SABCC Webmaster's Blog

If You Want to Set a Land Speed Record - Call the UK

2009-07-16T12:08:00.004-05:00

A new land speed record has been set - once again by a team from the UK. This time the motive force is not jet engines, diesel power or steam. Its the wind.

Called Greenbird, it was developed by English engineer Richard Jenkins and private 'green' electricity supplier, Ecotricity. On March 26 in a dry lakebed in California, the craft broke the world land speed record for wind-powered vehicles by more than 10 miles an hour, setting the new record at 126.2 mph. Greenbird uses a solid, vertical sail shaped like an aircraft wing to capture the wind. The craft's unique low-drag design, coupled with the power of "apparent wind" (a combination of true wind and the wind force created by forward motion), allows it to travel at up to five times the true wind speed.

It's a graceful thing to look at, but like most other LSR vehicles, not really practical for everyday driving.

It Lives!

2009-07-13T09:02:00.003-05:00

You may remember reading an entry is this humble blog about my brother's efforts to get his '76 MGB on the road after its lengthy slumber. I am pleased to report that it is not only running but it is drivable. It was treated to a fluids change, new fuel tank, new tires, electronic ignition, etc.

I drove it Saturday and it drives as nicely as it ever did.

It is still in Richard Cunningham's garage where it will be cleaned up and final details performed.

The Thrill of Victory - The Agony of Defeat

2009-07-09T22:25:00.005-05:00

The Mini has not been well lately. It seems that it somehow ingested air in the brake lines during the trip down to St. John's Lawn Party and I've been both too busy and too sorry to go into the garage to look into it. I had a blessed week off work and Richard Cunningham offered to help out. We adjusted the stoppers and bled the brakes. They worked great and I drove down to his garage to do a couple of other things to it, like mount my new/old 1973 Alabama license plate.

While we were there, we decided to look into the bleed issue again to make sure that we got all the air out. While we were doing the 'pump-bleed' thing, a bleed nipple stripped the threads out of the wheel cylinder. So, the old girl is sitting quietly in Daphne waiting on a new (and hopefully better) wheel cylinder to arrive from Nevada.

Update - It appears that the vendor upgraded my shipping to Priority Mail. Mighty decent of them.

Wrong on So Many Levels

2009-07-09T22:17:00.002-05:00

I like hot dogs as much as the next guy, and I've been known to spring for the 'premium' brands when I feel a little flush. I'm not sure that I can buy Oscar Meyer any more due to the horror visited upon an innocent MINI. That's right ladies and gents the new 2009 Wienermobile is based on a MINI Cooper S.

What happened to the motorhome and truck chassis used in years past? By golly, when I think of the famous Wienermobile, I think of the bigguns. Give me a bun length hot dog, please.

Sweet Six

2009-07-02T20:32:00.002-05:00

What is it about British straight six engines that sound so good? Similarly sized American sixes make think of pickup trucks. There's nothing to compare to the sound of a big Healey, a TR6, MGC or the sublime E-Type. Yes, British four cylinders have their own distinct sound, too but the sixes are really sweet.

Maybe one day the Gods of Finance will smile on me and I'll have my own hot six.

Separated at Birth?

2009-07-01T07:30:00.003-05:00

Daimler SP250

A catfish

So, What's He Running in That Radiator?

2009-06-29T13:21:00.004-05:00

OK, I'll admit to a bodge or two in my lifetime, but this one has to be a classic. When the bottle was full it was worth about $75.00. I'm glad to see the owner is getting his money's worth.

University Motors to Close

2009-06-26T17:08:00.007-05:00

I was stunned to read in the latest edition of the MGB Driver that University Motors of Ada, Michigan is closing their doors. I had the pleasure of visiting this shop in 1999 during a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

John and Caroline Twist operated this business for over 30 years and were founding members of the North American MGB Register. John said that these economic times, as well as serious health issues that Caroline is facing forced him to make this difficult decision.

John was very generous with his time and expertise and was always available to answer technical questions about MGs in general and MGBs in particular. His YouTube videos are a fine source of information and entertaining, to boot.

