots of time on their hands. 'No Ian I have less time than you think' I responded to his thoughts. So how many MGCs are there in Australia? 200 maybe?

Then a few days after I was speaking with that nice young fella, I received a call from a man with a 'C' who lived in regional Queensland. He was wondering where his car came from, England or North America? I told him that the chassis number will tell you that and if it has the original inlet manifold then the English car will have a 'Metters Stove' looking arrangement while the North American cars had a somewhat more flowing manifold. I also told him to search on the 'inner net' for 'The Archive of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust' and he could buy a copy of the birth certificate for his car.

Now to MG matters not about MGC's. That nice young Register Co-ordinator stayed with one of his Elfin mates. Bill Atherton was the accountant for Esquire Motors and bought the original body of the Murphy Q Type (Q0256) after it was rebodied. He has a P Type chassis (left photo) engine, gearbox and diff and plans to make a pre-war special.

Well the Sunday morning of that boring Australian Grand Prix a whole stack of pre-war MGs rolled up to have a look at the P/Q – there were P Types, J2s, an NA, a TA and TB, even a Y Type and a TC and not to mention the ZS. Sadly no C's not even a spindly C Type.

Automnal Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 9th May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. That nice young Register coordinator has arranged a lovely excursion to Clarendon to see a mystery car, one from the dark side of BLMC.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, March 2015

MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, March 2015

6 Cylinder Smoothie
Hello there, it's Richard here again. That nice young register co-ordinator said he received an email in the post the other day from that nice old Queenslander, Bruce. It was a copy of a 1969 Road & Track article about the MGC. Ahh I thought, a North American perspective of our favourite MG! Bruce said he loaded it down from the MGC Forum on that American invention called the innernet.

“Engine swap turns the MGB into a 6-cylinder smoothie” What a lovely title. I think I was called an old smoothie my self once, err no I won't go into that right now and no it wasn't Bazz. The article starts with, “We may discourage our readers from engine swaps, but the British motor manufacturers certainly don't balk at them. When the classic Austin-Healey vanished from the market, partly because it would have been un-economic to try to make it conform to U.S. Safety regulations and partly because it would have been uneconomic to supersede it with a new Healey using its own unique body and chassis, BMC (now part of the BLMC) decreed that it should be “replaced” by an MGB with the big Healey 6-cylinder engine.”

“Actually, it isn't as simple as this; engine swaps never are. To start with, the engine itself was a venerable design, in need of either total redesign or at least updating. It got the latter: a new crankcase with less overall length, re-shaped cylinder bores and seven main bearings instead of four. This bit of redesign allowed a small weight reduction from 611 lb to 567 (with clutch) – but when we compare this with say, the 5-liter Ford V-8 at about 480 lb it is obvious that an altogether new engine could have been much lighter. Using slightly smaller (HS6 instead of HS8) carburetors than the Healey, the revised 3-liter engine produces 145 bhp at the same 5250 rpm at which its predecessor developed 150 bhp.

The front crossmember that completely carries the coil-spring front suspension in the MGB had to be considerably trimmed to allow the longer engine to pass over it, leaving insufficient structure to do this whole job in the C. The solution was to design new lateral links replacing the B's unequal-length A-arms and attaching to new pivot points (the static roll center, at ground level, is unchanged) and to do the springing with torsion bars attached to the lower links and anchored at the rear to the same crossmember that supports the gearbox.”

“Rear suspension is the same as for the B except that the springs have seven leaves instead of five. Spring rates measured at the rear wheels are 100 lb/in. Front and rear (vs 73/93 for the B), giving natural frequencies of 74 cycles/min front and 87 cycles/min rear. Frequencies for the B - and these are the real criterion of ride firmness – are 69 front, 88 rear. Thus the C is slightly stiffer in the front than the B and at the same time more evenly matched front-to-rear so that it should be less prone to pitch. Weight distribution is less different from the B than we expected: 55% front, 45% rear vs 54/46 for the B; overall weight is up from 2220 lb to 2600.”

Driving the MGC
The first sound heard upon starting the MGC is a soft burble from the exhaust system quite like the B's pleasant note. As the revs increased the note becomes more distinctly “six”-ish though remaining mellow. Underhood, the engine is very quiet, as was the Healey, and noticeably smoother – but a noisy cooling fan is prominent. Strangely enough, the engine seems torqueless at low speed and subjectively lacks the punch of the old Healey, but when we compared the acceleration times we got with the C to those of the last Healey we tested, we found the C only slightly less quick, a difference easily explained by the smaller carburetors and taller gearing of the C – which weighs only some 50 lb less than that Healey. Perhaps it's the extra smoothness and quietness of the car that make the performance seem less exhilarating, ...”

“The engine is certainly flexible enough in everyday use, though it's a reluctant starter from cold. We found no side effects from its air-injection emission control other than the familiar lag in returning to idle. Fuel economy isn't especially good at 17.8 mpg.”

Well, that's an interesting view from the left hand side of the car. Comparing our lovely 'C' with a 5 liter Ford V-8 and the air-injector – well I've got my air-injector and it's in a box in the shed. Some of the spelling is a bit funny too and I like the reference to “underhood, the engine is very quiet ...”. It's a bit like sharing the passenger's seat with a smoothie, preferably not an old one!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

MGC NEWS from Ian Hobbs, February 2015

From my experience owning an MG is definitely a marque of friendship anywhere in the world but owning an MGC leads to a closer bond that links torsion bars with 12 port heads and 12 valves. (Welcome Robin Gibb)

And so it was when I met Ian Grant, ('C1'), one of a two part MGC register co-ordinator in New Zealand. Instantly friendly, Ian picked me up from where I was staying and took me to his home for a cuppa and a flick through the MGC Register of NZ. There are 78 MGCs recorded including a few that were known several years ago but not now. There's even a Sebring replica in aluminium just like RMO ….

An interesting feature of the register are the consecutive chassis numbers of ten cars imported to NZ in 1969. The very first car GCD1 2349G is one after the MGC owned by that nice old Queenslander Bruce whose number is GCD1 2348G which Bruce imported new to Queensland.

Ian had taken on the task of organising a run on 15th February 2015. He'd plotted the course on a map and now needed a dummy run to record notes and mileages. Ian opened the door to his 'C' for me to hop in and handed me a note pad and pen. So off to the start and I started writing – 'leave the car park and turn left …' We travelled through the north shore of Auckland and out into the country along winding roads past sheep and cows, (yes, they also have cows in NZ). Onto the motorway for a short time, across the harbour bridge then we wended our way through the suburbs and on to a village green over looking the beach. The two hour drive gave me an insight of the urban and peri-urban areas of Auckland. Nice place!

The next stop was Harvey's home, the technical 'C' man who owned a lovely blue CGT that he bought from University Motors, London, when he worked there from 1969 to 1971. Harvey told us some wonderful stories about MGCs painted in chartreuse and purple at customer request.

He travelled in his 'C' for three months around Europe until a drunk Austrian drove his Simcar into the left front corner realigning the wheel several inches rearward. After wiping out the left hand head light and guard he also managed to hit the left rear guard and tail light. With the help of the local constabulary he was able to get a tractor to lift and tow the 'C' 40 miles to a Renault dealer who would not allow the 'C' in the workshop. Fortunately the dealer was happy to loan tools so Harvey got to work with a large hammer and oxy torch to align and weld the front suspension into a usable state. He then drove back to London for proper repairs. There were other stories of course about border crossings and how to live out of a 'C' for three months.

Now it was time to return me to to my accommodation so Ian held open the driver's for me. Ian's 'C' had 54,000 miles on the clock from new and was relatively tight. It was easy to drive and the suspension was very compliant with all rubbers (not poly-urethane) replaced a few miles earlier. I was amazed at how well it rode the bumps. Harvey demanded that I write an honest report so while I found Ian's 'C' a joy to drive the intermittent horn blowing when you turned a corner in a particular way was a bit disconcerting as was the squeaking brakes. According to Ian both problems had been fix but returned that day for me to experience!

It was an enjoyable afternoon and the friendly hospitality was superb. BTW, Ian's C was a delight!

Now for 'C2'. Peter Dunlop is the other half of the NZ 'C' Register and coincidently he was in Oz when we were in NZ. He and his wife had returned to Auckland a day before we were due to return home. So a dinner was arranged and my wife and I attended with Peter and Ian and their spouses at the Hotel Novotel Auckland Airport near where we were staying. Peter arrived driving a beautiful white MGC GT and over diner he told me he had raced historic cars so we had a few other things to chat about. It was an enjoyable night with two wonderful MGC men and their lovely wives, Reawyn and Joanna. Thanks.

Peter had bought along some MGC regalia which they had bought from the MGC register in the UK so I added a couple of items to my luggage for the return trip.

I've chatted to several Club members about visiting NZ and everyone has had a wonderful time and enjoyed the company of the MG mob across the ditch. Even when those Kiwis come here like that funny McNab bloke the experience and friendship with him is a delight.

Have a wonderful New Year and I hope 2015 fills all of your desires.

