British Sport Cars (long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Let’s talk about British cars. To be specific, I’m gonna talk about Triumph Spitfires, and the rest of you can talk about your favorites.

It all started so innocently, you know? mr.stretch had a 1968 MG Midget in high school. Bridget the Midget was his first car; he bought her in 1977 and he had her for 8 years. She was 1968 British Racing Green (BRG) with lots of chrome and wire wheels. He loved that car, but had to sell her when he married the wicked, evil first wife.

Fast forward to 1994. mr.stretch has fallen in love with his future wife (me). He frequently talks about his old MG, and how much he loves British sports cars, especially Jags, MGs, AHs, and Triumphs.

Fast forward some more to September 2004. mr.stretch is almost done with a course of medical treatment. He’s handled it really well, and I’m trying to think of a way to reward him. We’re driving down the road and I see this. I decide this is the perfect thing to get mr.stretch—a project to work on that will give him some real satisfaction.

Vronica is a 1975 Spitfire 1500. Mr.stretch has spent tons of time fixing her up.

We started with the mechanicals first. It had the original SU carb; mr.stretch’s past experience with SU carbs made the decision easy—we upgraded to a Weber. The new intake manifold wouldn’t work with the original exhaust—we got her a header. The muffler was almost toast—we got her a new free flow exhaust. The overdrive unit kept cutting in and out—we replaced the solenoid, inhibitor switch, and gearshift switch. The gearbox had worn out sychros—we installed a rebuilt gearbox.

Having a car that goes is important, but it needs to stop as well—new brakes all the way around. Since the drums and rotors are off—new bearings too. And when you split an axle down the middle—you’re gonna have to replace that puppy for sure (don’t ask me how he managed it; he’s not sure either).

You know, when a car is almost 30 years old, the steering starts to feel a little loose—new steering rack. Needless to say, you can’t drive a sports car without good suspension—new performance coils springs and new shocks (the traverse leaf spring had been replaced in 2001). And while you’re under there, may as well replace all the bushings, too. The old steering wheel felt mushy, so we got her a new one of those, too.

We replaced almost all the switches and relays, just in case—you know those Lucas electrical parts. All of the gauges worked, none of the idiot lights worked. None of the lights worked—mr.stretch ran through the electrical system and replaced pretty much all the connectors. When we’ve tried to hook up the oil sending unit it started a minor fire so we’ve given up on that and are looking for a nice Smiths oil gauge. We installed a new ignition switch—the only thing damaged in the fire.

The engine is still strong, but mr.stretch wants to rebuild it so he can up the compression from 7.5:1 to 9:1. Besides, it needs the head done, and he wants to install oversize valves. We’ll be getting that done in a few months.

A previous owner had started re-doing the interior (poorly). Vronica came with three boxes of parts. Only two of the boxes contained Spitfire parts; the rest were for Og knows what kind of rig. We installed the missing pieces, replaced the carpet, put in a new gearbox cover, new seats and covers, new door panels, new gloveboxes. We made a new fascia for the dash. I re-covered the dash, crashbars, and the trim around the windshield, and sewed new covers for the kneepads and center armrest. We put in a stereo, but mr.stretch hasn’t finished constructing the custom speaker box for the back yet. All in all, the interior looks pretty good now.

I hated the big chrome and rubber overrider on the rear bumper—we bought an older bumper with the nicer license plate lamp. Unfortunately, a previous owner had some body work done on the bonnet and they bondo’d the seam between the bonnet and fender, so one side of the car looks wrong. Not bad, just wrong. The plan was to finish the mechanicals and then paint Vronica. I messed that up though—I spent mr.stretch’s motor rebuild money. See my next post.

2

So, what happened next was bound to happen. I got jealous of my husband having a sports car. I wanted my own. I was planning to get a Triumph too—I wanted a GT6. Similar to the Spitfire, except it’s a fastback coupe (for lack of a better descriptor) instead of a convertible. And it has a 6 cylinder motor.