John is planning a big auction of MG memorabilia and shop equipment in August. He has a pristine MG Austin-Healey dealer sign that I'd love to own.

Thanks for everything, John!

Hark! The Herald's Axles Swing

2009-06-20T11:13:00.003-05:00

SABCC'er Mike Darby shared a story about a relative in England who nearly had a catastrophic end to a drive in a Triumph Herald. It seems that quick direction changes at speed can cause the independent rear suspension to come unstuck and make the car take a new, unplanned course. The swing axle rear was similar to that used in VW Beetles and Chevy Corvairs. At least the engine was in the right end of the Herald...

MINI of Pensacola is the Title Sponsor of BCF 2009

2009-06-15T19:51:00.003-05:00

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned that the central Gulf Coast was getting a MINI dealership in Pensacola. MINI of Pensacola - part of the Sandy Sansing group of dealerships - is opening August 6th. The nice people at the dealership enthusiastically agreed to a generous sponsorship package.

Stay tuned for more details and THANK YOU MINI OF PENSACOLA!

Next Club Meeting Will be a Car Show

2009-06-15T19:41:00.003-05:00

The ever creative Noel Eagleson has suggested that we have a miniature (hey, I didn't say Mini!) car show at the July meeting of SABCC. He suggests that each member bring about three models from their collection to display on the table top show field.

As usual the meeting will be the second Tuesday of the month at the Lake Forest Yacht Club.

SABCC Family Picnic was a Winner

2009-06-15T19:14:00.003-05:00

As always, when the agenda calls for food and fellowship, SABCC'ers turn out in force. The annual family picnic on June 13th was no exception.

The city of Silverhill (A Good Place to Live) graciously granted our request to use the covered pavilion at Oscar Johnson Memorial Park. The pavilion had power, shade and a barbecue grill (a small one it turned out) and was a delightful spot. I for one was stunned at the number British cars driven to the event. Usually, the summer heat keeps all but the most intrepid in their air conditioned moderns. It was especially nice to see Michael King's MG Midget out with its new interior looking mighty nice.

Ron Wolverton thought far enough ahead that he brought his compact grill. The hungry club members were glad he did since the park grill held only 8 burgers at time. With the charcoal glowing perfectly, the burgers and hot dogs were ready in no time.

Everyone brought a dish to share and there were some really delicious ones.

After lunch was enjoyed (and before people began nodding off), club President Noel Eagleson called the business session to order. The main item of business was the selection of a charity to receive a portion of the proceeds from British Car Festival 2009. The Boys and Girls Clubs of South Alabama was nominated and Donna Cunningham spoke at length about the funding plight the organization was in. There were no other nominations and the Boys and Girls Club of South Alabama nomination was accepted by simple voice vote.

As the afternoon began to pass into evening, the members headed their respective ways, each having enjoyed a fine day spent with good friends.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the event a great success.

Spare a Thought for Vauxhall

2009-06-09T07:32:00.003-05:00

In the giant garage sale that has come to define the bankruptcy of General Motors, many of the General's brands are being sold or shut down entirely. The newspapers here are carrying stories about the demise of Pontiac and the sale of Hummer and Saturn to a Chinese firm and Roger Penske, respectively. On the other side of the pond Opel is likely going to become the property of contract car builder Magna.

That brings us to Vauxhall. As it stands now, Vauxhall will be packaged with Opel in the Magna deal. Magna has said publicly that it intends to wind down the Vauxhall name and will replace it in the UK with the Opel badge.

For a number of years Opel and Vauxhall have been sharing the same designs and model names with Opel building left hand drive versions and Vauxhall concentrating on right drive and parts building for both UK and Germany. In the US many Opel designs are Saturn-branded. It is very possible that Opel's continental plants will be the sole source for Opels in the future.

Since most of us are into the sports car scene, it might be of interest to many of you to know that the first universally acknowledged sports car carried the Vauxhall griffin badge. The Vauxhall Prince Henry was built from 1911 to 1913 and was a powerful open top tourer that won several early motoring competitions including Brooklands speed trials and long distance rallying.