C ya soon, Ian

MGC NEWS
The MGC Torsion Bar Run from Ian Hobbs, December 2014

It was 1 pm and time to head off to the start of the MGC Torsion Bar Run or spring run for non-MGC folk. The weather was warm and caressing my white and naked knees and calves. My 'C' unfortunately had a severe coolant leak a couple of weeks earlier. It appeared to flowing out of the water pump quicker than I could poor coolant into the cooling system inlet.

With a week to go I was ready to reinstall all the bits. The radiator was cleaned and tested, I had a new water pump, new hoses and new thermostat. The only thing missing was two adapters, one to connect the water pump with a heater hose and the other to connect the by-pass hose. I searched everywhere and all I got was 'out of stock' and 'not available'. So I'll have to make a them up.

So, with the 'C' out of action I jumped into the ZS and headed the start. I had received a couple of apologies, one from Mike Greenwood and Jan and the other from Lynton Fuller. We were graced with a wonderful bunch of owners, well if not in numbers at least in expertise. The count was three MGC owners and two red 'Cs'. Ron Telford arrived in his GT and Jim McCrickard in his roadster. Yes they are experts indeed!

We headed south along Fullarton Road, up Old Belair Rd, past National Park, Upper Sturt Rd, and down Sturt Valley Rd to Ironbank. We cut across to Mylor, on to Echunga, Meadows and down Willunga Hill to the Golden Fleece Café in Willunga. Fortunately we didn't have to compete with any 'long boarders' going down the 'Hill', although several went down High Street past the Café.

We found a comfy seat outside and ordered coffee and cakes. Jim ordered coffee and a slice of a very nutty, healthy loaf. Ron and I received our cakes but Jim's was taking ages. I thought that his healthy slice had gone for a jog around the block but no, those inside, had just forgotten. It didn't take long for Jim's slice to arrive with an apology and it didn't take Jim long to throw it down his cake hole!

It was a bit of a 'show and tell' as Jim had bought along a paper with a man's name who had completed the shack down runs in an early post war speed attempt just in time for Colonel Goldie Gardener to take the glory. Ron showed us two magazines featuring a genuine Sebring C and another replica, yes we all agreed we'd like one. And course I showed off my stuffed water pump.

We wondered why the Café was called the Golden Fleece Café and Ron thought it related to a sheep in some way and then we thought of Golden Fleece service stations. I thought of the Greek myth about Jason searching for the Golden Fleece and I'm told he found it under the shirt of a very attractive blonde. Anyway, I think it was a old servo actually.

I tried to convene a register meeting but Jim kept on telling us stories about his latest three month trip around WA. Then Ron wanted to tell us about his latest restoration but we shut him up very smartly when we heard it was a Triumph TR6. Although he did say he found that the MGC was a better built car which put a smile both Jim's and my face.

All in all we had a very pleasant afternoon with what must be the nicest blokes in the Club (well, that's not including those other nice Club members that I know of course).

Thanks for coming out chaps. C ya soon, Ian

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, November 2014

'O/D', no, it's not OverDose
Hello there, it's Richard here again. I've been reading a few computer letters that that nice old Queenslander has been sending that nice young Register Co-ordinator of ours. He tells me you don't have to use envelopes or stamps. Amazing! Well all you car types out there will know that 'O/D' stands for Laycock de Normanville Overdrive. Keep reading to get the banana bender's story.

“Owners who have been following the "Truck" major rebuild program will have noticed that one of the things I wanted to do was to replace the planet gear bearings as I managed to get a set of genuine spares some years ago. These were not available down in OZ 28 years ago when I did a major rebuild at 53,000 miles. Up to this time I used Castrol XL in engine & gearbox and after observing all the scuffing wear everywhere I replaced all the bearings except for the planet gears. Slight noise in OD under very light throttle at a steady cruise had been increasing over time.

My OD has always been used as 5th gear from day one under all driving conditions. Now after 139,000 miles it was time to finally have the OD apart for inspection and to change the planet gear bearings. Everything in the engine and gearbox looked good this time, using Shell oils for the last 86,000 miles. I replaced the sliding hub as I had a new spare. Fortunately I kept the original, good luck for me as you will now read.

Now to the OD service:
I dismantled the OD (except for the rear case containing the annulus and output shaft) and on inspection there was a clutch lining living in the Brake Ring and only the annulus clutch lining in the sliding hub. YUK. The OD has been working perfectly although I thought on a couple of occasions that there was a bit of slip engaging OD when climbing mountains. The Downton engine really has a lot of torque so OD is usually used up hills if the speed limit is suitable.

See attached photos to understand what I discovered. The replacement sliding hub has bonded linings on it, or did have, the rivet holes are there and the linings are drilled for rivets. The original sliding hub has the linings riveted on, which is a much better idea. The wear on both hubs is about the same, plenty of lining left so the original hub is going back. I learned about bonded linings the hard way when one came off the front left brake shoe of my MGTF on a right hand corner on a freshly graded gravel road, locking the wheel, ruining 18 months of a total rebuild job.

Next on to the planet gear bearing pins. I was fortunate to meet a man here who services Laycock OD's in Triumph TR cars, up to 5 a year. He showed me how to remove the bearing pin lock pins, exactly the opposite to what one would think of doing.

The lock pins are shorter than the hole in the pin and wall thickness combined by .010" to .030".
You drive the pins fully into the bearing pin, then you can by using a suitable screwdriver, under the lock pin, rotate the bearing pin and gradually work it out.

I removed 2 with a pair of long nose pliers but had to use the screwdriver technique to remove the last one. My bearings were the original caged needles with 11 needles. The cages are intact and only 1 needle shows damage, the bearing pins are worn through the hardening and 1 has a small section of serious pitting as well.

The later replacement bearings are not caged. There is a hardened outer case containing 24 smaller diameter needles (no cage) that are 0.100" longer, these are pressed into the gears with no spacer required, the bearing pins do not have the oil holes drilled into the bearing pin like the original caged bearings have. I think I have found the source of the OD noise. I was able to obtain a full 'O' ring kit so all the 'O' rings will be replaced and the factory sliding hub refitted along with the new later type planet gear bearings. Bruce”

Well I hope all of you can understand what this is all about, it's a bit O/W to me, OverWhelming! Having a sliding hub seems a bit of a worry. I had one of those once and nearly lost the wheel. There are more pictures at http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?48,2808358. That nice young Register Co-ordinator showed me a video of the dismantling and reassembly of an AH overdrive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5N_YghwwKA. Doesn't look too hard, only takes 8 minutes and 41 seconds!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, October 2014

The Smith Replica 'C - Engines
Hello again, it's Richard here. I've noticed that the sun is shining and the soft tops are out on the road again.

Well, if your memory is better than mine, you'll remember that last month I told you about that wonderful chappy, Doug Smith, from MG Motorsports, who loves his MGCs. In a 2001 copy of MG World he described his suspension modifications, well this month I thought all you wonderful people out there would like to hear about other modifications that he does. So, I'll continue the story;

“Work on the engine – a redesign of the Austin Healey 3000 power unit – commences with a six-branch manifold (by Maniflow to Doug's design) that feeds into a two-pipe exhaust system. A cylinder head, with gas-flowed ports but standard valve sizes and modified to burn unleaded fuel, follows. Any further modifications mean removing the complete engine.

A full performance engine rebuild includes forged pistons, lightened flywheel, uprated clutch and a camshaft change. The cam, like the final carburation set-up, depends on the use envisaged for the unit and is usually fitted along with a vernier timing wheel manufactured exclusively for Doug by Kent Cams. Still on the standard twin 1 ¾” SU carburettors, Doug promises a 45% power increase for a road car and more than 60% in rally tune. Beyond that, the SUs are replaced by triple 45 DCOE Webers and the increase rises to 100%.

Smith, you'll notice, does not quote precise outputs for his conversions. Each engine can be different, he says. But he is prepared to admit to seeing around 300bhp at the flywheel on the company's own race engine.

There's nothing wrong with the MGC gearbox, says Doug. The standard unit (with overdrive on third and top) has good ratios for road use and MG Motorsport can supply a straight-cut close-ratio gear set for competition use. A quieter and stronger helical C/R set is in the pipeline. For serious work a Quaife torque-sensing differential unit is also available.

The brakes do not need any drastic modification, either. Doug sells Mintex 1144 and EBC pads for the front discs and M20 shoes for the rear drums. A four-caliper set is also listed for the front and there is a disc brake conversion available for the rear end, but Doug does not recommend this for road use. 'It doesn't give better braking and makes the rear end lock before the front.'

Most of these mechanical modifications go into the Herefordshire-produced Sebring replica, although final specification and cost – which starts at £16,000 plus a donor car – depend very much on the customer's requirements. Doug, however, does not consider the triple Weber conversion necessary for most people's requirements.

The real difference in the Sebring is its looks. Replicating the big wheel-arches and snow-scoop-sized front air-dam in aluminium, not to mention the lightweight doors, tailgate, bonnet and roof panel, is not a cost-effective, option. Customers get the look without necessarily the reduction in weight.

Bumperless, the Sebring looks both purposeful and menacing – with its massive arches filled out by 8x15 – inch Compomotive Minilite – replica wheels. The 225/50R 15 Bridgestone tyres are a welcome modern fitment to the replica racer.”

