Up's & Down's of Owning a 70's English Sports Car

It was 1985 when I convinced my wife (Mimi) that it would be fun to own an MGB, Based on that discussion I purchased a bright yellow, 1970 MGB which had a roll bar.  The yellow color made the car really stand out, and it was fun to drive but it was a bit of a challenge to maintain.  When it ran it was great but if it didn’t start it was aggravating.  I was somewhat adept at working on cars but I was not a mechanic by any means so any major issued needed the skill of a professional mechanic.  I did however remove the heads and put on a new head gasket and I learned to adjust the oil pot carburetors but mostly praying that the Lucas (known as the prince of darkness) electrical system would start the car and not die while driving around town.

It was my main form of transportation so I needed it to be reliable.  What was I thinking this is a 1970 English sports car, which was always fun but rarely reliable.  I was on my way home from work one evening while driving down Hwy 40 my MG just died without any reason except that it was a 1970 English sports car which really is reason enough.  I tried and tried to get it started but to no avail, so only being a couple of miles from home I walked, which I had done before (refer to my truck in a previous article).   As I am approaching the house Mimi sees me walking and runs out asking “What the hell happened to the car?”   At this point it’s important to know that Mimi did not have much tolerance for broken cars (she inherited this trait) and she certainly didn’t appreciate the delicate interworking of the British designed electrical system of a 1970 English sports car.  She just expected cars to always work and also never need tires; just having to buy gas for them was enough of an annoyance.  All that I could do was explain the car just stopped maybe it was Tea Time.  I had the car-towed home and pushed it in the garage until I could take a closer look at it. 

To my surprise the next day it started up like a champ, but I knew this was short lived so I contacted a foreign car mechanic that was on the way to work.  He was a German guy (Hans) that spoke broken English and he worked on a lot of high dollar sports cars so I knew my MGB would be in good hands.  I explained the problem and left the car with the mechanic fully confident that my problems would soon be over.  I was in a vanpool at the time, which passed by the foreign car repair shop on the way to work so it would be convenient when it was ready to be picked up.  The problem is 1 week went by without any call from the mechanic, so I called to find out the progress only to be told he was working on it when time allowed.  I asked what the bill was so far since I had no estimate upfront and all I was told by his wife is that she would get back to me.  Now the 2^nd week passes without any word from the shop so I call again with the same question and get the same answer.  All I can see are $$$ flashing across my brain.  I explained that I did not want to spend a fortune repairing a $1600 car.  Now it’s in the 3^rd week and my vanpool buddies are giving me a hard time about having to sell my house to pay for the car repairs etc.  I call repeatedly in the 3^rd week trying to find out info related to the cost of this repair but with the same results.  The wife explains that her husband is working on it but there are a lot of electrical problems, really, it’s British.  I explained it wasn’t necessary to make the car brand new because I couldn’t afford that.  It’s not that I needed the car since I’m in a vanpool but the idea of not knowing what it cost to fix was driving me crazy.  So I call and tell them I’m picking the car up so tell me how much I owe.  They explained the bill will be ready when I pick the car up.   Great so now I can lose sleep until then but as it turns out the bill was not excessive and the car ran good.  

Thankfully that ordeal was over, but I just couldn’t leave it there.  I wrote the mechanic a letter saying I was confident he was a good mechanic but I was unsure of his business skills explaining that maybe Porsche or Mercedes owners didn’t care what their bill was but MG owners did and it might help his business greatly if he provided estimates or periodically updated his clients about repair cost.  I never received a response (didn’t expect one) but I felt better because I wrote the letter.

I happily drove the car until it needed more work but this time I took it to a foreign car shop in St. Charles.  The repairs there went well but the trip home was memorable which will be another article titled “Rode Rage on Hwy 94”.