I found one on ebay. It wasn’t running, but the body was fair, and mr.stretch can fix anything if he puts his mind to it, so I was all gung ho. The guy didn’t have a title, but guaranteed that the winning bidder could get title. I bid and won! Woohoo! Made arrangements to pick the car up the following weekend and to pay the guy at that time. I had everything arranged; I’d borrowed a rig to tow it from Portland to our place in Washington, I had a tow trailer set up with U-Haul, had my directions, had my money and was ready to go. Then I decided to call our DMV. And discovered that until the car had clear title in Oregon, Washington didn’t want to have anything to do with it. The seller had a song and dance about how he couldn’t get title because he’d have to tow the car to the local DMV but that I could tow it there and get a title. I wasn’t going to drag the car all over Oregon trying to get a title, so we mutually agreed to cancel the deal. I was heartbroken.

As sometimes happens when folks get disappointed, I made an impulse buy. We were ebaying and I happened to click on a Spitfire that was located only 30 miles from us. There were only 5 hours left in the auction, and the seller wasn’t at home to answer email. mr.stretch convinced me that he’d be happy to have another Spit, and that he’d gladly fix her up for me. That’s how we ended up with Alison. She’s a 1977 Spitfire 1500.

Her paint jobs a little rough. Were the red paint has come off, it looks like she has major body cancer, but it’s only the original brown paint coming through. She was much more complete than our other Spit and we’ve decided to do a total frame-off refurbish. We aren’t so much into the back to original restoration to concours condition. I’m all about better technology; one of the first things she’s getting is a Weber carb.

There’s been much debate about the final color of my car. I didn’t really want a red car, but the idea is growing on me. mr.stretch wants a BRG car. I really want a dark purple car, but mr.stretch has almost convinced me to go with an original British color even if I don’t necessary go with a Triumph color. We’ll see how that goes—I’ve got a while to think on it because we aren’t going to start this project until we finish with Vronica.

3

Vronica is beautiful! Only, now I have that Elvis Costello song in my head! :stuck_out_tongue: Seriously, though, what a pretty car!

I like these car threads. And you can’t keep me out of a British car thread! :slight_smile:

My mom bought an Old English White (with red interior) 1966 MGB new. If I remember the story correctly, it was ordered from England while we were in Japan and it arrived in San Diego shortly after we did. After my mom got a Toyota in 1972, the MG became a Lancaster bomber as I flew missions over Germany in my mind. This became my fist car, many years later after high school, and it wasn’t running. The OEW paint was chalky, and the red interior had largely been faded pink. (ISTR that my parents took it to be reupholstered in Tijuana sometime in the early-1970s, and vinyl replaced the original leather.) I heard that my mom went a little nuts one night and somehow got it up to 140 mph. The maximum speed the MGB was capable of was 105, so she must have been going downhill. Anyway, she damaged the engine. I don’t remember how it came to Lancaster (the city, not the bomber :wink: ) where I was then living with my dad. It was probably towed, as opposed to being trailered.

A year after high school we had the engine rebuilt and I had a car! It was great fun cruising the boulevard with the top down, even if it was in need of restoration. We used the car in a super-8 ‘film’ (it was being done in the style of a B-movie trailer), but my friend was using some black & white film that didn’t transport correctly in his camera. Not a frame of it was good. One day I was supposed to move it out of the driveway, but I forgot. Dad was pissed off, and he rolled it backwards with the door open. The door caught on a tree. Oops. Nice crease in the fender. We got it fixed, and decided to repaint it at the same time. Now I was young and stupid. I wanted a ‘cooler’ colour, like the MGBs of a few years before. (They had just gone out of production, BTW.) I went for as close to "Vermillion Red’ as I could find – it was actually orange. Looked good, but if I were to do it again (and I am; more on that later) I’d go original. I got a black interior for it too.