The MGC Sebring does look wonderful. But just how fat is your wallet?

Torsion Bar Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 18th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, September 2014

This Smith is an engineer not a black smith.
Hello, it's a warming up Richard here again. Coldest August morning in 126 years – I'm glad spring is here! I had a 9 o'clock meeting in Stirling on that cold morning and I tried to reschedule the meeting around my bed so I didn't have to get out! What was the likelihood of that happening? Well that Buckley bloke presented himself again (no not you Ian) so off I went up into the Hills with about ten layers on. Lucky my seat belt was long enough!

When I returned I sat down to a lovely hot cup of English Breakfast and a good read of a 2001 MG World.

“So, does everyone consider the 'C to be a bit of old dog?” I read with horror, “What about the case for the defence?” Yes please, I thought.

Enter Doug Smith, proprietor of MG Motorsport, based in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. He's made a business out of loving the MGC. To such effect that not only does he make them go and handle like they should have done 30 years ago, but he also makes replica versions of the one 'C that really did capture the imagination. This is the lightweight GTS, or Sebring as it became know after making its 1968 competition debut at the famous 12-hour US race.

MG Motorsport's production of replica Sebrings currently stands at six, with two other cars (one allegedly for Smith himself, although he admits he probably will have sold it before it's finished) currently in the pipeline. Expertly crafted, the Sebrings … appeal as extrovert road cars to MG enthusiasts looking for something different. But, as Doug himself has shown, they can also stand on their own in club racing.

Smith and his four-strong staff do much more than build replica Sebrings. As he put it, he has carried on the development of the 'C way beyond the point when British Leyland axed the model in 1969. MG Motorsport has perfected a number of retro-fit items for the car that make all the difference, to such effect that almost anyone who owns one of the surviving 8999 MGC Roadsters and GTs ever produced has heard of Doug Smith.”

“A civil engineer with an overbearing interest in motorsport, Doug purchased a modified MGC from John Chatham in 1976. What started out as a road car turned into a club racer a few years later, taking class wins and in 1987, nearly taking the top spot in the MG Car Club's B, C, V8 Championship. With the self-prepared racer as a fine example of his expertise, Smith's hobby – as is often the case – became his profession.”

“'The standard 'C is not a sports car', claims Smith. Adding quickly that there's no reason why things should always be like that.

In his view, making a MGC into a real sports car starts with the suspension. At the front, uprated torsion bars plus Spax adjustable dampers and superflex polyurethane bushes are the entry point for good handling. A high-ratio steering rack completes the front end modifications.”

“At the rear, Doug considers the standard leaf springs to be perfectly adequate for road and competition use, but Superflex bushes are, again, a worthwhile modification. If a car comes into the workshops with a telescopic shock-absorber conversion fitted at the rear, Smith advocates junking this and replacing it with brand new lever-arm dampers, manufactured by Moss and still available from MG Motorsport.”

Blimey replacing modern telescopic shock-absorbers with a 50 year old designed damper. If an old design works better on the rear, does that mean that something is not quite right at the front, so that the modern tele-shocks actually work at the rear?

Doug Smith successfully prepares a number of race cars and the workmanship that his team carry out is superb. He has developed many parts for our beloved 'Cs such as stiffer torsion bars, a lighter, easier to use ball jointed front suspension (original king pins are no longer available), a faster steering rack and a 5 speed gear box kit. He's one very committed enthusiast.

Torsion Bar Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 18th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, August 2014

Tony Fall & the GTS
Hello, it's a very cold Richard here again. Well, actually, I'm not cold when I'm warm, … and comfy in front of the fire and nurtured by my grandfather's old wing back. Well, actually, it's not his any more because he's gone to that far away place and never to be seen again. Anyway, this time, I'm sitting in front of roaring wood fire with a cup of English Breakfast in one hand and a copy of the 2001 MG World in the other.

Buried in the pages is a small box with a story and a comment by Tony Fall. Fall started as a club rally driver in Minis in 1965 and was spotted by Stuart Turner, Competition Manager for BMC. In the same year the Spa-Sofia-Liège rally was replaced by a gruelling long-distance event on the Nürburgring of over 82 hours. The race was extended to 84 hours in 1966 and was won by Andrew Hedges and Julian Vernaerve in a MGB Mk2. In 1967 Fall came 2rd in a 970cc Mini Cooper S and in 1968 Fall joined the team driving a MGC GTS finishing 1st in class and 6th overall. Fall died of a heart attack in 2007 while he was a member of the organising team of the East African Safari Classic Rally.

I thought it was interesting to note that the MGC GTS was beaten by two positions and 16 more laps by a Mazda Cosmo 110S, with a two cylinder rotary engine! Do you remember those? I can still remember the smell of burning rice at AIR when a friend raced a bright green, ex-Bathurst, Mazda RX2! They were heady days indeed!

Well, I'm sure you've heard the GTS story before but this one goes like this;

'The brief making of a legend
The MGC lightweight's competition history was short and not particularly sweet. In 1967 British Leyland Special Tuning entered a prototype two-litre MGB GT for Italy's Targa Florio race. The following year the same car (registered MBL 546E and now officially known as an MGC GTS) crossed the Atlantic to compete in the Sebring 12 Hours. With a six cylinder, all aluminium engine three-litre engine. Paddy Hopkirk and Andrew Hedges recorded 10th overall and gained a class win.

Two cars (RMO 699F joining MBL) ran in the 1968 Marathon de la Route – all 84 hours of it – at the Nurburgring the same year. Tony Fall, Andrew Hedges and Julian Vernaerve finished sixth while the Clive Baker/Roger Enever/ Alec Poole car retired. Tony Fall, one-time works Mini rally driver, later to drive for Ford, Lancia and Datsun and now managing director of roll-cage manufacturer and safety equipment supplier Safety Devices, remembers his Nurburgring outing graphically. “The front brake-pads wore down and the callipers seized. I had to do nearly a lap to get back to the pits. Only to run out of the time allowed for the stop. I had to go out and do another 18 miles before I could come back for the pit crew to finish the repairs. When the car came in for the second pit-stop, the crew had to throw a trolley jack in front of the wheels to stop it.”

In 1969 Paddy Hopkirk and Andrew Hedges returned to Sebring to finish 15th, while the second factory car, driven by Americans Craig Hill and Bill Black, finished 34th. And that was the end of the official competition career of the MGC lightweights.

However, four further lightweight GT bodyshells left Abingdon, one be prepared and raced by John Chatham without result in the 1970 Targa Florio event. Of the remaining shells, two were built as road cars while the third was built and run by Chatham as a highly successful Mod Sports category race car.'

What a wonderful driver Tony was. I reckon the Nurburgring would frightening enough with brakes! Do you remember Sabine Schmidz entertaining Richard Hammond around the track in a Ford Transit van?

Torsion Bar Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 18th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

The Automnal MGC Run from Ian Hobbs, June 2014

The weather in autumn can be beautiful one day and blustery the next. On top of that have you ever heard of climate
change? I'm sure you have heard all the rhetoric. Well, on the Friday before the run the climate set another record,
it was the coldest day in May and it was wet! Hail was forecast on the Saturday morning of the run but the weather man said it would clear late morning.
I knew the local C drivers were a hardy bunch so I felt sure the regulars would be there, come rain, hail and
hopefully shine. There were a few apologies though, Mike Greenwood and Jan were off to see those athletic young girls run around the net ball court, Paul Dallwitz warned me that if there was a hint of rain he wouldn't come because his C had a leaking windscreen and the bucket in the passenger's footwell would overflow with just a mere sprinkling and Lawrie Burgess and David Fairbrother rang and left a message saying they couldn't make it.

So by midday the sun was shining and the same old blokes started arriving at Beaumont Road. There was Lynton Fuller in his lovely primrose roadster, the Professor, (or should that be Confessor?) Peter Sutton was complete with red dog, a Labrador in his white GT and the rest of us were in red with Jim Mc Crickard in his roadster and Ron Telford and myself in our GTs. A nice bunch of blokes, even the dog was pleased to see me, so pleased in fact he left his paw prints on my jeans! So where were we heading? The hills of course with its perfect sports car roads ruined by man placing those red and white signs showing the numbers 60 and 80. Lucky our old Eng-lish cars record our speed in miles/hour!

