Tales of the Mongrel
By Ralph Arata

Todd’s Cars

I have written several stories about the surprising volume of British car culture here in the eastern (Knoxville) area of Tennessee. My last article dealt with an individual enthusiast, Dennis Clack, who spent 1500+ hours restoring a totaled E-Type Jaguar to something even better than its former glory. This story is about a neighbor of mine, Todd Phipps. Susan and I met Todd at our first Blount British Car Club meeting. He was a very friendly guy and we fell into easy conversation with him. Low and behold, we find he lives just across the way from us. Todd does not have a garage with lifts and sophisticated fabrication tools. He is just a guy that likes British cars……just like me and so many of our Chicagoland MG Club members.

Todd has an interesting trifecta of British cars. His first car is a 1966 black Jaguar E-Type Coupe which he bought for $10,900 and then did some work on it to bring the car up to snuff. Needless to say, this car is now worth a bit more than the original purchase cost. He was living in Detroit at the time and saw the car in the Free Press there. It was missing a bonnet and needed paint and some body work. It took Todd a little bit of time to get the bugs out so the car would start, but the finished product is a local show winner.

Todd has a 1979 MGB. He acquired this car while helping a nephew who wanted to buy an MGB. He did some searching for a truly road worthy B and one day made his way over to Jim Watson’s place, after Jim told him he might have a candidate car. Jim Watson is the Steve Skegg of the Blount British Car Club and has a shop in Maryville Tenn. The B was pristine and great deal, but Todd’s nephew decided last minute to back out. Todd liked the car and bought it. This MGB is super clean and in great running shape. This is Todd’s cruising car and I have taken several Smoky Mtn car drives with him driving it. Oh, and yes, the car also has won a few 1st Place car shop prizes!!

Todd’s most recent purchase is a special one. A 1959 MGA Fixed Coupe which is especially rare. There were only about 800 of these cars shipped to North America. This car is not in its original form but was restored frame up by an enthusiast in Alabama. The restoration mirrored the 100,000th MGA that rolled off the Abingdon assembly line in the spring of 1962. It was a sales record at that time. Although not an original 1962 model for the time, it is a very pretty car and an eye catcher. There is little doubt this car will also do well at local British car shows. My Mongrel has been in too many shows to count and never won anything…..maybe I’ll let Todd help me buy an MG someday??

~~ Ralph Arata