(first posted 2/15/2016) In psychology class, I learned that the sense of smell is closely linked to memory, and anyone who has been around a greasy old car since the halcyon days of youth could certainly agree. Interiors have that old car smell, crankcases seem to emit certain odors closely related to the engine’s manufacturer, and there’s just something about the over-rich mixture emitted from the tailpipes of a cold engine that evokes those teenage days of fumbling with a wrench. There’s more to loving cars, however, than the remembrance of things smelled. Old cars are like record collections or favorite songs; they transport one to a moment in time, stuck in one’s memory, that is as clear as the sound of an unmuffled engine ringing across the rural countryside. MGA coupes take me back all right.
It’s strange how life turns out. The fact that I own eight cars is really no surprise, but the fact that I own eight good old American cars is. Of course, my list is ever evolving. When I was 19 or 20 years old, bombing around in my old ’65 Mustang, I was certain I’d own a garage full of old British sports cars: GT6s like the one above, MGAs, MGBs, Austin-Healey 100s, Triumph TR2s and TR3s, and even Aston Martin DB2s apexed the corners of my mind and drove me mad with vehicular desire.
Right around the time of my high school graduation, I stopped to admire a Seafoam Green ’75 MG Midget that was for sale in my neighborhood, and I remember its owner ogling my Mustang and saying, “I’d rather have that!” The grass is always greener, I guess.
Twenty years have passed since then, and although I still love those old sports cars, I’ve never owned one. Last summer, Dad and I drove my good old Mustang to Grattan Raceway in southwest Michigan, a four-hour round trip, to watch the vintage races. And that’s where I discovered the MGA.
All of a sudden, 1997 came flooding back as I ogled this beautiful coupe for an awkward amount of time. As I did, I realized that although I don’t really want to go back to my youth, because I’m happy where I am, I do miss one thing about it: that beautifully misguided optimism and hope untainted by the basic realities of adulthood. As I approach 40, I just hope that I’m never a lonely old man; but at 20, there was a garage full of tiny wonders in my future. Although I was totally unsure of how they’d get there, I just knew I’d figure it out somehow. Who has to eat anyway?
As recently as two years ago, I dreamed I was behind the wheel of a white MGA roadster, buzzing down a country road, but I think my dream lied to me. I’d rather have a coupe. Fewer than 10,000 were made, and most of them were 1500s, making this 1600 somewhat uncommon. But the coupe has it all over the roadster–those delightfully odd door handles, roll up windows, a roof that bears a striking resemblance to a later Lotus Elan (at least from this angle). An MGA coupe is a thing of beauty; my 20-year-old self was absolutely right, and I commend him on his exquisite taste in automobiles.
When I was even younger, I would daydream about freezing time and space, freeing me to roam around unimpeded, borrowing cars from dealerships for a quick spin, my progress unhindered by policemen, traffic, or my lack of a driver’s license. Childish? Maybe, but if I could borrow that hypothetical time freezing instrument to drive this MGA, I would.
The MGA, of course, was nearing the end of its run in 1960, soon to be replaced by the everlasting MGB, which was never quite as good looking to me, although I did make a few calls regarding the purchase of some potential beaters, even though I had no money. The MGB was a better car, but the MGA was magic, and I’m always surprised when it doesn’t make any of those myriad “most beautiful” lists.
Unfortunately, MGAs are quite out of my price bracket these days (I’ve never spent more than $6500 initial purchase price for an old car); but dreams are almost as sweet, and even though I may never own a British sports car, they’re a part of my hopeful future as much as they shaped my idea of rolling sculpture in the past.
Great looking cars and providing you dont get the twincam 1600 very simple basic B series BMC engines and powertrain as used in hundreds of thousands of Austins and Morris sedans anvil reliability as long as you do basic maintenance.
The simple solution to the problem with the MGA twincam is “to install vibration isolating flex mounts between the intake manifold and the carburetors.” see: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/twincam/tc301.htm
In the early 70s my boss at my summer job was a serious amateur racer. Around the late 50s and early 60s he raced a twin-cam MGA before switching to MGBs. In those days we had lots of paper around the office and he had a great paper-weight. It was a badly bent valve from his MGA. The stem was almost bent into an S. I couldn’t figure out how it could be so bent, but it was.