The Autumn leaves were wonderful in Stirling, Aldgate, Mylor and Meadows and even one of of the team noticed! We head down Brookman Road towards Willunga and turned right onto Wickham Hill road and veered right onto Peters Hill Road, and what a wonderful sports car road it was. Next was a left turn and into McLaren Flat and onto McLaren Vale.
McLaren Vale has a number of lovely eating places and we chose Blessed Cheese. They offered great coffee, good size muffins to suit the over in-dulgent, and rather tasty Florentines. And let not forget a bowl of water for the dog! We sat outside on the front verandah that was wrapped up in plastic 'cos they wouldn't let the dog inside!
Now for the intellectual side of things. Needless to say we started discussing our MGCs. Lynton raised the perennial
over heating problem usually caused by poor casting of the water gallery along the side of the block. It is easily
fixed with the engine still in the car. Then in a related matter Ian had a noisy water pump bearing and Jim mentioned
how he replaced his easily, the bearing not the pump. In an unrelated matter we briefly discussed the Commission of
Audit and decided that the commissioners lived on a different planet and were clearly unaware of life on earth. The
discussion lasted all of two minutes and we got back to more important MGC matters. Some one did ask whether the
minutes of our last meeting were going to be presented but fortunately their toes were close enough to be graced with my large and heavy foot.
We were also approached by two young women, actually one was a little older than the other, but they were both younger than us old blokes. Unfortunately they weren't interested in us but loved our cars all line up opposite the shop. Yes and so did we! None of the hardy drivers offered to take either of the young ladies for a ride around the block like they would have done about four decades ago. It probably never even entered their minds.
The run home for me was just as much fun. I decided to go up Wickham Hill Road which many other people had heard of except me. Steep, windy, with a couple of ripper hairpin bends. It was a bit tight for the C. Jim had the delight of travelling along Main South Road from McLaren Vale to some where north, probably Gepps Cross. No hairpin bends on that road, it's about as bendy as a knitting needle!
Thanks for coming out chaps.
C ya soon Ian.

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, July 2014

Twice Lucky
Hello, it's Richard here again. You've probably noticed that the lawns have stopped growing. Winter - it's too cold for the grass to grow and it's too cold for me to err … well it's just too cold. So it's time to sit in the old wing-back and get stuck into something that's a bit more substantial than a magazine. With the fire going and a double malt in my hand I picked up Twice Lucky. Luck for me is simple but for author Stuart Turner the first bit of his luck was accepting the position of Competitions Manager for BMC just as the Mini was being released and go on to dominate European rallying. The second bit a luck was moving to Ford as the Director of Motor Sport just the Escort was being released which went on to rule the rallying podiums.

So Mr Turner's autobiography is called 'Twice Lucky – My Life in Motorsport'. Auto-biography - it's a curious word. Auto as in car, sounds appropriate in this case but the word was first coined in 1797 well before cars were around according to my etymological dictionary. The word auto goes back to the ancient Greeks, again no cars there. Evidently it means 'self' which makes sense when it is used in front of biography, but auto-mobile? Sounds a bit like Fred Flintstone to me! Evidently it means a horseless carriage!

Sorry lets get back to the book. He does mention our beloved MGCs, but only once! As the Mini was ageing he says “Other cars, such as MGB-engined A40s and Midgets, were considered and we also agreed that 3-litre version of the MGB (this would become the MGC, but years later, and with an engine that was far too heavy) also had promise ….” That's it.

Our esteemed editor decided that if the MGC report ended here he would not print it so I thought I'd bore you with a few anecdotes from the book.

If you pick up a copy of Twice Lucky make sure you read the forward by certain Mr J. Y. Stewart OBE. It's called a 'A sort of forward'. It starts “Dear Jackie, Although we have exchanged rude letters at regular intervals over the years, … I have just written an autobiography and the publishers feel that a forward by you will help the sales. I don't see it myself – I think it will just hasten the book's plunge into remainder shops throughout the land – but as a starving author, who am I to argue with a publisher? … I won't insult you by offering you money to write something ...”

Jackie Stewart replies, “Dear Mr Turner, I address you in a formal manner because, although I have not yet read the galleys for what can only be a thin and insubstantial work, no doubt when my lawyers have seen it they will again be charging me incredible sums to protect my reputation. … Your lack of understanding of the racing world is illustrated by the assumption in your note that anyone in Formula 1 would be 'insulted' to be offered money.”

Twice Lucky is insightful, interesting and the chuckles are spread right throughout the 200+ pages.

So,while he was at BMC; “I was not popular when I suggested that wives should not travel on events, like the Alpine Rally for instance … because we needed to be concentrating on the events. It amuses me that the 'sex before competing' debate still rumbles on in sport today. I believe it's fine for a competitor but only if you don't keep the scrutineers waiting (you know how tetchy they can get).

… one of my delights of my spell at Abingdon was to have lunch with John (Thornley), Syd Enever and Reg Jackson et al in the wood-panelled MG boardroom. It was like dining with history. … Here was I, a young upstart, messing about with Minis in their beloved MG sports car factory, yet they could not have been more helpful. ... The octagon was everywhere – if it had not been anatomically inconvenient, I'm sure the lavatory seats would have been eight sided. “

And at Castrol he attended one of the rallies in Afghanistan; “... marshalling at the end of the Lataban Pass with a blanket over my head to keep off the sun and with only a camel for company, I felt, and probably looked, like Florence of Arabia.”

And at Ford he added Formula 1 to his list of responsibilities; “At the time, I tried to formalise an agreement with Keith Duckworth that if a DFV engine won a Formula 1 race, it was to be called a 'Ford'; if it blew up, a 'Cosworth'. He wouldn't wear it. People can be very unreasonable.”

And in retirement he was in demand as an after dinner speaker and an occasional concours judge; “One concours left me so traumatised that when judging a pet show the following week I played it safe and gave the cup to someone who turned up with a tin of salmon.”

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture, May 2014

Marathon de la Route
Hello again, it's Richard here. I've resisted getting plastic lawn, although after pushing the old Victor around on a hot day it does have its merits. The best use I've seen of plastic lawn was when some creative wag covered a Combi van in it. I think it was a good idea, 'cos just think about getting the Victor up there if it was real lawn! Anyway the grass is done for another couple of weeks and it was time for a cup of English Breakfast. I sat down on the garden setting and paged through a 1992 Thoroughbred & and Classic, err sounds a bit like me doesn't it!

I'd read the story about the 1968 Marathon at the Nürburgring number of times but I enjoyed this one told by Stuart Bladon.

“When countries such as Yugoslavia began to tire of the dangers and disasters of the Liège-Sofia-Liège Rally, a thinly disguised road race, the Belgium organisers of the Marathon de la Route took the rally to the Nürburgring race circuit. It was to be an 84-hour endurance test with practically non-stop motoring at racing speeds.

For several years I covered the Marathon for Autocar; by far the most exciting year was 1968, when BMC fielded two very fast MGCs...

Fangio flagged the cars away for the 1 am start and soon the Moss-Ireland-Maglioli Lancia was in second place with the two MGCs putting up a strong challenge. Then it all started going wrong. In the early hours of the Thursday morning, the Fulvia shed two bolts from the gearbox, lost the oil and had to retire; the leading MGC, in third place, was in problems with overheating.

Reliability was the key to success in the Marathon de la Route and there were some very exacting rules. They allowed 20 minutes for services every 1,300 miles; apart from that, any stop in the pits was penalised up to 24 minutes – 25 minutes in the pits meant exclusion. But if you could do a further lap you could then call at the pits again, with the same rate of penalty.

In spite of the efforts of Peter Browning and his BMC team, the overheating MGC was 30 seconds over time and was excluded. On the Friday morning, after some 60 hours, the remaining MGC with Andrew Hedges at the wheel made an unscheduled pit stop for failing brakes. At the previous 75-lap service halt they had unwisely decided that the pads were lasting well and didn't need to be changed; now they were through to the metal backplates.

Tony Fall took over the wheel and sat in the car with the 25-minute exclusion time approaching as mechanics tried to hammer out the distorted brake pads which were almost welded into position. Eventually the left ones were forced out, showing not a scrap of friction material left and deep blue score marks where they had made metal-to-metal contact. The right-hand ones proved immovable, so they had to abandon the effort and change the whole calliper.

They had fought it off but not fitted the new one when Browning, watch in hand, yelled: “He'll have to go; put the wheel on.” Just before the 25 minutes, Fall roared out of the pits in the completely brakeless MGC.

Despite this handicap, he lapped the 17.6-mile circuit at an average of nearly 60mph, but when he reached pit lane, although he came in slowly, he could not stop. Team manager Browning was dragged along by the car; someone threw a chock under the wheel but the car just bounced over it, and did not stop until Fall managed to crunch it into reverse gear. By then it was well beyond it's pit and Browning, knowing the rules which expressly forbade any car to reverse, yelled: “you'll have to go around again!”

Next time we were ready for him and I joined the team of mechanics running to halt the car at the right place. He had covered the 17.6 miles in 16 minutes. Later he commented: “I’m glad no one got in the way when I was doing 125 along the back straight!” ...

It took the mechanics a further eight minutes to fit the new calliper and bleed the system. By the time it was back in the running, the total deductions of 25 laps dropped the MGC from third place, only a lap behind the leading Porsche 911, to eighth.”

Blimey eight minutes! It takes me longer than that to think about bleeding the brakes let alone doing it!

MGC GTS at the Marathon de la Route at the Nurburgring in 1968 having its wheels/tyres changed

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS
MGC murberlings from Richard Mixture, March 2014
 
Austin 3 litre 6
Hello, it's Richard here again.  Did you go to the All British Day?  What a wonderful event it was.  Some of the highlights for me were the very original 1920 something Austin 7 fresh from the barn, the Austin 7 wasp
with valve caps that looked like rather large bullet projectiles and dancing men in white paints waving white hankies.

