From: "Phil Vanner" <phil@outtech.com>
To: "MGs" <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: And They're Off!
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 22:35:21 -0500

Ten cars left from Monroe, Wisconsin on a 24 hour run to St. Paul at 8:30 this morning. Four TD's, two B roadsters and a V-8 GT, two A Coupes, and a ZB Magnette. No Spridgets.

So far we have an on-the-fly carb R&R, and an alternator replacement. (Both still running.) The alternator swap was quite a feat: getting one while on the road, in rural Wisconsin, on a Sunday, took some doing. Last report was that they were back on the road and doing fine. He was buying batteries to keep running until he met up with the alternator. Press On!

The Magnette is out with a bad voltage regulator. They're waiting in Madison for replacement tomorrow.

I wished I could have been with them, but it was still a great day for a fast run back to the Twin Cites, after seeing them off.

Phil Vanner

Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 14:22:55 -0500
To: "Phil Vanner" <phil@outtech.com>, "MGs" <mgs@autox.team.net>
From: "Peter C." <nosimport@mailbag.com>
Subject: Re: And They're Off!

>.... A "correct" screw-on post reg couldn't be found on Monday in Madison. They're running north in the daylight with the generator powering a red light. Should be there in a few hours.

Peter C in Madison

From: "Phil Vanner"
To: "MGs"
Subject: And They're Back!
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 14:39:03 -0500

At MG2001 the sun is shining and it's 80 degrees.

The Endurance Rally folks rolled in yesterday morning, excepting the Ed and Julie Polonius in the Magnette, who I didn't see as of 6:00 PM. I may have missed him as he wasn't expecting to check in, but I was at a checkpoint for the gimmick rally right at the main gate all day.

Eight cars finished. Bob Rushing and Mike Pentecost, organizers of the Missouri Endurance Rally, had carb problems and limped in, removing and cleaning the front carb needle and seat every 50 miles.

It was an unbelievably close run. The mileage spread in the endurance run was less than 50 miles from position 1 to 8, despite very different routes in some cases.

First place were Robert and Susan Milner in their V8-converted 67 BGT - 744.9 miles
2nd was Ed Sass and Colleen Quinn in a 75 B, putting in a heroic performance. They lost the alternator at the start, put in a fresh battery and bought a spare, so they would have enough juice to fire the spark plugs until they got to where they arranged for a spare alternator to meet them.
3rd were the Wackmans in a lovely red TD
4th was Mark "Lone Eagle" Michalak (senior) in a red MGA coupe driving solo.
5th Curt Bork and Pam Hansen, in their TD (MGA rear gears)
6th were Mark Michalak (junior) and Jon Glaeys in their B-engined MGA Coupe
7th were the brothers - William and Gary Hite in a silver TD - fresh from a 30-year resto
8th were Stefan and Rose Guttormson - 793 miles, top-down all the way.

All reported a good time was had.

Phil Vanner

From: "Phil Vanner"
To: "MGs"
Subject: RE: 2001 Update
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 15:56:04 -0500

From your reporter on the scene:

Wednesday was the big combined car show. (voted) The weather was perfect. 80 and sunny, light breeze. About 700 MGs and a hundred or so other marques were there. Mind boggling. I really should have had a note pad to jot down impressions since there was so much it all ran together.

Just about every type of postwar MG was represented. No Farina Magnette (although there is one in town) and I didn't remember seeing a TB but there's one of those around here too.

Much interesting prewar stuff, all in fabulous condition, excepting a J Midget that was trailered in with it's owner apologizing that it would be a static display as he had snapped the crank. That car actually looked like it got driven now and then. The boat-tail C-type Midgets with their sinuous exhaust pipes were museum pieces.

Results from Mondays gimmick rally were in. Our very own Bill Eastman finished just out of the money in 4th place, aided, as ever, by his lovely and capable daughter Lindsay. he was happy though, as A's and variants took four of the top five spots (the other went to a YB) so the members of the Bill Eastman Society of Self-Congratulatory MGA Owners (BESSCMGAO) can hold their heads high.

The modern ZT and ZT-T are much more tasteful than I expected. No big wings or outrageous colors. My wife, who cares not one whit for automobiles generally, loved the silver MGZT (it was a left hander, by the way) and wanted them to sell it to her on the spot. They must be doing something right. I picked up a rather nice key fob for filling out the "should we bring these to America" survey.

More later.

Phil Vanner

Photos below: The green Magnette is the Polonuis' car, the Harvest Gold B is the alternator swap car. The others are general shots - the Green BGT is the winning car, the a coupes are visible as well as one TD, etc.

Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2001 15:46:44 -0500
From: S & M Barnes <barnesms@swbell.net>
Subject: MG 2001 Pictures
To: MGs <mgs@autox.team.net>

A few (207) pictures straight out of the camera,
http://www.webphotos.com/listPicture.asp?lmode=view&album_id=14011
(link broken 4/20/2013)

Cheers

Mike Barnes

Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 16:48:57 -0700
From: James Schulte <schultejim@prodigy.net>
To: "Mgs@autox.team.net" <Mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: MG2001 returned

Hi All, I'm back with pictures of MG2001. Click here for (78) pictures
http://www.gatherround.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=144674&a=228574&pw=MG2001.

I had problems right off the bat on the way out. I had the car attached to a tow bar and a bracket. The bracket needed extra support by drilling into the cross member and running a brace to the bracket so the bumper didn't flex when I stopped or accelerated. We took care of it in St. Paul thanks to a local Club member from Plymouth MN.supplying the drill and bits. The ride home was much more relaxing, not having to worry about the bumper snapping off. Other then that we had a normal 2 day ride out except around Chicago. That's another story. We stayed at the Midway Sheraton. It was under repair. There were others their but no social was held any night. We had to supply the fun, which is not difficult with our group. The second day on our way to one of the lakes we fooled with different distributors and found out I had a bad coil. Once that was fixed, everything went well. That was the hesitation I thought was a carb problem.

The show was fun and some vending was productive but I was disappointed that there weren't more used part venders. We spent some time at some local lakes and the Mall of America. On the 4th, we saw 6 fire works displays going on at one time from a roadside pull off next to a lake that had 1000's of boats doing the same. What a sight. We also went to Ft. Snelling and other points of interest. While traveling the highways we discovered the driving skills of some locals from St. Paul area were suspect. We thought we had left road rage back in Philly. Oh well, the panoramic picture was fun on Friday and we saw the track but had to leave before the racers got on with it. Our trip back was long but relatively uneventful. Thanks to the team work of our club members, the 2400 mile adventure was a success.

Mark J. came over today and helped me bleed the brakes one more time. He put his Mallory dual point distributor and I put in the new Flame Thrower coil. The cars runs like a maniac now!!!! See the Philly members at the meeting Tuesday. Next project is the Tranny swap I've been putting off for my wife's 70B. Jim 78B 70B