motor

bluesbrother60 · 03-20-2004, 02:16 PM

From looking through the forum there is not alot of people that drive classic cars. I posted about my 2002 BMW 325i and how much I love that car. Well my first love is my 1971 MGB roadster. It was my first car. I bought it when I was 15 and getting ready to turn 16. My dad owned an MGA among other American classic cars when he was a young man, but the MGA is the one car he regrets selling. I drove mine through rain or shine for an entire year until my mother got a new car and I got her old Honda....so I could drive my MG when I wanted to. I will post some pics of it on the link under my signature. Future plans are to fully restore it to make it look like a Le Mans MGB!!!

sentra_dude · 03-20-2004, 03:38 PM

Cooool! 8) 8) 8)

MGBs kick ass! That was my first car too, I had a 1977 MGB roadster, blue. That was such a great car, easy to drive, convertible, great sounding engine, wonderful gearbox, and great looks. I had the MG for about 6 months and then my parents sold it because they didn't want to pay insurance for a 16 year old in New Orleans...understandable, but damn I wish I still had that car. My dad bought it new and drove it everyday for ~25years to 112,000 miles and then gave it to me.

It has so much character, way more than my Celica, and it is RWD...man oh man I wish I still had that car...it makes me sad

that I don't have it, but then again I don't have to worry about British reliability.

What sort of engine set-up do you have? My dad did a number of things to the car, such as remove the silly smog stuff, install a higher flow muffler, and remove the standard carb and put a two barrel Weber carb on instead

.

Good luck on the LeMans MG, and show us some pics.

bluesbrother60 · 03-20-2004, 04:03 PM

People always talk about British reliability, yet I have never experienced that once in the time that I have owned my car. Like I said, I drove it year-round, rain or snow. It never gave me one problem. The car had 80,000 mi. on it when I bought it and the only thing that I replaced out of necessity was a coil that gave out on me. That is the only thing.

Tomerville · 03-20-2004, 04:16 PM

MG-Bs are awsome. I am so glad you have a B instead of the C's. I HATE those big ugly rubber bumpers on the front of C's. It looks like an eraser.

sentra_dude · 03-20-2004, 04:34 PM

Well my dad's MG had a lot of problems, but many were related to the smog equipment which made the car run very poorly and die a lot...even when brand new. The engine just wasn't designed for that stuff, but once the smog equipment was off the engine was pretty reliable...

On the other hand many small things went wrong, water pump a number of times, electrical system, starters, and nasty habit of over-heating. My dad just accepted that the car was not designed for running when it was really hot, I guess it never really gets hot in England

or something, but if the MG had to sit in traffic while it was 95+ degrees F (~35 C) it would sometimes over-heat.

Every British car I have been in contact with has had lots of reliability problems, my friend had an 80s XKE(?) that broke all the time, and my dad knew many guys with MGs and other British sports cars that were not the most reliable, so I guess you have been really lucky... Reliability is not why you get an MG though, so who cares, hehe.

Tomerville · 03-20-2004, 04:38 PM

80s XKE(?)

XK-Es are from the 60's. Want British reliability? Try an Austin Healy 100-4...yeah, I said it.

bluesbrother60 · 03-20-2004, 04:43 PM

Jaguar E-Types are from the 60s all the way up to the early 70s. They were known as a great car with poor reliability. My car never overheated to the point of stopping....but I did have to watch the temp. guage when it was the summertime.

bluesbrother60 · 03-20-2004, 04:45 PM

If you go to the link on my signature then you can see pics of my MG. There is a link (MG steering wheel) up in the top right hand corner of my site.

sentra_dude · 03-20-2004, 04:46 PM

Opps, I meant XJS...lol I can never remember the Jaguar letters.

Like this one, expect older and a hard top...nice car.

sentra_dude · 03-20-2004, 04:48 PM

Cool, I took a look at the pics...looks very clean and well kept. Nice car.

Tomerville · 03-20-2004, 04:55 PM

Opps, I meant XJS...lol I can never remember the Jaguar letters.

Hehe, its all good. Too bad Jaguar didn't make another. I liked that Concept they had running 2 years ago; was it the XK180? It was nice whatever.

VerderameJ · 03-22-2004, 01:04 AM

I used to have an XJS. 1992 vintage in platinum silver with a seville grey interior and factory wires. Stunning car and the last year of the famous 5.3L V12 that originates from the Series III E-Type. Also of note because it was the first year/car that ford worked on. While mine was more reliable than previous years....it was still very british on the electrics...but then again it wouldn be so charming if it always worked right...what would we have to do on the weekends, or in the parking lot, or after work, or on the way to work....after all British cars are truely spendid...when they run...
I hope you have lots of fun restoring the MG. I would love to see it when it is all done. They are very special cars.

-Joseph Verderame
98 S70 with a few mods

bluesbrother60 · 03-22-2004, 03:35 AM

Well the plans are to restore it...but as all projects end up taking a long time. Who knows when it will be done....but there will certainly be pics posted when it is finished!

VerderameJ · 03-31-2004, 05:12 PM

The XK180 was the prototype for the F-Type which was supposed to compete with the Boxter S and definitly would have done a nice job too since it had a much higher top speed and a sleeker body. Sadly Jaguar put the project on indefinite hold as they felt the X-Type, S-Type, XJ sedan, and XJ coupe needed to be the priority. It is conceivable that it might be resurected. I know that several orders were taken and a press release was put out (see www.jag-lovers.com). However given what usually happens...we will prolly have to wait another 30 years for a lettered coupe.