British Automobiles

[CoastalCruiser]

British Automobile convo moved to new thread @ request of OP -BarelyAWake

Just wanted to say if anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, or history with British made car's and would like to share their experience here's a thread for this.

C,H.

Very interesting indeed. Saved the whole thing to disc. My British Car Folly was a 1976 Triumph TR7. shortly after I bought it, the water pump died and fried the head which led to a blown engine. I spent the next 3 years rebuilding that SOB, including doing all the machine work myself at our local community college.

 

[LouieMCman]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Couldn't be any worse than my 1976 Fiat (fix it again Tony) folly, it's one thing after another with those cars....wanta trade for the Triumph?

 

[fasteddy]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Louie, you guys were lucky. Here in Canada we didn't have much choice as kids. If it was $50 or under you learned why Lucas was the Prince of Darkness and Limeys drank warm beer because they all owned Lucas refrigerators.

I owned them all. Mini Minors, Morris Minors, Morris Oxfords, Austins, Triumphs, Standard Vanguards, Vauxalls, Morgan 3 wheeler, MGA and B and worst of all Jaguar.
Then there were the Triumph. James, Dart and Francis Barrnet{ frantic banana } motor cycles.

One of my few dips into automotive reality was a 1953 Ford Meteor. A Canadian badged Ford. That's how I became, Fasteddy.

Steve.

 

[meowy84]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

LOL Gotta love British cars. Anyone Hear this one: "Everything that falls off an MG is of the highest British workmanship" heh heh

I never owned as many as Fasteddy, just a Spitfire and an MGB but despite the quirks (problems lol) they all do have their special charm. It's just that they're built different with a different philosophy than North American cars. I'm generalizing but the average North American doesn't believe in maintenance of any kind. It breaks, you fix it or buy another one. Whereas for an European a car is a sizeable investment and so they treat car maintenance as almost a religion. A typical American V8 will run forever a quart short on oil. Not so with a small Euro 4 banger.

 

[fasteddy]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, I've known fasteddy all his life and he is a very sick f**k. A normal person might make that mistake once, sometimes twice but never again and again.

He's looking at mini minors again. I told you he wasn't right.

Steve.

 

[meowy84]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, I've known fasteddy all his life and he is a very sick f**k. A normal person might make that mistake once, sometimes twice but never again and again.

He's looking at mini minors again. I told you he wasn't right.

Steve.

Just don't tell me it's the new Mini (doesn't BMW make them now?) or I'll call Fasteddy a sell-out. hahaha Well it's just like crack. You know it will drain your wallett, you know it ain't good for ya but you just can't stop yourself. LOL

I've only owned 2 Brits but had a lot of very close calls, which I sometimes regret not getting despite the ridiculousness of the proposition at the time. Among the several common MGs and Triumphs the more memorable 'almosts' include a a few Minis (including one Cooper S), a Jaguar Mk VII saloon (only thing that stopped me was that it was the auto trans, not the stick which I prefer) , 2 TR3 project cars when I was in college and didn't even have a garage or a driveway to work on them, a '59 Morris Minor and as recently as 2 years ago a Vauxhall Viva HB for a vintage rally car look-alike since the British Ford Escorts are too hard to come by here in North America.

 

[fasteddy]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, I had a lot of 1959 to 1964 minis. Looking for an untouched early one. New ones are too reliable.
Just nothing like that taste of fear as the car lights dim at 3 am, 200 miles from home.

Just got to love the quality British parts as you pick them off the road. Gives you a chance to admire the workmanship that American car owners never get to share.

A Jaguar automatic. The essence of British perfection. You were so close to brink of He**
and yet you were pulled back. There must be God in Heaven.

What part of Canada you in?

fast"madman"eddy

 

[silverbear]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, I've known fasteddy all his life and he is a very sick f**k. A normal person might make that mistake once, sometimes twice but never again and again.

He's looking at mini minors again. I told you he wasn't right.

Steve.