Very, very nice words but prefer the roadster myself.
I remember when the coupes were very affordable. IIRC, the reason given for their low price was usually that they were insufferably hot most of the year. Because few people wanted them when they were just old cars, they are now scarce enough that the price is coming back to that of the roadsters. Thirty years ago though, they were primarily seen as parts cars for people restoring drop-tops.
They made sense in pre-global warming England, but they sure did have a rep for being hot. There was very little proper insulation from the engine to the passenger compartment. Even the roadster got hot in the footwells in the summer.
Even the policewomen in England got roadsters.
Are those women, or does the man closest to the camera just need a haircut? I see this photo elsewhere labeled as being Lancashire Police women, but I don’t think the people in the photo look particularly womanly. Also, the Lancashire Police women were only gaining uniformed roles in the ’50s, and sending them out alone to enforce traffic laws seems like a poor decision. Were they armed back then?
All women. Historically almost no “street cops” (bobbies) in England carried guns. As far as I know, I don’t think all of them still do today, but I might be wrong.
The UK has extremely low rate of gun ownership, hence the lack of arms on many police. Very different than in the US, to put it mildly. But please, don’t let me trigger you on that subject! 🙂
More on these: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/variants/vt110-lan.htm
Until quite recently, the police would have a few revolvers in a safe and needed permission to bring them out for a firearms incident. Now there are specialist firearms officers but cops are not routinely armed. If they don’t need guns now, they definitely didn’t in the 50s – didn’t even need a man!
A lawyer once told me that a lone cop was not able to issue a speeding ticket legally (without a camera car or other technology), so they always had two traffic cops just to corroborate. I drove through an old fashioned radar trap today and there were two cops standing there.
Predominantly, our police are unarmed, and the majority not trained in firearms use, and therefore not legally permitted to use them. There are some especially trained armed officers despatched as and when necessary, but the only armed officers you will see in the normal course of events will be within airports and outside really secure locations. Im not even sure that the guys on the gates of Downing St are all armed, and certainly any traffic officer for example will not be. He’ll have baton and know how to use it, but no gun.
Hopefully, we can stay this way for as long as possible.
End of subject.
In the 1950s and 1960s, these women police officers (known as WPC or Woman Police Constable) would have been part of the Women’s Department, where they worked in specific areas, with limited duties and promotion prospects . Now, of course, all are in one common status and there are women Chief Constables as well, as there should be.
Curios fender-top lights on those police MGs. Look like early fifties Austin parking lights!
Same could be said for the Fiat Dino Coupe as engine donor for the Dino GT.
I know a guy that parted out a few very nice Dino Coupes in the late ’80s for their gauges, switch-gear, and a few bits of hardware that were shared with period Ferraris he was restoring to cash in on Enzo’s passing. It really bothered me a the time. He had a 246 GTS that was already in excellent condition, and I don’t think he had any other Ferraris in his shop that weren’t V12s. From what he said to me, it didn’t even sound like he was going to pull the engines before scrapping them. Maybe the engines were bad though. I seem to recall that they had a reputation for valve related failures when they were current.
There was the misinformation perpetuated by Ferrari that the Fiat had a different engine but more recently its been found that they were the same units (with IIRC different carby setup?) I heard another rumour that the unrelated Lampredi 3.2 V6 as found in the 130 shared the same crankshaft but that seems far less likely to me, even though I have zilch mechanical expertise.
The Dino 246s had 40DCNF/6 or 40DCNF/7 carburetors while the FIAT Dino 2.4s had 40DCNF/12 carburetors. Beyond being the same type of downdraft 2 barrel 40 mm non-progressive carburetors, I don’t know what this means. I think everyone involved knew it was very similar to the 246 engine, but they all had a bad reputation for dropping sodium cooled valves that would fail where they were welded together. If that didn’t happen, the valves would stop being retained after their collets loosened up. It’s possible that he picked up the coupes because they needed engine work. It still seemed a shame to trash such beautiful cars for their gauges and switches. Superformance makes redesigned valve gear with double collet rings now, but I don’t know if people were remachining blocks damaged by dropped valves at the time. I do recall that Oliver wanted a quarter million dollars for his 246 GTS in 1989, so you’d think that any length was worth going to at the time.
