MGC’s Galore

Seeking a replacement for the Austin Healey, which had fallen victim to U.S. Dept. of Transportation crash standards, the call went out to Abingdon to do something quickly, so Sid Enever & company pulled out their slide rules and cobbled together the MGC, which was at least as good a lash-up as they managed the last time there was a panic in the marketing department at the British Motor Corporation.
A red MGC recovered from Fitchburg Tuesday night

A red MGC recovered from Framingham Tuesday night

That previous car was, of course, the MG TF.   The superbly engineered but much maligned MGC is arguably the best of the Post-War MG’s, and with only 9,000 produced, certainly one of the rarest.  Right at the moment, this one, which we recovered from Framingham Tuesday night, is now sitting within 250 feet of 1/10 of 1% of all the MGC’s ever produced. How that came to be is a matter as much of serendipity as by design…

Butch changes suspension bushings in the Riley

Butch re-bushes the Rily front end

Butch finished up with the Riley One Point Five sedan Friday by changing out the front suspension bushings and fabricating an exhaust-tight sleeve for the front pipe, which has a clamp style joint instead of a flange & gasket.  Steve took this picture of Butch wrestling with the torsion bar front suspension.  He won the match.

A universal joint gone bad

A universal joint far beyond the end of its useful service life

This universal joint was the cause of a truly monstrous driveline vibration in a 1500 Midget.  Click on it for a better look.    Fortunately, John found it before it completely tore loose and ruined the driveshaft.  he replaced it with a genuine Hardy Spicer U-joint with a zerk fitting, which is the only kind we use.  If you do the maintenance, which is to grease ’em as per the maintenance recommendation for your car, they’re forever.  The universals in my MGB, which are the same ones, are now north of 150,00 miles and they’re still perfectly fine.

Steve road tests an E-type

Steve evaluates a 4.2 E-type

We sent Steve out Friday afternoon to evaluate this 4.2 E-type.  The picture is taken on the Westminster Heights road near the junction of Interstate 91, which we use as part of our extended road test loop when we want to evaluate a car’s high speed characteristics.  It would be accurate to say that few cars are as thrilling on the road, and later during our lunch break when it was parked in front of an XK8 convertible which inexplicably pulled up shortly after, it drew a continuous crowd of  gawkers while the poor XK8 languished in its forelorn anonymity.

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