That's funny,
First car I owned was a used Austin Healy 3000 roadster. I loved that car. It was maroon with a silver racing stripe up the hood, black leather seats, a wooden/aluminum custom steering wheel, white tonneau cover and I still have dreams about it once in awhile. I wake up and realize it is long gone and feel a little pang of sorrow. It was a pain to work on, though, especially trying to keep two carbs in sync with each other when I barely knew how to run a screwdriver.
Then it was a love affair with MGs. Started out with a 52 MGTD my brother got in payment for money owed him and which he gave to me as a kind of basket case roadster. I learned a lot from that car and even painted it a canary yellow in lacquer with a little electric sprayer... rub it out and give it another coat all summer long until it looked great. But I rebuilt the engine, brakes, rewired it and then blew up the engine. Put an MGA engine in it and learned some more. Then another MGTD for my wife, then an MGA roadster and finally an MGA Coupe which was pretty rare and claustrophobic. I always spent more time working on them than running them (like snowmobiles). Looking back I do not understand why I was so enamored. I think the illness led eventually to HT motors, the poor little things. I guess as young men we have always been interested in things which gave us speed and mobility, whether a fast pony, a motorcycle or a car and as boys it was a cool bicycle with dreams of a motor on it. One reason I enjoyed looking over this book (I'm still on topic kind of) is the sense of camaraderie with those motor heads from back when. All of us brothers in the wind.
SB

 

[meowy84]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, I had a lot of 1959 to 1964 minis. Looking for an untouched early one. New ones are too reliable.
Just nothing like that taste of fear as the car lights dim at 3 am, 200 miles from home.

Just got to love the quality British parts as you pick them off the road. Gives you a chance to admire the workmanship that American car owners never get to share.

A Jaguar automatic. The essence of British perfection. You were so close to brink of He**
and yet you were pulled back. There must be God in Heaven.

What part of Canada you in?

fast"madman"eddy

Ahh but that Mk VII had the most beautiful twin cam 6. Since I can't comment on how they run they sure are pretty. Aside from the XK cars of course I think the Mk VII was one of the most elegant looking big British sedans. They even raced them.

BTW, I'm in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

 

[fasteddy]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, they weren't racing, they were trying to stay ahead of the parts that were falling off.

Had a 1959 3.4 Jaguar sedan in 1966. Rust rotted beyond belief but it ran like a dream for a while. Trans started to give out {auto}, front end was crapped out and I washed it and went home and when I turned the headlights on, the car filled with smoke. Got it home and called the insurance company. Took it to the auto electric co. and they took ten days to to replace 10ft of wire. One man worked on it almost the whole ten days.
He couldn't find the burnt wire.
When I picked it up the owner told me to "never, ever bring that f***ing car" back to his shop.

My son, who lives in New Hampshire, worked in a very high end auto salvage yard and the owner, a former Jaguar mechanic, told his buyer that the first time he brought a Jaguar in the yard he was fired.
Yes they are beautiful cars. Beauty is only skin deep.

Sold my Jag and bought a 1966 Triumph Spitfire off the show room floor and drove it from Toronto to LA on route 66. Did route 66, in a 66, in 66. Never had a scrap of trouble with the car.
Not so lucky with the girl I went to see.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Silver Bear, I was going to sell my Jaguar and buy a white 1959 Healy and on the way I passed the Triumph dealer and wound up with a new 1966 Spitfire.

Almost bought a MGTD but the old British mechanic that lived behind us talked me out of it.
Got close to an MG twin cam coupe but went home to think about it overnight and it was sold in the morning. They wanted $900, 1965 dollars.

I owned the first Porsche brought into Canada. Certified by VW Canada at the time. They brought a coupe and a convertable in to introduce Porsche to Canada. I had the convertable 10 years later. Sold it to the man who owned the coupe. Paid $125 for it.
Bought 2 1939 Triumph motorcycles at the same time for $75 each.

Steve.

 

[meowy84]

Re: Motor Bicycle Building Book 4 FREE!

Meowy84, they weren't racing, they were trying to stay ahead of the parts that were falling off.

