The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE
43rd MGs On The Rocks, Street, MD - (September 24, 2022)
Met the Darrell's Garage crowd for 7-am breakfast in York, PA. Depending on how you look at it, pretty sure there were at least 16 Little British Cars there. Saddle up and ride out at 8-am, taking side roads to arrive at Rocks State Park in Street, Maryland an hour later.
First stop was registration, since I was not preregistered this time. Got the car parked, then checking out the table for the host club, MGs of Baltimore. Then check out the swap vendors, since the show cars were still rolling in.
British Miles was the larger "anchor" vendor this time, but a few more as well. I picked up a pair of NAPA Gold 1068 spin-on oil filters for $5 each and stashed them in the trailer.
Stroll past Cars For Sale, as they seem to be lined up early, and the Premier Class, which is cars that won their class in the past two years. Close at hand was the "MG Other" class, which for all day only had two MG ZB Magnette.
MG T-types, chrome bumper Midgets and rubber bumper Midgets.
This looked like a catch-all class for non-MG cars with only one example in each model. Will get back to these in more detail later, including the 1952 Daimler cabriolet, which was ultimately star of the show.
I registered at the gate with number 708, 8th car in the MGA class, but only 4 were present. Must have been some no-shows.
The single MGC belonged to a lady who has owned it for 40 years, recently restored to immaculate concours standard. Only one MGB V8 conversion (I thought they were more common by now), and a handful of early MGB 1962-1967.
Far more MGB 1968-1974, and I think more than a representative share of rubber bumper MGB 1975-1980. Several MGB GT, all very nice.
Five TR7, one chrome bumper Spitfire and one rubber bumper Spitfire, followed by half a dozen TR250 and TR6. Almost embarrassing that TR3 and TR4 were outnumbering MGA.
Nice group of Jaguar, not quite as many chrome bumpers as I was expecting.
Eight big Healeys and a pair of lonely Bugeye Sprites way back in the corner. No flat bonnet Sprite anywhere.
Back to that specialty class I mentioned earlier, one 1970 TVR Vixen, one Sunbeam Tiger, two Sunbeam Alpine.
The 1952 Daimler cabriolet was absolute star of the show, taking a few different trophies. Any closer and I would have been drooling on the Champagne upholstery and the one-piece curved wood dash. If you have to ask what's in the wood case, you're not in the right class.
I rather liked the Ford Holbay Cortina with engine by Holbay Engineering. They made production performance engines for various car manufacturers. With the special cross flow head, Weber carburetors and high compression, this is (I think) a 120-bhp Ford 1600 block engine.
Nice Lotus Elan, not Series 1, up-size the wheels and flare the fenders, looks impressive for such a small car. Peek under the bonnet at the typical twin cam lotus engine. And that second Alpine I mentioned earlier.
A 1966 Morgan 4/4. Call it the "little Morgan" because it has the smaller 1600 Ford engine. This was Morgans first foray into four cylinders and four wheels after building a raft of three wheelers (for road tax reasons). And wait, another Lotus Elan, earlier issue with the standard pin-drive steel wheels and Stromberg carburetors. Then another chat with the fellow MGA owner with the aftermarket grill guard and rear bumper guards from "Wacky" Arnolt. He said they came with the car, and he had no idea about the historical significance.
Nearing end of show time I strolled over to check out the twin Delorean aars. His has a Corvette V8 transplant, while hers has the original Renault V6 engine. Sorry, but she left her flux capacitor home.
I'm not a super car guy, but the Lotus Evora 400 was just eye candy, at least good for honorable mention.
As we were all waiting for awards announcements, my name came up for the long distance award, again. This may well be the same one I received last year at this show, because I did the same thing again, took the picture and gave it back to let them recycle it again next year. I also picked up a door prize (most people did). I don't usually wear advertising, but I can always use another T-shirt, and this one is kind of cute. Last picture is the MGA class winner showing off his new award to go with his real four-wheel trophy.
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