I’m pretty sure he still had it when values collapsed and he moved on to making money taking advantage of bad politics instead of restoring and selling cars. If he had the 20+ Maseratis, 20+ Lamborghinis, and handful of V12 Ferraris he had twenty-five years ago, he’d look like a genius. He also had several Bizzarrinis and ISOs, which I only learned of because he had them. He tried cornering the market for Toyota 2000GTs too soon. He had a few in his showroom for years. Now they’re million dollar cars. He tried speculating on AMXs too. I’m not sure they ever achieved serious collectible status. He also had a nice Horch, a TVR, a Countach chassis that had burned, a couple ’59 Cadillacs, and a Jensen Healey that I wanted to buy until I drove it. Although I didn’t agree with the Dino destruction, his shop was definitely the high point of my automotive time wasting opportunities for a couple years.
Interesting. I was living in Newtown, Sydney in 1993 (a university/free-thinking suburb sort of like Eugene, but close to the CBD). Side streets were so narrow you could only park on one side; none of the houses had off-street parking and it was mostly student beaters anyway. Came across an Espada just parked in the street. Could. Not. Believe. It. Eventually met the owner who suffered in the crash. Had 17 cars. Kept one.
To me the Bizzarrini always looked like a poorly rendered kit-car version of the Grifo. hehehe
When I was in my 20s I guess I had very similar dreams. But I did do a lot more than dream about borrowing sports cars for test drives.
The 1st British sports car I was allowed to test drive was my female cousin’s near new Triumph GT6+, and that tiny car ignited a fire in me.
About a year later, in the summer of 1972, I took what was then my dream car, a brand new, light yellow TR6 for a test drive and might have bought it….or so I told myself, if not for being the almost new owner of a Vega. (The Vega would later be traded straight up for a 72 Spitfire.) The Spitfire was sold and it’s place taken by a 1960 Triumph TR3A that ran decently. It had under 80,000 miles on it but was in need of a near total restoration. The seller tried to interest me in his other car as well, which in hindsight I guess I should have at least driven: a Jaguar XKE convertible that was in fairly decent shape. Silly me, I wanted a car I could easily work on/keep running.
When I hit my 30s, I again had a period (I had one after the TR3 purchase) where my “collection” of vehicles had gotten up to 4. I had a 80 Ford Fiesta, a 78 Pontiac LeMans sedan, a Porsche 914, and a Yamaha motorcycle. The Fiesta and Yamaha were purchased new, the others were bought used. (It’s a wonder my co-workers didn’t suspect me, living in a small Texas town, of being some kind of drug dealer….or maybe they did?)
I do look for old sports cars on Craigslist and AutoTrader Classic every now and then, but like you feel that I don’t want to spend more than 4 figures for an old car. That leaves fewer and fewer choices as the years pass. In “my neck of the woods” there are the 1 or 2 Triumph TR7s that are currently “hibernating”. A decent one is about all I can afford.
Perhaps I’ll wind up selling my Crown Victoria and getting a lightly used Miata? It will have to have a manual transmission, though, no automatic transmissioned sports cars for me.
“Remembrance of things smelled”. Wonderful phrase!
My brother and I worked at a Pontiac dealer just after High School and someone traded in a tired Healey 3000 with rusty wide chrome rear wheels. Of course, we immediately put repair plates on it and drove over to the Dairy Queen to see if there might be anyone in our age group to impress. They wanted $400 for the roadster, which was tempting. Of course, we didn’t have that kind of expendable income, and knew it would be just the tip of an expensive iceberg. Soon after that, my best friend sold his rare type 34 Karmann and bought a ’67 3000. He was the toast of the U of Vermont. I got to ride in it often, and a bumpy ride it was, but who cared?
Sweet looking cars. I’ve seen MG coupes and hardtops before, but never in this nice condition. 🙂
This was a great read. KiwiBryce makes the point above how simple the MGA was. A B series engine and cart springs indeed sound simple. MGs also being one of the easiest old cars to source parts for thanks to Moss and others. The upside of the increased value is it removes the question of whether the car is worth another fix.
The cars are 50-60 years old now and seeing them outside of car shows gets less common over time. The mental picture of a jaunty young man and his pretty date enjoying a spirited run on a country road with a picnic basket on the luggage rack, sounds ever more like a period piece rather than a realistic current reality. This is really what ends the romance of cars like the MG and consigns them to be old man toys. Makes you wonder if the cars will die with them.