Some of the weird things were a beautiful Morrie minor with a 3.6 litre Holden V6 engine.  I guess the answer to the question 'why?' is 'cos I can'.  I can think of no other reason.  The stripped Aston Martin V8 caused a lot of interest but I wonder how many people asked why were there two three cylinder heads in the back seat area of a V8? 

The weird car that really put a smile on my face was the 1958 Hillman Minx station wagon.  This looked like a very ordinary car, unpolished with a roof rack carrying two large trunks and a three finned surf board (a little short for 1958 I thought, Bob Schapel would know).  The odd bit was that it was sitting on the ground with the front wheels splayed out with heaps of negative camber.  Were the trunks on the roof rack that heavy?  No, It was a low rider.  No, I didn't know what it was either, so I popped next door and asked that nice young teenager who looked at something called wippy-pedia.  He told me it was a sub-culture that started in Southern California in the 1950s and when a law was passed to make it illegal to lower a car below the bottom of the wheel rims, a clever young chap bypassed this 'law by using hydraulic pumps and valves scavenged from a surplus B52 Bomber that allowed him to change the ride hight at the flick of a switch.' 

Now modern pumps and valves are a bit faster these days and when the switches were flicked this old Hillman jumped and bucked up and down allowing the front wheels to lift off the grassy deck.  It was quite amazing and definitely mind boggling.  The young owner told me he decided to fix up the old Hillman one day when he was bored!

I wondered all over the place looking for one of our beloved MGCs and all I could find was an engine, yes an engine fitted to an Austin 3 litre.  I'd not seen one in Australia before.  Fortunately the owner was just wondering by when I said to a nice old friend of mine, 'I want to see under the bonnet of this Austin.'  The voice of this wondering by person, who was Bill, said 'I can help you there.'  So the bonnet was popped open and a discussion followed about the 'C' Series engine.  A while back he wanted a water pump so one of the people from the owner's club in England told him to pop into the local MG spare parts shop in Sydney.  Can you imagine the conversation 'I'd like a water pump for a Austin 3 litre please ….'

Owner Bill told me he had brought it in from England and he knew of three others in Australia.  From the front windscreen to the back windscreen is all Landcrab making the guards, bonnet, boot and grill unique to the 9,992 cars made.  They first left the factory in July 1968 and continued till '71.  This 3 litre 'Land-lobster' was 500 mm longer than the 1800 Landcrab, giving it a larger boot. It had a wood veneer dash and door caps, a cloth headlining and a central tunnel running through the cabin.  No torsion bars on this car as it used 'Hydrolastic suspension with self levelling rams at the rear' which made for an excellent ride.  My nice old friend said 'I bet it wouldn’t handle as well as your C' to which Bill said 'I wouldn't bet on that.'  The handling and ride are quite remarkable evidently!

So it was quite a marvellous day with highlights for me being a hydraulic Hillman and a Hydrolastic Land-lobster!

Automnal Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 3rd May in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. 

	Austin 3 litre or Land-lobster is similar to the Land-crab, same doors and windows
	The Austin 3 litre engine is the same as the MGC engine. Do you recognise it?
	The mysterious low-rider Hillman Minx sitting on the grass. Heavy load what!

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

MGC NEWS
MGC murberlings from Richard Mixture, February 2014

Don Hayter's MGB err C Story
Hello, it's Richard here again for another year.  Yes it's 2014 so I must wish you all a happy and very prosperous New Year.  In saying prosperous I mean that I hope you all receive horse choking wads of cash on a regular basis just for fun!  Oh, and all that other stuff too.

Over the Christmas/New Year period I picked up “Don Hayter's MGB Story – The birth of the MGB in MG's Abingdon Design & Development Office”.  It's one of those 'Those were the days ...” books by Veloce.  It's full of design information but less than 100 pages that are easy to read and it's entertaining!  Some of the anecdotes were new to me and quite funny.  For instance, when Don travelled with the support crew to Perast, Yugoslavia for the 1964 Liege Marathon de La Route.  Their tender vehicle was an Austin A110 fitted with a Healey engine and gearbox and was affectionately called the 'barge'.  To ensure petrol quality for refuelling the rally cars (and the barge), they towed a trailer fitted with a jelly bag filled with fuel.  When the rally cars had passed their check point they no longer required the remaining fuel so says Don “I emptied what petrol remained in the jelly bag into a large oil drum, and left it by the lake, sure that someone would find a use for it.  As we drove away, I saw a local resident, lighted cigarette drooping from his lips, peering into the drum.  No big bang, so he was lucky!”  Don became MG's Chief Design & Development Engineer and the book features his “behind-the-scenes anecdotes and personal accounts of MG in its heyday”.

“MGC - ADO 52
Original ideas for a larger, possibly 3-litre MG Sports Saloon began with a scheme by Chassis Design on which a body shape was drawn by Jim O'Neill.  A quarter scale model of this was made in Development, while engine possibilities were evaluated in EX 210.

At the same time first plans for an MGA replacement were being drawn, early engine projects for which included a 3-litre V6 engine and some early work on this allowed for its installation in a coupė. 

Alex Issigonis had in mind a new, six cylinder engine as a development of the Austin 3-litre saloon.  Information from BMC Australia indicated that its new lightweight, 2.6 litre six cylinder version was possibly available.

Syd got an engine, already developed, from BMC Australia, and set up a small design section in the boiler house, employing Pat Rees from Gerry Palmer's Cowley office to design a special, based on the MGB chassis and body.  Pat designed a new tubular front suspension crossmember with torsion bar springing, and an engine and gearbox installation.  Parts were fabricated, an early 'B' chassis was modified, and a prototype built.

Road testing went well with a top speed of just under 130 mph.  The new Oxford southern bypass was open, and Roy Brocklehurst and Tom Haig were timed by the Oxford police testing their new speed-checking equipment.  When stopped they were asked “What have you got under the bonnet?  That was 127 mph.  Please be careful!”  No maximum speed limit then!

No further work was done on this specification as the Australian engine did not become available.

Longbridge Engine Design, under Issigonis, was well on with the 3-litre, and Syd got a copy of the design outline block and head so that Roy and Terry Mitchell could do an installation to compare with Pat Rees' Australian prototype MGB.  Syd decided that the Issigonis design was too tall, with too long a stroke for a free revving engine, and proposed a change to Issigonis.  This was rejected out of hand.

We eventually got the Austin 3-litre engine and made an MGC version of the 'B'.  The longer, six-cylinder block fitted with a new increased size radiator moved forward inside a modified bonnet-locking platform.  A power bulge was needed with a clearance bulge also for the front carburettor dashpot. 

A new front crossmember and torsion bar mountings were joined to new sidemembers and wheelarch side panels.  Development testing showed high under-bonnet temperatures, and additional holes were tried above the bulkhead through to vents out of the front wings at the side.  Similarly, extra electric fan extraction was tried.  Finally, with a new large engine fan and large deeper radiator the problem was solved with both 2 and 3 carburettor versions.”

Don Hayter's book covers the 1974 European legislation effects, the California safety requirements and even describes a V8 Coventry Climax MGB prototype!   It's a good read.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned, Rich

The Spring MGC Run from Ian Hobbs, December 2013

Or Torsion Bar Run:
Spring can be beautiful one day and perfect the next, although some say that about autumn, and so it was on our last MGC run to the Whispering Wall both beautiful and perfect.

We met at Beaumont Road as usual and the regulars were there.  Jim McCrickard had only just returned from England but managed to start his red roadster,  Ron Telford was there in his red GT and Mike Greenwood and Jan were along in their red roadster.  I was also in red in my GT but one driver arrived in a green car, a green GT in fact.  Paul Dallwitz has owned his green GT since the early 1990s and his father owned it before that.

This run was highly organised as I had produced a map.  Many of you would probably remember maps, they are a non-digital GPS!  Mind you it wasn't much bigger than a couple of business cards.  Mike said that many decades ago he lived in the area through which we were going to travel and thought the map was very clear.  I wasn't so sure and I planned the route!  Sometimes opportunity beckons so I seized it and nominated Mike to lead the group.  Fortunately he agreed.  

Mike lead us up Magill Road toward Ashton, left onto Marble Hill Road and Montacute Road and right down the infamous Cork Screw Road to Gorge Road and on to Chain of Ponds via Tippett Road.  South Para Road led us to Kersbrook and Williamstown where we turned left onto Yetti Road.  The last turn to the Whispering Wall was left along Whispering Wall Road, opps after leading us so well to that point Mike went sailing past the turnoff and couldn't work out why no one was following.  Fortunately he returned only to say 'did you see that nice looking bakery in Williamstown?'.  I'm not sure whether that was an excuse for missing the turn off or salivating Mike is just single minded.  It's a bit like Winnie-the-Pooh (“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?” - AA Milne).

The other topic of conversation was Cork Screw Road.  Everyone was complaining of sore biceps after hauling the front heavy C around all those tight hair-pin bends.  Yes Cs are definitely a man's car not like those wimpy F boys with their power steering!  “Sorry girls” as he ducks for cover.  The road to Williamstown is open and flowing and quite enjoyable in a C.  I was looking across the red bonnet of my GT at Mike's red roadster and in my mirror was Paul's green GT followed by Jim's red roadster and Ron's red GT.  It reminded me of a tomato and lettuce sandwich actually.

