the focus of the company is not changing, the outlook for the firm is not good. It would have been better had the Alchemy group prevailed, changed the firm to the MG Car Company, and focused on technology and sports cars. However, with the current developments it appears unlikely that any new MGs will be coming to the U.S., so take care of what you have. And use the parts houses like Moss, VB, and the others that are responsible for manufacturing many of the parts we need to keep our cars on the road.
Tom Turner and his beautiful 1948 TC did not make the trip due to illness. His, not the TC's. This TC is a winner. We expect to see him enter next year along with John Ulrich's V8 MGBGT. This is one MG with an attitude!
Rounding out the Flatwater Pack were Jim Danielson's MGBGT, John Ulrich's Triumph, Bob Shaw's MGA, Bill Evan's MGB, Bruce Cratty's MGB, Brian Goldsmith's MGA, and Ken Grant who upgraded to a red MGA this year.
If It's June It Must Be Time To Build an Engine
By Bob Shaw
For the last several years, through one mishap or another, I have needed to build an engine for the A each June. One year I was restoring the car. The next June the car was finished, save for some speedometer problems, when during a speedometer check, a drain plug bade us a fond adieu. The
following June we discovered a wrist pin had lost a retaining clip with the correlating grove in the cylinder. Then last August we discovered a wrist pin had frozen in a piston when the oil pump did not prime. But with all of these mechanical maladies corrected, this year was to be the year to address other needs. Martha needs a new engine for her GT and son Jay is wanting to put his first MG, a '71 Midget, together.
Martha wants to build a good engine for her GT. It will be .060 over, balanced, ported with a long center pipe header a mild Isky cam and HS6 carbs. Something that will run well but not be too radical so as to be temperamental. Martha would do most of the work, with me looking over her shoulder handing her the tools. I imagined the garage being clean (an absolute oxymoron, my garage and clean) and Martha, with a surgeon's authority requesting "torque wrench, screwdriver, feeler gauge, sponge." The stereo would be belting out some appropriate British car owner blues (but then all British car owners are acquainted with the blues). It would be grand to be near such skill and precision. Best of all I would be able to watch rather than work.
Jay's car is to be a similar situation. It is wonderful when one's son reaches the station in life where he states, "I want a British Roadster, and I want to build it myself. I want you to watch and to wait until I ask for help. Your job is to provide tools, play the proper blues, and keep the garage fridge full. He would study the manuals, puzzle out the solutions for his particular application, fit the 5-speed conversion kit and the panhard rod to the rear axle, and tune the SK side draft carb. There he would be. My Son, grown up and independent. And I would watch proudly as he drove down the alley and turned onto the
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