I enjoyed reading your thoughts. I should have owned so many more old cars by now, at least according to youthful me. But life gets in the way and here we are.
I never caught a bad case of the English sports car bug, but I do like them. As I guess is confirmed by the Miata in the garage, which is the best English sports car available for the price range where you and I live.
” confirmed by the Miata in the garage, which is the best English sports car available for the price range where you and I live.”” +1 on that JPC.
But that MGA is a neat looking car, and unusually with the hardtop it looks at least as good as the roadster
I too always thought an MGA Coupe looked better and certainly would have made a better driver both for weather protection and less flexing as you drove it spiritedly .
Sadly , in the 1970’s many were scrapped out to provide cheap parts for Roadsters….
This Old man will still be driving his oldies far and wide on fun jaunts , picnics and road rallies as long as he can ~ my cars may be unrestored survivors but the rich folks I know are always happy to have me along as I’m not afraid to ‘ let it out ‘ whenever possible , that’s what they were made for , not riding on trailers to some show on the grass .
-Nate
I DO understand!
After viewing “Butterfield 8” for the first time; I developed a serious case of Automotive Lust for the Sunbeam Alpine with the bolt on hardtop that Liz Taylor drove around town.
Many, many years later, the deciding factor in purchasing a Fiat 124 Spyder was the aftermarket , bolt on hardtop and working (at the time anyway) dealer add on A/C that turned the car into a snug coupe.
“…Beautifully misguided optimism and hope untainted by the basic realities of adulthood…
Stop talking crazy!
Please?
That’s why some label me as immature! 🙂
Is that Alfa for sale? Yours?
I also had/have a bunch of Alfa love back then…Watching “The Graduate” did me in as far as Duettos were concerned. I never could decide if I liked the earlier Giulietta style better or not. Then there’s the coupes. Man, I want an Alfa. 🙂
I believe that’s a Fiat 850 Spyder. About a 66-67 I’m guessing. Oh the temptation to try and talk you out of it.
I don’t think it is, Syke. Look at the hood, headlight covers, and bumpers of this Duetto.
I’ll own up if I’m wrong though… 🙂
I think the side marker light behind the headlight makes Lokki’s a ’69 Alfa-Romeo 1750 Spider Veloce instead of a Duetto.
I agree; I caught the side marker after I posted the picture.
Very evocative. I’ve never had a long-term case of British Roadster Lust, but there have certainly been a few “what if”s along the way. Sometime I’ve got to at the very least drive one…right now the closest I’ve come is a short ride in a later MG Midget.
Thank you Aaron:
Your well spoken words are something which we can all relate to in our own particular way.
I guess I was lucky. As I’m another one of those American Anglophile types (well, how many people do you know get into historical re-enactment via the English Civil War?), I’ve always preferred British to anything else, be it bicycle, motorcycle or automobile. No matter how under designed, under built, or just plain annoying.
I was very fortunate in that my Anglo-passion got sidetracked to Triumph motorcycles, rather than Triumph automobiles. They’re cheaper, usually faster, easier to work on, and a lot easier to push when they break down. And those British bikes took my life in directions that a British sports car would have never done.
I still want a Jag . . . . .
When it comes to old British sportscars I always try to employ the “Better to have loved and lost…” philosophy.
My optimistic and impractical 20 year old self actually indulged the urge and used a ’75 Midget as my daily driver for a couple years in the mid 80’s. This of course led to a ’74, which also did DD duty for a while but was soon relegated to fair weather use. A safety conscious ex-wife caused me to part ways with that pristine ’74 for a mere $3500 back in ’93, with the agreement that at a certain milestone it’d be replaced. The marriage didn’t last until the agreed-upon milestone, so I’ve pined for the sweet scent of leaking oil seals, singed wiring and dampness for 20-odd years now.
At this stage in life I’ve unfortunately become so much more practical and so much less idealistic. Renting a home and not having a garage are 2 factors that sully the idea of shopping for another MG or Triumph. While I now live within 2 miles of work and am no longer in a region where rough winters or road salt would prevent year-round use, there’s another ‘regular’ car in the household, and I could legitimately justify the purchase of an impractical and fun second car, I just can’t bring myself to take the plunge. The reason: I know that once that itch is scratched it’ll have no choice but to spread like a bad case of poison ivy.
