At 10:29 PM 8/18/02 -0500, MonteMorris wrote:
>.... 15 or so of the oldest models of MG's .... I believe one was a 1931
>Midget racer that is one of only a few in the states and under 10? in the
>world. Was turbocharged and really smoked around the gymkahana route
>(although Barney beat him by using his experience and driving skills); it
>had raced at the LaMans in the past.
Well I did have a few other advantages, like driving a car almost 30 years
newer with an engine nearly twice the displacement (and ditto for the tire
width). Gawd I felt like Superman having the big new car for a
change. (What a strange feeling for driving an MGA). But it was a very
interresting car nonetheless. It actually had a supercharger driven off
the front end of the crankshaft, stuck out on the front of the car like a
large protruberant battering ram, with a single 2" SU carburetor hung off
the side very near the left front tire (and no air cleaner). The extensive
throttle linkage required was interresting to check during tech
inspection. It did make a lot of really neat race noises (and a
substantial cloud of smoke), and handily took its class of no less than
four MMM (1928-1936) MGs on the short gymkhana circuit (about 40 seconds
worth for each run peaking at about 40 mph).
One of our local club members, Reinout Vogt, now the newest member of the
North Americal MMM Register, came to race (if you can call it that) with
his VERY early MG M-Type. This was the only car to turn in a lap time in
excess of one minute, when the fastest cars were in the 36 to 40 second
range. He started out driving this car from Chicago to Abingdon, and
actually got about half way before having a few difficulties and being
picked up on an escort trailer. The story about his incidental arrest and
temporary incarceration was good for a chuckle, but had nothing to do with
the car (aside from being stranded alone momentarily on the side of the
road after some hours of driving). The car ran well enough to drive freely
around the Galesburg and Abingdon, Illinois area. As a matter of
convenience (and time) it was later trailered back to Chicago.
Another of our local members, Scott Fohrman, brought his 1932 MG J2, also
entered in the Famous Abingdon Gymkhana. This car was trailered only as
far as from the north side of Chicago to the northwest suburbs to avoid the
most intensive ciy traffic, after which it was driven the remaining 200
miles to Galesburg and on to Abingdon, another 40 or 50 miles for the
weekend activities, and the 200 miles back to Chicago. We had a convoy of
10 MGs including the J2 running out from west of Chicago to Galesburg on
Friday via some lesser traveled state highways. The J2 ran along admirable
at 50-60 mph on the open road, although it did take a while getting up to
speed with only 28 horsepower, and tended to slow a bit on some of the
larger hills. The trip through the hills and curves of Starved Rock State
Park along IL-71 was apparently quite a thrill with limited power and cable
operated mechanical brakes. We had one short delay late in the day to
attend to a clogged fuel line, but otherwise all was well with the trip.
Sometime during the weekend the J2's generator ceased output. Being quite
a chore to separate the generator from the vertical drive shaft for the
overhead camshaft (all comments about the "oil cooled" generator aside), it
was opted not to attempt to repair it in the car park. But with a fully
charged battery the J2 was able to drive the whole way back to Chicago by
daylight on Sunday regardless. Scott did appreciate the escort by a couple
of other MGs serving to blaze the trail in unfamiliar territory and hazing
traffic near the end of the trip. During a 30 mile shortcut stretch of
nothingness on country blacktop roads we had a short detour on some even
lesser roads due to road construction, but all in a days outing for a stout
old MG.
Scott had some interresting comments about long distance driving with the
J2. The left footrest is on the bellhousing, the right footrest is on the
body of the car, the seat is a few inches from the rear axle, and the
steering wheel tends to follow whatever the front end wants to do on less
than smooth roads. Apparently this can start out as a kind of sexual
encounter but quickly reverts to something more akin to a heavy workout on
powered exercise equipment at a sweatbox gym. A short rest stop to walk it
off is in order every couple of hours or so.
>The other was a 12-12 ? out of Colorado and is one of only 4 in the world,
>3 being in museums.
>....
I expect to have some nice pictures of the weekend outing posted on the
club web site in another day or two (or three), including pictures of most
of the MMM cars. Stay tuned, and will let you know.
We also had a very nice Natter 'n' Noggin on both Friday and Saturday
nights, and banquet Saturday evening. The recently deceased Jerry Goguen
was mentioned and honored as the NAMMMR member of the year in spite of his
absence. Apparently the award was actually delivered to him a few months
earlier so that he could have some enjoyment of it before his
passing. John Twist kept his presentation fairly brief to allow more time
for the special guest speaker.
Peter Thornley spent some time giving us insite into some of the more
intimate (or intimately personal) aspects of operation of the MG Car
Company in its early days under management of Cecil Kimber with Peter's
father John Thornley serving as design manager, sales manager, and later as
general manager of the company. Stories were related as well as possible
from the eyes of a seven year old in the early years (which holds a certain
humor in itself). Most of the comments were about the years before 1955
where we previously had the least knowledge of what was going on there. In
conclusion, Peter Thornley did promise that in the absence of any unforseen
worldly disaster preventing otherwise, he would endeavour to do his best to
make another appearance at this event again next year. I am already making
plans accordingly.
Hoist another Old Speckled Hen for the lot of us.
Barney Gaylord
Editor and Webmaster
Chicagoland MG Club
http://www.chicagolandmgclub.com
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|