After lining up the Cs at the Barossa reservoir car park we walked down to the 100 year old dam wall or Whispering Wall.  I asked if there were any takers in walking across the wall to the other side so we could whisper to each other and all Ron could say is 'the view's pretty good from right here'.  I took that as there were no takers, so off I jogged all 140 meters to the whispering platform on the other side.  I started saying how wonderful Cs were until Paul responded from the other side saying 'they're great until you own one!'

We returned to our cars and lined them up, took a couple of photos, and headed back to town for Mike and Jan's favourite bit of the run – the bakery!  We chatted about many things and even heard a travel report from Jim.  Yes he told us about all the MGs he saw in England.  It was a short report.

Being that time of the year we spent some time discussing the C Register, in fact it was shorter than Jim's travel report.  The register co-ordinator was up for grabs so I opened the meeting for nominations.  There was only one and I was duly voted back in for another year.  They didn't even give me the time to agree to the nomination!

A line up of MGCs resembling a tomato and lettuce sandwich.

So everybody enjoy driving your C and if you haven't got one enjoy watching us!

C ya soon, Ian

MGC NEWS
MGC murberlings from Richard Mixture, November 2013

An Owner's View x 2
Hello, it's Richard here again.  Bliss is sitting back in my old wing back with a double malt in my right hand and a magazine in the other reading about the delight of owning an MGC.  The magazine I picked up this time is a Practical Classics & Car Restorer all the way from 1988.  It was just a short article, in fact, it was  considerably shorter than an MGC torsion bar!  Yes there's nothing sweeter than an MGC driver in love with his mount.  So read on;

“It was some seven years ago when John Wilcox purchased his MGC.  It was a model which he had long admired for its looks and because he believes that there is “no substitute for ccs” as far as power and smoothness are concerned.  In short, he preferred the “beast” of the MGC to the tamer 1800cc MGB models and found the six-cylinder car more interesting.

It was in a very sorry state – it had been accident-damaged, necessitating the replacement of one of the front wings and the bonnet to start with.  In addition, the sills were rotten and so were completely replaced, including the inner panels.  One door was renewed, as was the chrome work throughout the vehicle.  He removed the main drive line components and refurbished the engine bay, which was sprayed to match the rest of the car.  There was no necessity for stripping and overhauling the engine, nor for major work an any of the mechanical components – these were in remarkably good condition.  As John points out, the MGCs have a reputation for mechanical longevity.

This is part due to the fact that the comparatively low-revving and entirely smooth six-cylinder engine is seldom put under stress – it will apparently cruise all day at 70mph, with just over 3,000rpm on the tacho.  “It makes a lovely touring car”, according to John.

Although the car is not used day in, day out now, it was used as John's only car for some time after the rebuild and it behaved very well.  Normal fuel consumption figures work out at around 18mpg in town, and 23mpg on a run.

John advises anyone who is contemplating the rebuild of an MGC to double their estimates of the amounts of time and money required to finish the project to arrive at the correct figures! He also feels it well worthwhile for anyone to join the local group of the MG Owners Club for the magazine, spare and restoration information, and friendly assistance from other members”

Wow 23 mpg sounds pretty good to me but then you need to hear the story from Bruce, that nice old Queenslander, and his trip to Cairns.  Sitting in air conditioned comfort in his C or Truck as he calls it, he says;

“We have just returned from our 24 day "Great Northern Tour" with the Darling Downs chapter of the Qld MGCC.

The Truck covered 3318 miles and used 625.98 litres [137.7 gallons] of fuel and 3 litres of oil. We had lots of delays with road works on the Bruce Highway (The only major coastal highway from Brisbane to Cairns) and several mountain trips up to and down from the Atherton Tablelands behind Cairns. No rain at all over the 24 days just perfect weather for touring.

The overall fuel consumption was 24.1 MPG using Ron's special needles with the car running perfectly, with plenty of torque and power.

On the "Great Outback Tour" in 2011 [SU C1W needles] with mainly flat roads and no major roadworks the overall fuel consumption over 2468 miles was 24.39 MPG.  Air conditioning was used constantly on both these trips.

So Ron's richer needles don't have much effect on economy as there are less gear changes etc.
Ron will probably be interested to know how successful his needles are in the Downton engine.

Cheers, Bruce.”

Now just remember all you intelligent folk out there, the needles Bruce is talking about are the ones for the carburettors and not ones you put into those little yellow boxes in public toilets, what ever they are for?

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

Bruce and Tip in Mareeba, FN Queensland

SEPTEMBER 2013

MGC NEWS
MGC murberlings from Richard Mixture, September 2013
 
Cs For Sale
Hello, it's Richard here again.  Three of our register members have decided to part with their wonderful six cylinder pieces of British engineering. 

David Fairbrother has a valid excuse, his TC is back on the road after some 49 years off the road or was that when the car was built, '49, a damn long time anyway.  His C is a white roadster with a black hardtop.  We'll miss him on register runs as I don't think he'd be able to keep up with us in his TC.

Bill Gilson has his silver 1968 CGT on the market and it is a very tidy car with a sunroof and 120 bhp at the wheels.  Originally delivered to North America it is now right hand drive but quite original. 

Peter Sutton has gone to the dark side and purchased a piece of Teutonic engineering von Stuttgart.  At least it's a two seater with six cylinders.  You do know Peter that they lost the war!  Anyway his white CGT is also a very tidy car and has room for a dog in the back.

Both Bill and Peter's cars can be scene on carpoint.com.au, and are priced in the mid $20k.

In 1988 Practical Classics magazine published an article describing a few things to look out for if you are buying a MGC.  It's a long time ago but the principles are the same today when you are checking out one of these six cylinder MGs.  There's a nice opening sentence that goes;

“The MGCs ... rust in the same place as normal MGBs, of course, since the body shells are almost identical.  Any exposed sections of the bodywork are vulnerable to attack and the entire underbody should receive a thorough examination.  A strong torch beam is useful for highlighting doubtful areas and, obviously, if you can persuade the seller to raise the car on ramps you will be able to make a far better examination. 

On all cars examine the main 'chassis' sections, especially in the vicinity of steering and suspension mountings – including the torsion bar mountings on the MGC, although these are usually intact.  Check the floor pans, too, from above and below, particularly around their edges where they join vertical panels.  This is especially important.”

“Mechanical components
The drivetrains on MGCs ... are sturdy and long lasting, given normal routine maintenance.  The relatively high-geared MGC allows fast cruising at low revs, so that the big six cylinder engine will normally last for 150,000 miles or more before major attention is required.  Rattly valve gear, due to worn rocker shaft and rockers, is fairly common after high mileage but the engine will usually run happily for years in this condition. 

The torsion bar front suspension on the MGC gives little trouble, nor do the rear springs on the C …  However, on all cars check the rubber bushes throughout the suspension, including those in the eyes of the rear leaf springs, and make sure that the shock absorbers are sound and are not leaking, or soggy handling and poor ride quality will result.

Wear in the king pin and bushes is a common problem on Cs … especially if frequent greasing has not been carried out by previous owners.  Rectification is fairly expensive and fiddly, rather than difficult, and can be carried out at home.”

“Interior trim
Finally, although of course it is better to buy a car with a good, original interior where possible, even if the panels are past their best new items can be purchased fairly easily.  The same applies to hoods, and hardtops for roadsters.”

Torsion Bar Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 19th October in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road.  On this run we might just head for the hills, again.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

Bill Gilson's 1968 silver MGC GT

AUGUST 2013

MGC NEWS
MGC murberlings from Richard Mixture, August 2013

A Quiet Boot Again
Hello again, it's Richard here.  Now the quiet boot story published in an earlier magazine had an interesting response.  Evidently a few CGTs, the North American ones that is, have a sound deadening material stuck to the bottom of the wooden boot board floor.  I wandered over to the old book case and selected the 'Original MGB' book by that fountain of all knowledge Anders Clausager and then sat down on the old wing back and opened it up.  There was no mention of sound deadening material in the GT's text so I turn over a leaf or two to the rear of the book and started reading that wonderfully scripted section titled 'Production Changes'.  It went for pages and pages, it took me hours and hours to read, although I think I may have gone to sleep for some of those hours.  The result?  I did feel rather refreshed, err sorry, the boot insulation, well nothing in that section either! 

That pesky teenager next door suggested that we look at his innernet.  Well, he showed me a few dark photos that indicated there was insulation on North American cars and several comments suggested the same.  I did like the photo showing gas struts to hold the boot board up, very neat.

So did some GT boot boards have sound deadening material under them?

On another note there's an interesting bunch of Englishmen that have taken a fancy to the Austin Three Litre saloon.  In-fact British Leyland also made an estate, an ambulance and a hearse from this luxury Austin.  There were even thoughts of making a 3.5l V8 Wolseley on the same platform but not being the high volume seller that they'd hoped, it didn't go ahead.  I guess there's one virtue in owning one of the many new B-L produced models – it's rare!