I remember going to a large wrecking yard in San Leandro with my Dad back in the early 60’s. There was a a memorable, delightful smell of old caked on grease and dirt. The kind that coats the undercarriage with a a thick black layer that you scrape off with a putty knife. I haven’t smelled that in years. For some reason the local Pick and Pull just doesn’t generate that wonderful fragrance. Another memorable odor is the interior smell of an old fifties Cadillac. Very distinctive.
I got a ride home from school (in Oakland) a few times from a mom who drove an mid-fifties fishtail Cadillac convertible. I don’t remember the smell of the car itself, just its yellow color and the inside of the soft top. But the smell I associate with that Caddy was the drinks she would give us, much to the chagrin of my mom, those long-gone KoolAde type drinks that were about 3 ounces of sweet, colored liquid inside a wax bottle that you bit the top off.
Was it the wrecking yard along 880 at 238? I went with my Dad there when I was young, too. Last year, for the first time in decades, I needed to visit the wrecking yard. I found out that so many of the yards I used to visit 30 – 40 years ago are long gone. A shame.
I think I’m actually getting less realistic as I get older. At 48 I realize there aren’t many old cars in my future, especially at my glacial pace of work.
The call of the British sports car remains strong, and I think the prices are coming down on them, which makes them more affordable for future me…
I’ve never owned a British car, or bike for that matter; the closest I’ve come was the family Hillman sold when I was 3 years old. And somehow the MGA never appealed to me, caught in between the “classic” T series and the modern B, it always seemed dated and perhaps trying too hard to look like an XK120/140/150. And – sorry to seem in a negative mood this morning – I’ve decided that I really don’t like old car smell. Our fleet is now 15 and 19 years old, with just enough minor seal and gasket leaks, and perhaps rain leaks as well, to have started acquiring that aroma of oil, coolant and mold that brings back memories of too much time under the hood, and not enough time enjoying the open road. My only sports car, an Alfa Spyder, reeked pretty badly with the top up, so I can imagine a hardtop MGA might not be so pleasant, regardless of ambient temperature.
The MGA is beautiful, but I could never afford a nice one. For some reason, lately, I seem to have a certain fondness for a TR7 coupe. i didn’t care much for them new, but inexplicably, now I find them quite attractive. Go figure.
The usual cure is to buy one 😉
Very nicely written with some very nice photos too. The MGA is beautiful, sort of the quintessential late ’50s, early ’60s sports car. I’ve always had a weakness for British sports cars, and have owned several (all Triumphs and MGs), and still own one, an MG TD (which I drive every chance I get). Just a lot of fun. Mine have all been decent cars, even reliable (despite their reputation) once I’ve gone through them.
Nice shots. I’ve never seen an MGA coupe, though there’s a nice restored silver roadster I see around our neighborhood during the summer. I’ve always liked the old British sports cars, and I wouldn’t mind one for a summer weekend driver. A friend of my wife’s parents used to restore them as a hobby, and he was very good at fixing their electrical issues and keeping them in top form. I’ll bet his widow still keeps an old Triumph around as a summer driver.
My first car was a 1964 Morris Oxford with the 4 speed floor change. I think it had the same 1600cc B-series engine that this MGA had.
I bought my Oxofrd in 1979 from a dealer who gave me a good price because the “rings would need doing soon”. I had that car for 6 years, treated it kindly and never did the rings (although I replaced the head, which cracked). It was simple and reliable. It never left me stranded.
I moved on to Rover sedans after the Morris but often thought about buying an older British sportscar. I’ve lusted after, TR6’s, Elans, Jaguars, MGB’s, MGA’s and came closest to buying a Austin Healey Sprite – but never actually pulled the trigger on any of them. When I did buy, I had switched to German cars (a 911 in a brief period of high earning affluence – which the 911 did its best to undermine – and a 924).
The Porsches are gone and I don’t think I’ll be back there again – but it’s a good thing early XK Jaguars are way out of my price range, because they are beautiful cars and still sing their siren song.
I’m a rather nostalgic person in general but I can see the smell thing being true.
