Yo Chaps!
Well, MG '99 is over....a well run meet by the Canadian Classic MG
Club....thanks to Joe Carrol and crew!
My last post was on our arrival in Vancouver. Tuesday was spent meeting early
arrivals and chatting. We also discovered Octagon Motors...Colin, Dave, Alan,
and crew....which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Wednesday morning Dane and I drove the C's back to the above mentioned
business as Dane's clutch master was thinking of retiring. On the way over I
heard a "ting"...rattle, rattle and experienced a tremendous decrease in
power. As it turns out, the exhaust valve on #6 stuck......leading to a
shoppe visit of three days. (Lesson...don't trust UPS for overnight delivery
as the head gasket set took a tad longer to arrive.)
Wednesday night was the BBQ night, as well as an interesting talk by Ron
Gammons of Brown and Gammons on rallye preparation and technique. (Team
Fokowie picked up a few pointers!)
Thursday I had the pleasure of driving a Metro to Whistler. Unfortunately, it
was of the GEO variety. (Still an enjoyable drive on a great 2 lane road!)
Drifay was show day....although I do not have an exact count there was well
over 125 MGs on the show field plus a Morgan, a Jaguar, the first TA made in
Abingdon, the first MGB LE to enter the North American market, and the MG
Liquid Special racer from the1965 Indianapolis 500! Six MGs of fine caliber
entered Concours competition.
Friday evening found us on a double decker bus for a brief tour of Vancouver
(from my driving experiences in the town, mass transit is the ONLY way to get
from point A to point B!) The awards banquet was held in the Chinatown
district, and of fine baquet meal was had by all.
NAMGBR's "John Thornley Spirit of MG" award went to Tom Boscarino of the MGC
Register for his years of committment to the Marque. Additional awards for
long distance, hard luck, club spirit, and Concours were presented.
My MGC was ready for pick up at 10:00am Saturday morning...we were out of
Vancouver by noon. Unfortunately, it took 2&1/2 hours to get through
custome...the MGC overheated...I ended up pushing her 800 meters to the gate
only to be interegated for about 5 minutes by a US customs official.....for
once I used my head and kept my mouth shut.
We drove to Boise, Idaho on Saturday, arriving at the hotel at 4:00am. Four
hours sleep, a quick re-torque of the head and adjustment of the valves, and
we were off...arriving in Green River, Utah about 10:30pm. (Dane's MGC
experienced a multiture of cooling problems.)
Tomorrow will take us through the Colorado Rockies (look out, Vail Pass!) and
we will overnight in Salina, Kansas....home of Victoria British. Final day
will take us home at last....a round trip of anticipated 5500 miles over 8
days.
Cheers!
rick ingram
'69 MGC
(no tach, no speedometer, no dash lights, but running like a top!)
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