My friend and I drove it to Denver for a Science Fiction WorldCon. Dad was kind enough to change the oil for me before we left. One thing though: The MGs had oil canisters instead of the more-familiar self-contained oil filters we have now. There’s a rubber gasket for a seal, but really no way to keep it reliably in place. It slipped as dad was putting the cansiter back on, and the lip of the canister cut the gasket. I was losing oil the whole trip. I kept adding oil as the pressure dropped, but eventually found myself in Utah. Every exit said ‘NO SERVICES’. I drove along hoping to find a gas station until the pressure was so low that nothing could be done but to pull over. A trucker sold me five gallons of oil for five bucks and that was enough to get to a gas station where I bought a case of oil. Lancaster to Denver took 22 hours, with me and my friend taking turns driving.

Another incident with that car was when my friends and I were drinking. We’d run out of sauce, so we headed down to The Liquor Barn. One friend, Charles, passed out in the so-called ‘back seat’. As we were driving, I felt something warm on my neck. Yeah, he puked. We got back to Mike’s place and dragged Charles out onto the driveway. Too heavy to move, we left him there where he was nearly run over by Mike’s mom’s boyfriend. I borrowed a shirt, and we loaded Charles into Mike’s car, drove him home, and dumped him on his lawn.

4

MGB Part II, and the Herald

I found two more MGBs – both '77s, one with overdrive – while I was living in the desert. Mike and I drove the maroon non-overdrive one to Sacramento for another WorldCon. There was a fault in the electrical system that caused the cooling fan to turn on and not shut off – even if the car was cold. It ran down the battery, and we had to push-start it whenever we wanted to drive it. Never had any trouble with the ‘mustard yellow’ one with the overdrive.

I bought a Porsche 924, and stopped driving the MGBs. The '66 was the first to go. I sold it to some producer from Burbank. God, what an idiot I was! The yellow-ish '77 went next. A guy came over from The Netherlands to buy it. He sent some tulip bulbs to my dad later, and dad planted them in his garden.

My mom bought the maroon '77. She kept it into the mid-to-late 1990s, then sold it.

In 2002 I was missing my Porsche 911SC, but I didn’t want to spend the money to get another one. My thoughts turned to MGBs… I found one on eBay and bought it for a song. I won’t go into it here, since I’ve already posted the details in The MGB Saga. I will say that I talked to Antonio yesterday. He said that the inside of the car is painted, the bonnet is ready to paint, and he just needs to have some bolt holes welded shut to finish the boot lid. After that, he can paint the exterior.

I found a Triumph Herald on eBay, and I posted a thread about it here. I’d been looking for a Spitfire that I could drive around until the MGB was done. I didn’t want to spend much, since its coming out of my mom’s estate. I found a 1976 Spitfire for sale and I went to look at it Thursday. It drove well, but it had some problems (which I’ll list, if anyone is interested). I passed. There’s another one, a 1979, coming up for sale in Ventura. It’s BRG and looks very nice from the photos. But then there’s that Herald…

I’ve no business bidding on the Herald. It’s 42 years old, and Moss Motors – my traditional British car parts supplier – has precious few parts for the Mk.IVs; let alone Mk.Is, which were derived from the Herald. Still, there were no bids on it. I had no illusions that I would actually win the bidding; but I’m competitive by nature and would try to win it by bidding the most I’d be willing to spend in the last second. I was only doing it for a laugh.

Well, I won it for only $100 more than the opening bid. :smack: Now what am I going to do? Bring it up here and drive it, I guess! :smiley: I might even restore it someday.

Oh – looking over my previous post, which is still on the page – I remember we were rather cruel to Charles. He, Mike and I would go ‘down below’ (i.e., to L.A.) to watch science fiction films at the Lemmle Theatres, which would have marathons. We used to make Charles sit in the ‘back seat’, and I’d drive very fast down Mulholland Drive. :smiley: <== Evil Grin.

I love British cars. They’re quirky, they’re stylish, and they’re fun. :slight_smile:

5

In the MGB saga, you note that you could be an already restored car for less than you’re ultimately going to put into the one you bought. That’s the same boat we’re in with both the Spits–we’ve already put more into Vronica than if we’d bought a recently restored car.

