David roadtests the O.E.W. MGB, Friday, about 2:00pm
Here in New England we like to say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes, it’ll change” Yesterday at this time it was snowing.
This photo is of the initial roadtest of Old English White MGB, earlier this afternoon. My red driving gloves are from NAPA and they say “Mechanics” on them. Don’t be fooled by the price, they’re just as good as the Italian String-Back variety, and you can’t throw those in the washing machine when they get dirty.
On the Westminster West Road with the O.E.W. MGB
Our standard short course roadtest is the the Putney snowplow turn around on the Westminster West road. It’s five miles out & back, and if you’re not back in 15 minutes, we know where to go looking. This was enough of a shakeout to confirm that everything is working including the overdrive. The accelerator is a little sticky coming off a closed throttle, but that’s the biggest item on our punchlist.
John retorques the MGB cylinder head
Our protocol with fresh engines is to run them up for about five minutes, shut down and let ’em heat soak for ten. Then we re-torque the cylinder head & readjust the valves. We do it again after the first roadtest, and this engine will see a repeat after we’ve run our 25 mile loop.
We struggled mightily this week mostly with the windshield, but it’s all been worth it, because the car has a nice feel to it.
A picture taken late last week of the Black Tulip MGC. Click to enlarge for detail
It was very difficult to capture a sense of the color of this “Black Tulip” MGC, however we had some pretty good light last Friday, and here it is. That’s the infamous winter-beater MGB GT behind it