I owned the first Porsche brought into Canada. Certified by VW Canada at the time. They brought a coupe and a convertable in to introduce Porsche to Canada. I had the convertable 10 years later. Sold it to the man who owned the coupe. Paid $125 for it.
Bought 2 1939 Triumph motorcycles at the same time for $75 each.

Steve.

I guess that's why the Chevy 350 conversions for Jags are so popular.

Speaking of german cars I've owned a few with much less problems than the British cars. All were bought used of course. Had a '74 Bavaria, a '70 2002 and an '85 Merc 500SEL. These were mostly very reliable save for a few electrical gremlins like gauges that you had to tap to get the needles working again. I loved the 500SEL, very heavy, steady, built like a vault.

I almost even bough a 356B in about 1996. Missing the glass and engine, ratty interior and completely rusted out floor. Since it was really too far gone for a purist to restore to original I was gonna make it into a vintage racer like this guy does Outlaws with VW power. They guy only wanted $500 for the car and didn't really get much interest in it (Thunder Bay, Ontario is redneck central where American Muscle Cars rule and no one has interest in European cars) but like with the TR3s being in university at the time I didn't have the time or resources to do it justice. So to offset the initial cost and since I was thinking of a VW drivetrain anyways I even tried to pre-sell the tranny to restorers and listed it with the trans serial numbers on several of the 356 forums for $500 (the price of the car) but had no offers at all. Now I see plain-Jane 356 trannies sell for $1500 and up and aside from the Carrera and Speedster versions regular project 356 cars in similar condition sell on fleeBay for $5000 and up. Been kicking myself ever since for not getting it.

LOL, this thread sure has gotten way off topic.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Just wanted to say if anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, or history with British made car's and would like to share their experience here's a thread for this.

C,H.

 

[deacon]

63 Austin Healey (sp) sprite I can't even tell you how many times it left me stranded in the rain. Pull the engine to install a clutch ect

 

[Kevlarr]

My brother used to have a Triumph and it had a bumper sticker that read " Lucas Electrical products are the original anti-theft devices."

Here's some more I found.

* Although Lucas denies having invented darkness itself, they still lay claim to "sudden, unexpected darkness"
* Lucas, inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
* Lucas, inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
* The three-position Lucas light switch has the following settings: DIM, FLICKER and OFF.
* Other three-position switches in the Lucas range can be set to: SMOKE, SMOLDER or IGNITE.
* Lucas Electrical products are the original anti-theft devices.
* "I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob..."
* Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.
* It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohm's Law. They withdrew their efforts when they met too much resistance.
* Back in the '70s Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which didn't suck.
* The Quality Assurance department at Lucas phoned and advised the Engineering department that they were having trouble with the latest switch design shorting out. So they made the wires longer.
* A classic car enthusiast peeked in the windows of a Land Rover and asked the owner "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?". The owner replied, "It doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens anyway!"
* Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone.
* Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb.
* Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
* The (little known) reason why the English drink warm beer, is that Lucas also made refrigerators! (submitted by Gene Mallory)

 

[silverbear]

Kevlar... that is funny! Had water in my eyes there. Thanks, I needed that!
SB

 

[silverbear]

63 Austin Healey (sp) sprite I can't even tell you how many times it left me stranded in the rain. Pull the engine to install a clutch ect

Ah yes, the bug eyed Sprite. Never had one and now I'm glad I didn't. Had a girlfriend once who had a Jaguar XK and to remove the spark plugs required a special tool only available from Jaguar. It ran great, but it spent a lot of time with a British mechanic constantly tuning it.
SB

 

[fasteddy]

Kevlarr, For Gods sake and mine stop it. My sides hurt to much to read more.

That is the best I've seen in along,long, time.

Steve.

 

[kicking]

when the word is , british automobile , first thing in my mind is Triumph TR6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[kicking]

when the word is , british automobile , first thing in my mind is Triumph TR6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia spitfire too opss ment to edit not double post sorry