Fortunately, mr.stretch can do everything himself except the body work and machining. He even had the front end aligned within a fraction of good when he took it in to the shop for that work–they were impressed. And now he’s talking about learning to weld so he can do the floor pans himself in Vronica–he has a friend with a welder. We’ll just buy a new bonnet.

Vronica is looking pretty nice. And the Costello song is the first one we played in the stereo after we installed it. When we we’re thinking of names, I came up with Vronica in part because mr.stretch used to drive the MG with Elvis playing all the time. That’s were Alison comes from also.

mr.stretch some how manages to suck me in on his hobbies. One day I’m buying him a car to keep him busy, the next I’m looking for parts and building up a rapport with the parts guy. :wink:

We’re having beautiful weather here today–mr.stretch is out with the top down driving around the back roads right now. He took his son, so I’m stuck at home. The one drawback to a two-seater.

6

Are we the only ones who will post to this thread? Where’s Inigo Montoya? Where’s MagicEyes? Where are Rick and Tuckerfan?

Lurking… Lurking…

7

Vronica’s lookin’ good, but Alison really stirred some memories.

I bought a '73 GT-6. I was pretty young then (20), and it was a trip to literally drive it off the showroom floor - they opened the big glass doors and away I went.

At a stop sign about a mile away, I got rear-ended. It was not to be my only wreck in that car.

Several of my friends also had British Leyland products, mostly Spits and MGBs, although one guy had an MGC. We all liked our rides, but just got used to door handles that didn’t work, seals that didn’t, mysterious disappearing trim, etc. So when a huge patch of paint just came off in the car wash, I had it painted Ferrari Red (that’s why Alison brought it to mind).

While I didn’t modify the engine beyond some low restriction air filters for the carbs, I did put her on Minilites and added stiff (1" IIRC) roll bars front and rear, Koni shocks and an Abarth exhaust.

Besides the quality control problems, a congenital defect was weak valve springs. It had solid lifters, so I was pretty well accustomed to setting the valves about once a week. But it would break valve springs. The first time it happened I was dismayed to find that I had to buy a set of 12 instead of getting just one. But it developed that it was in fact a good idea to keep a few spares on board. It finally got to the point that I could change out a valve spring on the side of the road in about the same time one would change a flat on a typical car.

I refer to changing a flat on a typical car because changing a flat on the GT-6 required recruiting another person or two to help me manually lift it, as the scissor jack that came with it disintegrated the first time I tried to use it.

All that gripin’ aside - man, was that a fun car! Once you got used to the understeer, you could do some twisty road.

And amazingly, considering that Spits were all over the place in the 1970s, people were constantly asking me what it was (“Is that a Ferrari?”). Definitely a hit with the womenfolk.

It had the predictable effect on my driving record, and after many court visits I wound up in Texas’ high-risk insurance pool within about a year. And I did manage to drive it into a light pole on the Allen Parkway at 55 mph. That put both me and the car in the shop for repairs for about a month. But I drove it for several years after that.

We finally parted ways when it paid for my last semester at UT - I hated to let it go, but that was the way of things then.

Thanks for the thread, stretch.

8

I had a couple of flats in the '66 MG. Piece of cake. Stick the jack in the hole, crank it up, whack the spin-off hub with the brass hammer, change out the tyre, put the hub back on, whack it with the hammer, crank it down, and Bob’s your uncle. That MG had the best jack ever. No getting on the ground and looking underneath for a hardpoint. Just put the rod in the thoughtfully-provided hole. :slight_smile:

Your comment about doing twisty roads reminded me of my first real job, at Magic Mountain. I’d take the back way in, through Lake Hughes. It’s a nice twisty road. Since I was working at Magic Mountain and had to commute from Lancaster, I’d shut off the engine at the top of the road and coast several miles to the ranger station at the bottom to save gas.