The smell of a car that has been sitting closed up for a few months always reminds me of being a kid having to pump the brake pedal while my dad bled the brakes on his ’66 Galaxie. It seemed like he’d drive it for a few weeks and then it would sit for a few months, then we would repeat the process. Once I got big enough to push the brake pedal I took those duties over from my mother.
That hot air-cooled engine scent mixed with the slight exhaust stench rising up from the floor vents of an air-cooled Volkswagen always signal to me that winter is here. I can see myself wrapped up in my big coat in my parent’s driveway warming my ’71 Beetle up waiting on my perpetually late younger brother so we could drive to school.
That mix of varnished gasoline, old oil and general automotive decay puts me back to trudging through old junkyards with my Dad. Sadly those places are rapidly disappearing…
My most recent flashback was getting a ride from a friend in a early 90’s Chevy pickup he’d just bought. He’s a smoker and so was the previous owner. The smell of the interior of that truck mixed with the musty cigarette smoke smell reminded me of riding around with my grandfather in one of those era trucks (he had many of them) and he’s a smoker as well so they always had that smell.
In 1969, just back from Vietnam and in CA to finish out the remaining 10 months of my ‘enlistment’, I stumbled upon a fixed head MGA. OMG! 40K miles on it..and $300!! I could barely fit my 6 foot frame behind the wheel!
One rebuilt tranny, 4 new Semperits, a new coat of BRG over the oxidized red finish, and I enjoyed the hell out of that motor on the twisties of central California! However, I sold it to a sergeant from San Jose for a grand. Boy I miss that car!
Speaking of hardtops, I did run into a gentleman with a 1956 Jaguar XK140 MC Fixed Head Coupe- very similar to the MGA except for the 3.5 Liter inline 6.
Great article Aaron, there is definitely something about the smell of a car interior built before they started using plastics. A friend of mine was about to buy a rough MGA coupe just before we moved away from each other and lost touch, at the time he was driving an MGB roadster. He planned to put an MGB engine in it with a supercharger, but I don’t know if that ended up happening.
Does any one know about any contact info for the above Triumph GT6+ that is pictured above, with a” For Sale ” sign in it’s window.
What state was the photo taken?
How long ago was it taken?
Interested,
Thanks,
Rob
Rob, I took that picture at the Waterford Hills road course near Clarkston, MI last July. That’s all I can tell you!
Ok thanks,
I used to own a Red GT6+,
it was a great fun car, after I reworked the ground points on the entire electrical system!
I once raced a HO 455 Firebird, at first he just walked me, but I kept going threw the gears, and finaly passed him like he was standind still, he was topped out at about 117MPH, while I was still pulling at over 125 MPH.
Great old time fun.
My nephew (in the US) has two MGA’s. His daily driver is a B-GT.
In my case, those smells revive half century old memories. In (a mild for Edmonton) February 1967, teenaged me had already decided to buy one of several British sports cars from a shop in the neighbourhood. The good natured manager let me drive; a white 1960 MGA roadster, 1959? white Daimler SP250, sky blue AH Sprite (not bug eyed), and a 1960 red Sunbeam Alpine. Only the Alpine and the Sprite fit my pre car loan budget. I found the Sunbeam so refined, with its roll up windows, so it came home with me. A week later, the fuel pump packed in, the Laycock deNormanville overdrive never did work, and by August, the differential had chewed itself up. A lot of money gone, and merciless teasing from my buddies, but the smells linger and they’re worth every penny.
I’ve always had a soft spot for these MGA’s. Beautiful lines. I found this roadster today for sale in here in Oklahoma.
https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/cto/d/shawnee-1960-mga/7445642800.html
Aaron didn’t give us a straight-on side view of the car; here’s one. I wonder if there was any thought given, in designing the MGA, to suggestions of XK120 lines–in particular, the tapering of the beltline toward the rear, to provide pronounced hips at the rear fenders ?
https://www.classicargarage.com/garages/imparts/sold/mg-mga-1500-coupe-1957
Never had either, and I don’t know a whole lot about them, but people who had, either or both used to tell me the MGA was really the better car. Been so long now the details escape me. I do recall a roommate long ago with a B who said he couldn’t leave the foglights installed in summer, it blocked too much airflow to the radiator and it overheated.