TR-7 Performance and SAAB engines:
We recently bought a '7 with a stuck or burned valve in #1 (hadn't
even moved the car to our place yet!). If it's aquick fix to get
the car roadworthy, we'll do that, but if the engine's kaput...I
can't see spending good money to keep that piece of junk head! Someone
mentioned the SAAB 99: the head is better, I know...will it fit a TR-7
block? How about an entire engine swap? Weren't there ~150 BHP SAAB
99 Turbos? My personal TR-7 performance variations list, in order:
1) Trubo TR-7. Just too wicked, and different (I hope!)
2) 16 valve 2.1 litre sprint engine (had a much better head, I understand)
3) Rover V-8 lots of go, but far too normal.
Heads:
I ordered a stage II cylinder head and Piper 285 camshaft from England
last week. I'll post delivery time, total cost, and quality when I get
them.
Bumpers:
I am (omigosh can it be!?) about to do the cosmetic part of restoring
my '75 MGB, the car I've had for 8 years as a college daily driver.
New black paint job, black interior. The car will be all black and chrome,
the only colors being the lamp lenses, the red sector on the tach, and the
bumblbee wire under the bonnet. Well, black, chrome, and polished
aluminium. Anyway, the bumpers look pretty bad. Not horrible (I've
seen some rubber bumpers that should have been shot), but just faded and
ucky. I can't afford new bumpers (still college student!). I've seen
some that have been painted. I don't know how I feel about that. Anyone
done any sort of rubber bumper resoration?
Other stuff:
On the universiality of MG and the next generation thread:
I had driven over to my gandmothers house (where my B is staying while
undergoing major work), and went back out to the car to get some items
when a neighborhood kid, about 12, with sparkle in his eyes came up to
me and asked "Excuse me sir, but what kind of car is that?" (when did
I get old enough to be called sir?) Well, I told him a little about the
car, when it was built, etc. He was rather surprised when I told him they
quit making them in 1980. He wasn't even born then! It was cold, and
I had some work to do, but I told him if he should ever get the chance to
own one, he should. He walked on down the street, bouncing his basketball,
and no doubt thinking about some little car built "a long time ago, in a
factory far, far away..." I think, somewhere inside that steel and aluminium,
there's the secret of life. It may be in the gearbox, or the dif (I haven't
had either one of those apart yet!). I haven't really seen it, but I've
caught glimpses, so until I find it, I will continue to buy rusted old
sports cars that no one wants (If all you guys keep looking for a "better"
car and pass by the ones with rusty floors, etc, there won't be anymore
left), and take them apart and fix them, all the while searching each
and every part for the ultimate truth. Maybe it's in the sum total.
Or in the moment of driving. Or maybe it's when kids come up and
ask about the machine, because will all know kids can see so much more.
oh well, enough of that,
-Keith
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