Oh, and gas. I guess I actually had the car running while I was still in high school, because there was the oil embargo. We had rationing in California. Cars with odd-numbered license plates could fill up on odd days, and even-numbered ones could fill up on even days. Personalised plates were considered ‘odd’. My plates were MY66MGB – personalised. So I could fill up on odd days. But the last number was even, so I could fill up on even days. :smiley:

9

mr.stretch and the boy came back. The boy (he’s 18 but old nicks die hard) drove the Vronica and now he wants one. Considering his ride is a '01 Hyundia Accent, who can blame him? :stuck_out_tongue:

I still want a GT6. mr.stretch thinks I’m crazy–he doesn’t get why I would want a sports car this isn’t convertible. I love the way they look–that’s why! My Spitfire parts guy says they’re fun, but they get hot inside due to the big slanted back window. I don’t care, I like 'em.

10

Well, stretch, there was an air conditioner available for the GT-6, but the common wisdom was that, with that little tiny grille opening, there was likely no way to run it often without overheating.

So I had no a/c and lived just fine with that car for six years. I haven’t spent much time in Washington so I don’t know how it is. But some people think of Texas as being a bit warm at times.

11

As a Brit there’s not much exotic about these cars! Needless to say I’ve owned a few British cars!

I started out with a Mini Cooper 1300 which really shifted. It blew up. They did that.

Then I had a Jag 5.0 V12 that did 150 MPH and about 12MPG. It melted. They did that.

Then I had a Jag XJ12. That was lovely - if a bit tempremental. My starter wife drove it into a tree. She did that.

Now I have a XJ8 which so far has avoided blowing up, melting and I keep it out of the hands of the current Mrs Owl (I call her that to keep her on her toes).

I have my eyes on An Aston DB8 - but this will require a lot of persuading on the wife. She’d only spend the money on shoes or hats or food for the kids though.

12

I can tell you a little story that will make you cry.

My father’s first car, as a young lad of 17, was a pale blue Triumph Herald (I think it was a convertible, but I could be wrong). 6 months later he drove it into a wall and totalled it.

His parents were somewhat unforgiving, and his next car was an elderly and somewhat decrepit Austin, which had been his mother’s old runabout, and had been in a barn for several months, being lived in by cats. Despite his every effort to get rid of it, it lasted him 10 years.

He still tells us how one accident lost him the car of his dreams and how he drove a jalopy that smelt of cat pee for years.

13

Yeah, I used to have a Mk2 Spitfire - I like the rear styling better than the later models with the squared off tails. No poke whatsoever with an 1100 cc engine, and the rear had a nasty habit of swinging out to see what the front was doing, but God, they’re beautiful looking cars. I used to love that car.

Easy to work on, too: you can dismantle the bodywork with a spanner, loads of old Heralds to source parts from, and they’ve got those great forward-hinged bonnets so you can work on the whole engine - none of that knuckle-scraping you get with Minis.

Yeah, I used to have a 1275 GT Mini, too, with twin Weber carbs: pretty quick off the blocks, and damn those things can handle - a stretch of narrow, twisty hill roads, and you can corner them on the doorhandles.

Sadly, I had to sell both to help pay my way through university: I was going to buy another Spitfire and really put some work into it after I came back from Japan a couple of years ago, but the usual story - babies and mortgages tend to interfere with dream car projects. Someday, though - a GT6 would be nice. Or even an MGA…

14

In the extremely unlikely event that I ever get married, I think I’ll introduce her as ‘my first wife’ – just to keep her on her toes. :wink:

You know, it might be a good thing my fiancée changed her mind. She’d absolutely kill me for buying the Herald! (We’re still friends, and we still talk. I don’t think I’ll tell her about it.)

15

Nice pics! Part of me want’s an MG just so I can get vanity plates that read

MG’S MG

Well that and they are cool.

