The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE
British Car Festival, Palatine, IL - (September 12, 2021)
Ah, the annual British Car Festival, at Harper College in Palatine, IL We arrived fairly early, so took time to chat with a few MGA owners first. Right out of the box came a request for an SU wrench to help adjust fuel mixture on a nice MGA Coupe. Easy enough, quickly done. Notice position of the alternator in the third picture, and the thin radiator up front, due to installation of the air conditioning system. Typical MGB compressor bracket with the alternator mounted above the compressor. Slight interference there required moving the bonnet prop rod to opposite side, and fabrication of a special prop rod socket long the left side bonnet gutter. Also notice the knock-off steel wheels and four wheel Dunlop disc brakes, all part adapted from an MGA Twin Cam, but the car is still not a real "Deluxe" (standard type master cylinder).
A 1937 MG TA belonging to Rob Reilly in Glen Ellyn, IL. A bunch more T-types, and a 1937 MG VA Tourer.
A nice MG Z Magnette (ZA),, and the green and cream car net to it is I think an MG YB 1951-1953. Maybe 8 to 10 MGA (seemed like there should have been more hiding elsewhere).
And lines of MGB with a few more scattered at random.
Down to the MG Midgets, maybe more than may first appear.
Next to the vintage Mini, an MG RV8 and at least two MGB V8 conversions.
On to the Jensen Healeys, below (at least I know most of those). The red coupe with the bonnet up is a 1957 Jensen 541 Deluxe Coupe (sometimes called "Saloon"), There was a Jensen Interceptor here somewhere, just seen as it was leaving.
Next to the pink and white Nash Metropolitan was a 1936 Ford V8 Woody Wagon (raising a few eyebrows). Yes we know it's an American made car, but it was first purchased in England, changed hands a few times going through Holland where it began restoration, then moved to America in 1970 where it sat in a warehouse until 2007 when the restoration resumed. Since it spent more of its life driving in Europe than it has been driving in America, we have a soft spot for its British heritage.
We have a 1937 Austin 7 sitting with a 1958 English Ford Consul, after which I'm a little out of my element.
This one I know is a 1954 Arnolt Bristol Bolide Roadster. Stanley H. "Wacky" Arnolt was was an importer and distributor in Chicago, Illinois and Warsaw, Indiana who commissioned a number of special coachwork cars including 50 each Coupes and Convertibles built on MG T-type chassis. This was near the 1959 Berkeley SE492, a 3-cylinder 2-stroke fiberglass roadster (650 made).
I was kicking past the Rolls Royce and Bentley cars when I ran across the Rover 3500 Vanden Plas series 1 (I think). Don't ask, 'cause I dunno nuttin (except there aren't many of them here in the States). Then on to the big Healeys.
More big Austin Healeys, followed by a swarm of little Austin Healeys and MG Midgets (collectively Spridgets).
Checking out the line of Land Rovers, and more Land Rovers when the Lotus Elise ran past. Figured I should get that picture before he left. There was a long line at the food truck for ribs. They ran out of bottled water and ice cream, and no second choices, because there weren't any other food vendors. Dealing with the Covid issue the venue was late making decisions on what would be allowed or not, so there wasn't enough time to deal with reservations for food vendors (or they were all booked up and couldn't make the late commitment).
There was a l-o-n-g line of Lotus, seeming to be regularly over-represented at this event. How many do you want? What color do you like? Just counting from the pictures, at least 34.
Sport Specialty brought some nice cars, in process of hawking their wares. There were two Sunbeam Tigers, one lone Sunbeam Alpine, and two vintage British motorcycles, one Norton and one BSA.
Too many Triumph's to count, starting with a few TR7 and TR8. At least half a dozen GT6+ (Plus being the hatchback version of Spitfire with a 6-cylinder engine).
Lots of Spitfires.
And plenty of TR6.
Throw in a couple of TR3, a few TR4, and a couple TR250 (or TR5 for those on the east side of the big pond). -- There were at least eight Morgan, mostly the Plus-4 model.
Just one vintage Mini decked out in rally formal wear, and several modern Mini. Two Morris Minor, both convertible, one towing the vintage caster wheel trailer. Those caster trailers would likely be illegal for production today, as they tent to have the tail wagging the dog.
Some Jaguar XK8, followed by a bunch of Jaguar E-Type (looking both sides of the isle to catch them all).
Then some larger Jaguar, and a few more XK8. I seem to recall an F-Type somewhere in the mix.
Finally I think the big red coupe with the bonnet up must be an XK12. For sure the large vintage beast is a 1936 SS Jaguar 2-1/2 Litre Saloon
This one is a 1958 'Knobbly' Lister (carrying the Corvette V8 as most common engine).
Credit to a pair of DMC DeLorean, and one Bond Bug.(maybe faster than it looks). Then some Aston Martin at the end of the show field, before the visitors car park.
I was pretty tuckered out from walking in the heat by that time, so I found some shade under the canopy with the BCU organizers for a while. Tally was 416 cars registered and mostly in by late morning, and maybe 15 or so more coming a bit later. Best estimate was 430 show cars, (I didn't bother walking the visitors lot, but there are always some more British cars hiding in the wings.
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