MGA Guru Gone Mobile

By the time you read this I hope everyone will have had a pleasant Thanksgiving, merry Christmas, and happy New Year’s day. This time of year is commonly slow for us in that many people have their attention elsewhere, and car clubs hold a low profile during the holiday season. Sorry we had to miss Cruise to The Rock in Chicago and the CMGC/VMGCCC Holiday party. On last report, we were finishing up in Georgia, then we headed a bit west into Alabama to kill time over Thanksgiving (and because WiFi signals around Columbus, GA were all inexplicably dead).

We did manage to work in a couple of club activities in the past month. On Dec 3, we shuffled into Vicksburg, MS for a holiday party with English Motoring Club of Mississippi at the warehouse of Pat and Barbara Cashman with a bunch of

Adapters for disc brakes on a Z-Magnette (and others).

collector cars (been there before). Next day we had a visit with Charlie Durning in Magee, MS with a few friends tinkering with a couple MGs. Charlie has developed some adapter parts to install disc brakes (front and rear) on the MG Z-Magnette. We were a bit later sitting on the Gulf coast looking west with intention of heading to Arizona and southern California for the winter (just to be different). Contacts with British Motoring Club New Orleans (and others in that area) revealed nothing happening there during the holidays, and we were in no rush to go west, so we had a change of plans and turned east. On Dec 9, we joined another holiday party with Bay British Cars in Panama City Beach, FL (been there before as well).

1957 Sebring MGA #49, "found" in plain sight.

On Dec 7 (and a few days to follow) we were receiving messages and photos about discovery of one of the few remaining missing Sebring MGAs, this one having raced at Sebring in 1957. It has apparently been "hiding" in plain sight in recent years, owned and restored by John Burgess in Ontario, Canada, and still raced regularly by Lino Braggio.

Rebound strap assembled with Kevlar fiber  strap

Rebuilding a generator in Ormond  Beach, FL

On Dec 14-15, we had a visit to Doug Widnall in Ormond Beach, FL who had been trying to flag us down for two years. We were going to investigate a bad running problem with his MGA, which turned out to be a non-issue, then ended up rebuilding the generator with a new front ball bearing (which he hadn't notice because it was recently "rebuilt"). Doug came up with a nifty way to fabricate a rear axle rebound strap using Kevlar fiber strap sourced from Nautilus exercise equipment.

Pete Rogers home shop, Travares, FL

On Dec 17, we made connection with Lake County British (and other) Car Breakfast Group (for breakfast). The "group" (which insist that it is not a club or an organization) was "under the radar" for the past 15 years, but is now a (rare) new addition to our Clubs list. In the afternoon, we stopped by "Pete" Rogers home in Travares, Florida. He regularly drives a silver MG TF 1500, at least in nice weather, and apparently makes a habit of restoring T-types as a side business (another new service for our Shops list). That was about it for clubs and individuals.

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