One of the new owners of this interesting saloon was Daniel Richmond of Downton fame.  Being a tuning expert and having considerable knowledge on the old seven bearing, three litre engine, Daniel just had to modify his three litre Austin.  The story below can be seen on the Three Litre website, http://www.austinthreelitre.co.uk/

“Austin 3 litre Downton Conversion

Daniel and his wife Bunty Richmond (They were know as man and wife but never married) started Downton Engineering after they took over a country garage in the Village of Downton in Wiltshire and specialised in the repairs and restoration of Rolls Royce's.  They soon diversified in to specialised tuning services after Daniel was asked to tune a Morris Minor in 1957.  A big turn around came in 1961 when Daniel tuned the new Mini cooper creating a 103 mph Mini.  Alex lssigonis summoned Daniel and he shortly became technical consultant for BMC.  Staffing levels increased to over 20 and their specialised tuning services were in great demand, a rolling road and dynomometer were installed on site.

Downton did work for BMC on many of their cars, Daniel Richmond, John Cooper, Alex lssigonis and W. V. Appelby were the men who extracted all that power from the humble BMC "A" series engine which went on to great things on the worldwide stage.  In 1968 BL and BMC became BLMC and it was decided consultants were no longer required and so the Downton contract was terminated.  This was a big blow to Daniel and he spent more and more time on his favourite hobby of fishing.  Daniel Richmond succumbed to years of heavy drinking and smoking and died at the age of 50 in 1974.  Bunty committed suicide in 1975 and the works then closed down.”

“Daniel Richmond ran a Downton modified Austin 3-Litre for a reputed 300,000 miles.  You can see from the data below just what a difference this conversion made to the car, the replacement exhaust system used the original manifold but ran a twin pipe system, this was described as "vital" by Daniel in extracting power from the engine by allowing it to exit the gasses more efficiently, interestingly the tailpipes exited each side near the rear wing/rear valence join area.”  A kit was available and included an exchange head, inlet manifold, a camshaft, and an extra SU carburettor. 

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

JULY 2013

MGC NEWS
Murberlings from Richard Mixture, July 2013

A Quiet Boot

Hello again, yes it's Richard here to tell you another story about that nice old Queenslander, Bruce.  A long time  ago I was told that the difference between an expensive car and an inexpensive one was the amount of insulation the expensive car had.  That nice young C Register co-ordinator, Ian, shared a similar story he had with Bruce a few years ago.  Bruce's endeavour to insulate his C GT transformed his car into one that is quiet and excludes the heat from the engine bay.  The 3 litre six certainly generates plenty of heat, enough heat in fact to make the aluminium bonnet go soft!  You often see them with a blister on them!

JUNE 2013

MGC NEWS
From Ian Hobbs June 2013
The Automnal MGC Run
It was a pleasant autumn Saturday afternoon and it was time to hop into the old C GT and head for Beaumont Road which was the meeting place for our C run to Strath. We went there to visit one of fellow owner/drivers who had recently moved to this country location for a quieter pace of live. As I pulled into the allotted  road I saw what I thought was a old friend, a primrose roadster. I didn't recognise the face behind the wheel but after introductions Lynton Fuller and his son Simon told me he had recently bought the old John Whinnen C from Bazz. Funny how both of the Whinnen roadsters are now back inSA.

The usual rouges rolled up – there was Jim McCrickard in his red roadster,Ron Telford and myself with our red GTs. We headed off south down Fullarton Road and up into the Adelaide Hills to Belair. Skirting Belair National Park we turned down Pole Road, Upper Sturt and down into the Sturt Creek valley. The road is narrow and windy and crossing Sturt Creek at these upper reaches is hardly noticeable as it is so very narrow and windy! Up out of the valley ,through Ironbank and onto Morgan Road. This ridge road almost seems a high as Mt Lofty which can be seen in the distance over the valleys. Down again and up to another ridge road, Longwood Road, where the view over the Ongkanparinga Valley is vast.

Down in the Onkaparinga Valley is the little village of Mylor where we joined the Strathalbyn Road and headed to Meadows. The next road, Bull Creek Road, is a wonderful sports car road and is one that should be enjoyed now before the authorities place a 25 kph speed limit on it in order to protect ourselves from ourselves! Up out of the valley at Ashbourne and on to Strath. I'm glad I live in Adelaide with the Hills so close. Lynton's primrose C use to do these runs in the years gone bye so it must have been pretty boring living at Broome in WA as it has done for about the past 10 years.

We found our destination which I recognised from Google Earth with the large Phoenix canariensis growing in the front garden. Standing by the gate was our host, Mike Greenwood, with a broad smile on his face. He directed us to park in the drive. A tour of Mike's shed is always interesting but in his new home his shed is a little smaller than his old Grange Road shed but of course Mike was building another one. It must have been a education for Lynton and Simon as they looked at Mike's projects. There was the C at the front, an MGB which was a car too good to miss out on, a green Magnette which Mike was sewing the interior for and the two little M Types. I just find it hard to imagine Mike fitting into a tiny M Type and he said it was difficult to fit both his feet down the foot well. I guess with one foot down there you have to drive with a right click and a left click! The next stop on the tour was to check out all the bits on the back verandah that have not yet found a home. Is that why you need another garage Mike? You know I can't work out why we don't just buy a warehouse and convert the office into living quarters. Surely our wives could cope with that, wouldn't they? Mike then popped into the house to collect Jan who said hello and off we went to a local cafe.

They both seemed to know all the cafes in Strath and selected one where we could park our cars next to each other. I was impressed that Mike could arrange such a nice display in the High Street but then again he has had a bit of practice over the years. Yes, the coffee was tasty and the cakes were yummy, I'd expect nothing less from Mike and Jan. Our C Register meeting was opened and closed with the only business discussed being the size of the lemon meringue. Oh! Lynton did mention that he had a Birkin  Clubman for sale. I'm glad he has come over from the other side! (with Lucas electrics I wonder if we are on the dark side?). Driving home was just as enjoyable as getting there.

Thank you Mike and Jan for a wonderful afternoons entertainment.

C ya soon
Ian

MAY 2013

MGC NEWS

Murberlings from Richard Mixture, April 2013

Armstrong steering no more

Hello, yes it's Richard here again. That nice young Register co-ordinator, Ian Hobbs, has just sent me this article written by that Nice old Queenslander Bruce – is there ever an end to Bruce's quest to turn a 1968 car into a 2013 car? The article is all about electric power steering from EZ that provides systems for both RHD and LHD cars.

Bruce bought a complete unit for a RHD MGC and it replaces the steering column and shaft completely from the universal joint to the steering wheel. The actual electric unit fits under the dash and comes with all brackets for fittings

The MGC unit has a potentiometer to adjust the amount of assistance to suit the drivers preference and should the unit fail the steering end up being the same as it left the factory without power steering. So this is what he wrote;

“Electric Power Steering for MGA, MGB & MGC.”

A company in Holland called: “EZ electric power steering” makes replacement steering columns for over 200 different cars, including the MGA, MGB & MGC.
The power unit is made by NSK (well known for precision bearings) of Japan and the people in Holland fit suitable power units into new columns to make a complete column to replace the factory column depending on make and model.
The ECU is part of the motor assembly on the column and there is a small match box sized separate unit with wiring to a potentiometer to allow the driver to set the amount of assistance he/she requires.
The EZ unit is totally independent of the cars electrical systems only requiring a feed from the ignition circuit, main power from the solenoid terminal and earth to operate. Current draw is from 5 to 8 amps (only while operating) so is suitable for cars using dynamos or alternators.
Installation is under the dash and is hardly visible to the casual observer. Once the ignition is switched on the unit is operable in about 2 seconds so the car can be easily moved around once the ignition is on. The steering characteristics are unchanged from normal and if a driver does not want power steering a toggle switch can be fitted in the wire from the ignition circuit to turn it off to suit a male and female driver for example. A Big Healey owner in the USA has done this to his car so he can be a “He Man” and then his wife can drive the car like any modern car. By being able to adjust the assistance the system can be set for individual circuits or any on road conditions that the driver desires.
John Hoyle of Hoyle Engineering has the EZ system on his highly developed MGA (loves it around Silverstone) and also for Autobahn cruising setting the car as required. He highly recommended I fit this to the very heavy (15” wheel and fast rack) steering on the “Truck” which is now ex truck driving wise.
I have had this in for a couple of months and travelled over 1,000 miles and have found it excellent, no more sore shoulders and rib cage after a 2 day mid-week run. The heavy MGC really benefits from power assistance. Older RV8 drivers with arthritis report that electric power steering has saved their car being sold. MGF units being fitted. The limited edition of the anniversary MGB-GT (50 only cars at GBP 50,000 plus options) uses the EZ unit when owners specify power steering.

Bruce Ibbotson, #600. 11 NOV 12.
I have had the EZ system in for 5 months now and covered about 2000 miles so I am completely used to it now. I think any MGC owner who has fitted the fast rack good wheels [i.e. rigid alloys] and has a 15" steering wheel should seri-ously consider fitting the EZ system.
My mechanical engineer friend said that the steering was just too heavy to provide feedback and feel if the front started to lose grip on a circuit and you would lose the lightness indicator that you were about to over do it and may not be able to save the situation.”

