MGAguru is on the Prowl
MGA Guru is Gone Mobile

At last report (June 25) we were heading out of Tennessee into Virginia. Now on July 23 we are heading out of Virginia into Pennsylvania. Exactly four weeks of rattling around Virginia (just a coincidence). Our first stop in Virginia was a visit with Keith and Gail Sanders in rural Damascus. Keith is ex-curator of North American MGC Register (now ). We had a nice chat about the work load and "politics" involved in national car registers (among other things). Next day we had a dinner meeting with Williamsburg British Car Club, followed by a visit with PJ and Faith Peterson in Hampton, VA. PJ has a mostly original MGB with pedal extensions for his daughter. For himself an MGB V8 conversion with lots of whistles and bells, and a box trailer, and a camping trailer, and a truck to tow these around.

We dropped into Moss Motors in Petersburg (for the 5th time) for a small assortment of service parts, and another peek at their showroom. Here we found Grace, the Austin Healey 100 that spent a few years cruising around the country on a charity drive. Also the 100,000th MGA, and the 100,000th MGB produced (among other things). We dropped into a Cars and Coffee in Richmond, VA, collecting a dozen pictures of British cars, and having a chat with a contingent from the Central Virginia British Car Club (lots of photo on the MGAguru web site).

Re stopped to visit Paul Crowther in Palmyra, VA, who has a nice 1957 MGA with a 5-main 1800 engine. Here we installed new rebound straps on my MGA to replace the bad "new" ones installed the month before (but not much better, stretching an inch before taking the weight of the rear axle). I also installed new contact points in my Mallory Dual Points distributor (maybe a waste of time as the old ones only had 90,000 miles). Also installed new rubber boots on the rear brake slave cylinder parking brake levers, last changed in 1996 slightly over a quarter million miles earlier.

We were celebrating the 4th with Mid Atlantic Chapter of NAMGAR in Manassas, VA, complete with a club BBQ and city fireworks. Next day was very busy beginning with a stop at UK Motorsports in Richmond, VA. Chip is a specialist in Triumph TR6, but dabbles in some other cars occasionally. Then we stopped to visit Union Jack Ltd in Roanoke, VA, an MG specialist. Including some outlying warehouses, he must have at last 50 MGs in various condition, all restorable cars. Also in Roanoke, a visit to British Auto Restorations, lined with all things British (and a few other nice toys). By evening we landed in Chatham, VA with Old Dominion British Car Club, an intimate group for dinner and chat. After the meeting we were off to Southside British Cars in Danville, VA, where they were puzzling over "the MGB from hell" with a very strange oil pressure problem. A bit more traveling back east, and we had done 400 miles that day to visit four pro shops and one club meeting.

On Wednesday the 6th we stopped momentarily at Wargo Automotive Service in Chesapeake, VA, where we had our engine repair machining done nearly two years ago (70,000 miles back). Then we were off for an evening "picnic in the park" meeting with Tidewater MG Classics at Great Neck Park in Virginia Beach, VA. A couple days later we drove the length of Virginia east to west for the once-a-year annual meeting and picnic for British Car Club of Southwest Virginia, at a private park just west of Salem (Saturday the 9th); then laying more tire rubber on I-81, now west-to-east, to

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