Addicted to old roadsters
I started restoring this LBC (Little British Car) in 2006. Now almost 11 years later, I have skinned hundreds of knuckles, expanded my vocabulary in the wrong direction and replaced every part that could fail -- except the ones that are waiting for the right opportunity. And I am still working on it, of course. Because British cars are never finished. They're just "resting."
I've had the engine out more times than I want to remember. Skinned knuckles heal, but the moment you find out you have to pull an engine for the third time can leave permanent scars on that part of the brain that feels pain and attraction to old British cars. The day I discovered that the parts company sent the wrong flywheel still grinds me like the new $175 starter that cranked and cranked in futility because the $400 Italian alloy flywheel was several millimeters out of reach.
1970s styling with the latest mechanical technology... from 1955
With help from my mechanical Kung Fu "master" Sam Smyth, I apprenticed as a grasshopper grease monkey and learned the art of pulling wrenches... and occasionally throwing them. For some reason, they seem to go farther when accompanied by a blue cloud of curses that hang in the air like oil-burning exhaust.
A stock MGB has about 80 horsepower. Hardly enough to get out of its own way. But if feels and drives "Safety Fast," as the slogan went, because it is as close to the ground as a roller skate and corners like a carnival ride. This one is not new, but it is improved beyond recognition. It's supercharged and re-bored for "Holy bleep" giddyup. It has a tuned exhaust, performance cam, alloy intake, aluminum pistons, high-performance suspension, stiffened anti-sway bar and blah, blah, blah car guys can get really boring talking about this stuff.
I went through almost as many dollars as dumb mistakes. Sam: "I told you to put a rag in the end of the exhaust pipes when you pull the manifold. You dropped a screw in there, didn't you, dumb----. Now you have to pull the whole exhaust system off. Again."
But on a warm spring day, when I unzip the back window, put down the top and cruise the scenic farm country that frames the licorice twisty back roads of rural Clermont County in the Land of Goshen, all is forgiven.
