Phil Williams's Journal

We took the 1949 MGYT to the Hunt Country Classic British Car show this year. We were honored by having the car selected as the Ambassadors choice. We view this as a great honor. During the announcement the ambassadors representative said the the MGYT represented everything that is the british automobile driving experience. The car also won first place in class, but as it was a rainy day this honor is tempered by the knowledge that the car was the on,y entry on the field. The first place win does however place the car in the Prince of Wales class for next years show.

This week the Bugeye went away to have some work done. We wanted to have the engine pulled so it could be cleaned up, adjusted, refurbished, and painted. While this is completed a new clutch and throwout bearing are order along with some upgrades to brakes and other hydraulics. While he is in the shop we plan to get new tires to replace the 18 year old Sears tires that are on the car and fix a problem with one of the wire wheels.

Well, I think I may have actually crossed the line between classic British car ownership and collector. This week we added a 1950 MG YT to the cars in the garage. The YT will require a lot of work to bring up to driving standards, but it is a fairly rare and interesting car and therefore worth the effort and cost.

We will be evaluating the car today to decide how to proceed as despite the good looks of the car from a few feet away, being stored in a partially assembled condition for over 15 years does take a toll. But I am very excited to begin the work.

Once again we joined up with friends to motor to the Hunt Country Classic British Car show near The Plains in Virginia. It was a great day with good weather. This year in addition to the MGTC "Old Guy", we took our 1961 Frogeye Sprite "Kermit" for his first car show. What a surprise and honor that he won first place in class. The Old Guy also won a second place in class. This of course will put Kermit in the "Prince Of Wales" class in next years show. That is quite an honor, and he will be up against some serious competition. Of course there is nothing serious about a Frogeye, so he will just have to compete on "Cute Factor" alone.

Both cars performed very well, and my wife enjoyed having the opportunity to drive the Sprite on a nice day trip.

Well we changed out the radiator for one with extra cores. We also swaped out the original TC 4 blade metal fan for a 7 blade plastic fan from an MGB. This also fixed the misalignment of the top radiator hose with the retrun opening on the radiator.

TO test the car I took it out for a drive last night. The air temprature was 98 degrees. Even in the shade it was hot.

I could not believe it. The temp never rose above the center of the normal range on my Boyce temp guage. In the past I would not even think about starting the car on a day that hot, let alone take it for a 12 mile drive. I had to stop at three traffic lights for an extended period and the car still did not over heat. So I am now confident that the general heating problem is solved.

This leavs only the heat getting to the carbs and vaporlocking the system to work on. And I think I have the solution of the as well. We will soon know.

Well, our old guy was signed up for the big British car event that stared June 4 in Ocean City Maryland headed to Reno Nevada. Unfortunately I do not have the time to drive the entire route but we did join in for part of the run as the cars passed through Virginia. There were a lot of MGBs and MGAs, a few Modern MINIs, and even a few "T" types. One guy from Colorado had driven from there all the way to the East coast to participate in a very nice MGTF. In any case, we drove along with the group for a while and parted company in the evening. THis was the longest continuous un for out TC since we got it back on the road, and the first run with the new radiator and rebuilt Bishop Cam steering gear. It seems that we may have the overheating issue under control and the steering is improved but I still need to work on tightening up the tie rods and chasing out other slack in the system. All told we drove about 100 miles without any issues. THis old guy is now 62 year old and still on the road and running. A real tribute to the men and women in England who designed and built these fine cars so long ago.

As luck would have it we selected Salisbury Plain for out meeting place. However we could not find Stonehenge.