16

I’m here I’m here.
Little British Cars (LBCs) aw the memories.
My first experience with a rag top was in 1957 my dad took his car in for service at a local shop and the owner loaned my dad his 55 T-bird. yeah I know its not British. Anyway it was a wonderful summer day and the top was down, I was 5 and I was hooked on wind in the hair motoring.
When my sister went out to buy her first car she (1968) she looked at several and settled on a black as night '67 MGB with red leather seats. God what a beautiful car. This MG however had some type of magnet in it that attracted other cars to hit it. Over the years she owned it, I think it got hit 25 times. never quite enough to total it however, and never her fault. By the time she sold it the car had an entire clip welded on behind the seats, plus god knows what else.
When I went to buy my first car in 1971 I would up with a 1967 MkII Spitfire. Made the MG look big. 1147 CC of not much power. 63 Hp IIRC and has been mentioned the back end often wanted to come around and see what the front was doing. Over the years, I put many a clutch in it, lots of hydraulic items, more Lucas C41 generators than I could count, rebuilt the engine, added a roll bar, and Koni shocks all the way around. The Konis were the greatest thing for that car, they tamed the back end so that it stopped going out on its own. :smiley: I think I also had the spring decambered and stiffened, but it has been two many years.
Anyway I sold that car after I did a high speed run up and down a very twisty mountain road, and had the diff case break when I tried to drive away after stopping for a beer. I bought a junkyard diff, and that case cracked when I installed it. :smack: So I traded the Spit in on a 67 MGB white with black seats.
Engine was tired, so I rebuilt it to stage III standards, balanced it and did the job right. I flogged the ever living shit out of that car from 1973 until 1979 as a daily driver, when I parked it. It is still in pieces in my garage waiting for me to get the time and the money to do a restore. one of these days. Either that or I will buy Johnny LA’s car when he gets tired of it.
Lets talk about the ones that got away. When I first started to look for a car (when I bought the spit) I found a 1961 XKE coupe with new paint and a rebuilt engine for $1500. I didn’t buy it cause I wanted a roadster, and 1500 was about $400 more than I had! Needless to say in retrospect I was a :wally . Or we could talk about the MGB with crome wires, overdrive, and a new top that I didn’t buy for $1,000 cause I didn’t want to make payments.
Oh well if I ever hit the lottery, I am going shopping for an Austin Healy 3000 MK III just like this one

17

Anybody got a spare 20 grand?
This is beautiful!

18

Sorry, I don’t know much about Britmobiles. Some of them are quite nice looking (and I always liked that one car which had the Sphinx as a hood ornament), but given the fact that no matter what kind of car I buy, it always suffers some kind of breakdown when I can least afford it, I figured it’s best for me to stay away from British makes.

19

'67, eh? Mine was a '66. I’ve heard of people putting bags of sand in the boot to correct the handling, although God knows what that did to the performance. A lunatic friend of mine had a Mk IV, but wanted a bit more poke, so he put a Toyota five speed gearbox in, upgraded the shocks, and then dropped in a rotary engine from a Mazda RX3. That thing was fast.

20

Rick mentioned wires. The '66 MGB in resto currently has the original steel wheels. I want to get wires for it. Now, this is not going to be a 100-point restoration. I left the holes in the rear bulkhead in case I want to install speakers. (Upholstery will cover them in the meantime, so they won’t be seen.) I’m having it converted to negative earth, since it will reduce the risk of disaster if it needs a boost to start it someday. The head is being replaced with an alloy head. I’ll probably put in some sort of stereo, and maybe a CD player.

So what about the wheels? There are two choices of wires: Painted silver, or chrome rims with stainless steel spokes. The chrome wheels look awesome, but the painted ones are more authentic. I thought that the stainless spokes would be better here in the PNW, but someone told me that heat and wet are enemies of chrome. (Heat might be generated by the brakes and rolling friction; wet is omnipresent.) Also, the painted wheels are like $300 cheaper for the set of five. Which should I choose? Authentic, and obsensibly better for the climate, painted wires? Or flashy, stainless-spoke, chrome ones?