Lloyd Faust's Journal

Original pictures from 1974. 1965 pull door handle 5 main bearing car. Blown motor (original owner changed the oil, but forgot to tighten the oil drain plug). I converted to Buick 215 and was my everyday driver for years. Sold the car to a "friend" in 1980 and bought it back in 1990 after sitting in his back yard for 8 years. Then restored it again.

This is a picture essay of making the first British Motor Heritage MGB bodyshell into a running car.

VIN: GHN345002
Original Colour: OEW
Current Colour: Red/White
Engine Type: 2004cc
Transmission: 4 syn straight cut close ratio
Rear end: 4.88 w/limited slip

I built this car as a works replica to vintage race (and get an invitation to the Monterey Historics) in the early 90s at the same time my good friends, Brown & Gammons, were restoring a number of works cars. I had the chance to duplicate all the special stuff when we made new parts for the works cars. I made alloy doors, deck lid, flush fitting front valance, twin tanks in the trunk and all the little bits that make it 'right'.

I raced it with VARA, CSRG, HMSA and General Racing...getting that all important invite to Monterey in 2000. Then sold the car.

It is now owned and raced (and better than ever) by John Targett of Targett Motorsports.com .

MGA built in my garage for the 1992 Carrera Pan Americana.

Hi everybody...

Lloyd Faust here. I hung out on the pages of The Driver quite often years and years ago, under varying names (to stay one step ahead of the angry mob). Poor Ken Smith. Not only did he have his responsibilities as editor, but he also had to serve as referee far too often. I’m older now and more mellow, so I thought I’d try this again....I’ll even use my real name. Here goes. I’m going to write a column on “originality”.

I know that’s risky, but I really am kinda uniquely positioned to do this. I have been under the influence of MG for most of my life. I lived next door to the owner of the local BMC dealership when I was a kid and my first job was cleaning the inspection stickers and bumper tape off brand new MGAs when they were fresh off the boat (OK, no need to do the math...I am old). I progressed up to service manager and then moved to California to attend graduate school. Let me tell you, there will never be anything again that compares to living in SoCal in the 70s if you were into British cars. It always seemed like I had at least a dozen of them hanging around. I bought MGB #30 (GHN3L130) in 1983. It was advertised in the LA Times as the 16th MGB made (Commission number was 16) and for 2 weeks....no takers. I bought it for $500; those were the days. The first 200 cars were sent to SoCal, NoCal and a few to Portland. There were quite a few survivors until I started parting them out (I cut up 6 cars with numbers lower than 100).

I consulted on the re-introduction of the MGB body shell and was one of the 4 guys who built that first shell into a car (TAX 192G) on TV at the NEC in Birmingham, England in May 1988. I was one of the proof readers (along with John Twist) on Anders Clausager’s book, Original MGB. I raced MGBs and built a couple of works replicas. When my race car was at the Monterey Historics, I talked at length to a former works mechanic who insisted that he had worked on my car ‘back in the day’. Believe me the only way you can pull that off is to know something about what was original. I even married into MG royalty (well, sort of).

I realize that most everyone in the NAMGBR is a ‘modifier’ or personalize their cars to some extent. There are very few people who really try to be 100% correct. It can be very hard given that the cars worth when finished will most likely not reflect the effort that went into the restoration. Believe me, it is hard for me to walk a concours field and see Chinese bumpers and body panels that don’t fit right. Much less to look a little closer and see that ‘original’ really isn’t understood all that well.

So let’s give it a go.....see what happens. Let me know your thoughts or areas of concern.

Lloyd Faust