So how's your arthritic arms? Mine are OK, my arms that is. Personally I'd rather work on my car using spanners rather than multi-meters. But maybe one day there'll come a time when I'll get someone else to use the meter on my C!
Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

APRIL 2013

Is there any rot in there?

Hello, yes it's Richard here. Are you enjoying the cooler weather? It's cool enough to put my motor-sport ties back on again. I was feeling quite naked there for a while!
Cast your memory back a month, if you can that is, when I bought you a story from a 1997 Classics magazine about Clive Ashton restoring his MGC auto. When asked by the journalist why did he choose an MGC, owner Clive said “I like the MGC and was determined to get one.” Well here's the nuts and bolts part of the story.
“Removal of the front wings revealed that rust was taking hold of the inner wings and flitch panels, thought this part of the structure was basically sound. However, the strip down continued with removal of the rear wings until just the floor, front and rear scuttle-shrouds and a few associated body panels remained attached. This was then treated to a thorough sand-blasting before progressing further.
With all the dismantling completed, it was time to plan for the rebuild. Clive managed to source a pair of original pattern front wings having the correct location for the side/indicator light clusters (which changed in 1969, moving the lamp clusters closer to the grill). An employee of Clive's expert panel-man Dave Hughes, performed wonders with the MGC's sheet metal. Before fitting the new panels, Dave made-up new triangular chassis strengthening plates, which are unique to the C's torsion-bar suspension body-shell. There was also much repair work to be done to the inner wings, which Dave fabricated and welded in after cutting out the rot.
The structural parts of the body re-build were carried out with the shell on a jig, to ensure that everything was properly aligned. As with many open -top cars, much of the vehicles structural strength is in the sills and door posts. When rust takes a hold, or the sills are removed for repair, the body sags in the centre. Despite using the jig, however, Clive remembers many painstaking hours spent ensuring that all the door and panel gaps were even and properly aligned.
Suitably painted and rust proofed, the MG was finished in its original colour of Old English White, but using modern two-pack paint rather that the original cellulose.
The engine was completely stripped-down and checked. Other than the camshaft, which was badly worn, many of the internals turned out to be in relatively good condition. Nevertheless Clive sensibly had the block rebored the crank and camshaft re-ground … Pistons, bearings and oil pump, among other wear prone components, were renewed …”
The gearbox was rebuilt, “but rather red faced, Clive confided that when he came to drive the MG for the first time, he part-filled the box with fluid then went off to do something else. When he returned he enthusiastically took off, forgetting to add the rest of the oil... The resulting burnt-out trans-mission then had to be removed again” and repaired! “You can't win 'em all. The back axle received nothing but servicing, and continues to perform reliably.
Similarly, the interior remains pretty much as it emerged from Abingdon all whose years ago, other than for the smaller-than-standard steering wheel. The seats now display a few wrinkles of natural brown leather through the black upholstery colouring, but the interior is nicely mellowed and does nothing to detract from the as-new exterior finish.
Clive's MGC is now being used for its third summer following the restoration, and still looks superb!”
Yep, I know what it's like to only half fill a gear box. I think you only do it once, well I've only done it once any-way! Fortunately I had a spare sitting in the garage but the job to change it was a bit more involved than just top-ping up the box!
Automnal Run
Now MGCers et al, it's about time to go on another MGC run, put Saturday 27th April in your diary and we'll meet at 1.30pm at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, just off of Greenhill Road. On this run we'll visit a nice old bloke who loves his C and lives in Strath.
Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,
Rich

MGC NEWS

From ...Ian Hobbs February 2013

The Spring MGC Run

Dear old Richard is on holidays at the moment. He told me that he was off on a long journey down to Victor Harbour, probably to check out the agapanthus.

This month is a bit of a catch up reporting on our last MGC run to Grange. It happened a long time ago, in fact it was back in November last year.

The MGC team met at the usual place, Beaumont Road in the parklands. We had a few regulars missing this run so there was only five of us at the start and one decided to head in the opposite direction to attend to family matters. The four GTs were Peter Sutton and his dog in the white one, Bill Gilson in his silver GT and Ron Telford and myself in red GTs. Jim McCrickard arrived in his red roadster which was fortunate as we planned to head to his home for a cuppa.
Jim lead the way down Anzac Highway and then we zig-zagged our way through Camden Park and Glenelg North and as we turned off Tapleys Hill Road and on to Africaine Road Jim decided to test our trouble shooting skills. Yes Jim's car stopped. We all pulled over to see what was wrong. While I checked the ignition wires, the polypipe man Ron noticed that the fuel filter was empty. Ah ha the fuel pump, has anyone got a 10 cent piece? No, but Jim had his tool kit with him. So the battery cover came off and sure enough the wire to the fuel pump was not connected and dangling. Once it was replaced that reassuring click, click, click sound was heard and we were soon on our way again.

We travelled north along the sea front to Largs bay when the dog whisperers dog whispered into Peter's ear saying it wanted to investigate the sand hills. So we pulled over to admire the view. With the dog relieved the next stop was Jim's home.

We pulled into Jim's back yard and everyone made a beeline to his shed. It was a typical shed, one car width wide and several car lengths long and only room for one car and, full of all sorts of interesting bits and pieces. None of us knew that Jim was a bit of a medieval engineer. He's into old pump engines. He's salvaged a few of them from farms and got them going again. I was impressed with the trolleys he's built to carry them around. They're strong enough to wheel a trebuchet from castle to castle. The wheels were made from old gas cylinders which I thought was very clever and round!

A few paces away from the shed was the patio. Again not much space here for a car either as it was largely taken up with red gum slab table around which any regent would be happy to entertain a few dozen knights. When the semi driver delivered the slab he looked around for the fork lift needed to manoeuvre it into place but he didn't know that Jim is a medieval engineer! The head of the table of course is taken by Joan who provided a wonderful afternoon tea with a few sweet delicacies.

With pleasantly full tummies it was time to hop back into our Cs and head off home.
Thank you Jim and Joan for a wonderful afternoons entertainment.

C ya soon

Ian

1968 MGC GT

The present owners are – Bill and Sue Gilson, reg WSMG68. Our car is a 1968 MGC GT, which we bought in June 2011. The car was originally sold in California USA, from the records it would seem that it was imported into NSW Australia, in the late 70s or early 80s when it was converted to rhd. It was first registered in New South Wales in 1982. It was garaged for most of the 1990s, and in 2005 the body went thru a full restoration, before being sold to its previous owner in Melbourne in 2007. From July 2007 to September 2009 it went thru a full mechanical restoration. I am guessing that the 27000miles on the clock is all it has travelled in Australia, and between 1994 and 2011 the “C” only travelled an estimated 750 miles!

1969 MGC GT

Commission #G52D/2641/P

This car underwent a complete rebuild in 2008. It was purchased by the current owners from Bob Bazzica. The car has a Manual Gearbox with Overdrive.One of only 4,457 MGC GT's ever built.

Present Owners: Geraldine & Wayne Hough

1968 MGC Roadster

CGN1/5903G Commission # 002131

This car underwent a complete rebuild in 1994. It was purchased by the current owners in April 2001 from Peter Kerr - Sunshine Coast Qld. Our MGC is a delight to drive and has attended most MG National Meetings and has already been driven over 35,000 Miles to numerous Club events. The car has a Manual Gearbox with Overdrive.One of only 4,544 MGC Roadsters ever built

Present Owners: Mike Greenwood & Jan Dinan

1969 MGC GT

No 7758-G, 1969

Manual/OD, car N o G-CD1/U7758-G, manufactured April/May 1969, originally sold to USA.
Purchased by B. Bazzica in California, USA in 1994 for M. Whinnen.
Restored 1994/95. First registered in South Australia in May/June 1995.

Purchased by Ian Hobbs August 1997.

1969 MGC GT

G-CDI-U/8719-G
This MGC was Restored by Mike Greenwood.Originally delivered to Los Angeles, USA built 2 to 4 July 1969 and dispatched on 14 July 1969. Car had Wire Wheels, Heater, Cigar Lighter & Overdrive. Resoration Completed April 2010.Now owner by Mr T Malloch MG Car Club Geelong

1969 MGC Roadster

Year of Manufacture: 1969 Engine/Chassis No.: GCN1/8960 Colour: Red Owner: Gary Smith

1968 MGC Roadster

Chassis No : GCN1/1109G
Commission No : G.52N/001075F
Engine No. : 29G/RU/H1638
Delivered : England
Colour : Britich Racing Green (BN29)
Interior : White on Black leather seats, black carpet, black vinyl.
Status : Tucked away for restoration 2012, full nut & bolt, should come up a treat.
History : Private import from England to USA. Resided in Roanoke, Virginia. Shipped ex LA June 2010.
Comment : Photo - delivery after shipment. Straight, weathered, runs, the engine power is a surprise. One of 1405 RHD home market made. Nice early model.
Owner : John Craven