In 1925 Vauxhall became a GM subsidiary company, giving the General a weapon to fight Ford in the UK. For a time in the '50s and '60s, some Vauxhall models were imported to the US and sold at Pontiac dealers, again to respond to the "English" Fords on offer here.

As British car enthusiasts, we've seen this soap opera before in the decline, nationalization and subsequent breakup of the company that was British Leyland.

Visiting the New MINI Dealership in Pensacola

2009-06-07T13:59:00.003-05:00

While trolling the web the other evening, I found a posting on a Mini forum about an invitation to visit the new MINI dealership under construction in Pensacola. After exchanging a couple of messages with the forum participants Melissa and I decided to join the group.

On our way into Pensacola, we happened on a group of five MINIs in caravan. We joined them on highway 29 and on in to the building site. We exchanged introductions and were ushered into the BMW showroom where we were greeted with coffee and doughnuts. The program was interesting and informative.

The dealer personnel -sales, service, parts and marketing - gave the group a quick rundown of the plans and let everyone know that the store is scheduled to be open in early August - in fact crews were working on Saturday.

The dealer personnel there took great pains to listen to the suggestions and advice of the MINI owners in attendance.

All in all it was a great day for a drive to P-Town. Stay tuned for more news about Sandy Sansing MINI and British Car Festival 2009...

It's June - Time for LeMans

2009-06-02T19:16:00.003-05:00

My favorite road race of the year is this month. The 24 hours of LeMans is the 13th and 14th and will be on SPEED TV. I try to watch as much as possible live, but it's tough when I'm the only one in the house that really enjoys it.

Although it was panned by critics when it was released in 1970, the Steve McQueen movie of the same name is one of my favorites. I know, I know, the dialog is pretty weak and the story is a bit lame but the racing scenes are to die for. The golden age of LeMans - Porsche vs Ferrari - it just doesn't get any better. Here's a YouTube clip that a fan put together. Enjoy it.

Maybe the club should do LeMans for a movie night. Anyone second the motion?

SABCC Annual Family Picnic

2009-05-28T19:22:00.003-05:00

After some discussion as to the date and place of our annual club picnic, the club voted to stay with our June13th date if at all possible.

It's possible.

We have put our name on the calendar at Oscar Johnson Memorial Park in Silverhill, Alabama. Located on Baldwin County 104 just east of downtown Silverhill, the park is shady, well-kept and has a grill and a very nice covered picnic pavilion with tables and electricity.

We'll try to eat around noon, but come on by whenever. The club will provide burgers and dogs and we may even be able to prevail upon our own Chris Cronk to be in charge of the cooking. Bring a side dish to share - we'll need sweets and savories so let your imagination run wild (but go light on the beans).

We will use this meeting (yes, this will be our June club meeting) to vote on a charity to receive a donation from the proceeds of this year's British Car Festival. Be there to nominate and vote for your choice.

Oh yeah, the Manet picture notwithstanding the town of Silverhill will probably frown on nekkid picnicking.

Caution - This Blog May Be Spam

2009-05-28T19:00:00.009-05:00

This humble blog was tagged as possibly being a spam blog. Yep, Google's all-knowing bots determined that this missive may be harmful to the internet, mom and apple pie. Here's an excerpt from their email message:

Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and your readers will
see a warning page during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review
your blog and unlock it within two business days. Once we have reviewed and
determined your blog is not spam, the blog will be unlocked and the message in
your Blogger dashboard will no longer be displayed. If this blog doesn't belong
to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be
affected.

Investigating the spam issue further, I found this:

What Are Spam Blogs?

As with many powerful tools, blogging services can be both used and abused. The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

Hmmm, maybe they had my number after all.

A Perfect Day for the St. John's Lawn Party

2009-05-24T21:54:00.005-05:00

The official weather forecast for Sunday was mostly cloudy and 70% chance of rain. After the near -tropical storm South Alabama endured on Saturday, no one could be quite sure what the weather was going to do. Weather radar showed light rain bands running north from the Gulf. An eyeball cast toward the skies saw scattered clouds and lots of blue.

I went to the rendezvous site for the trip to Magnolia Springs and was soon joined by Jack & Linda Ross and Richard Cunningham. We stretched our 9:00 AM departure to 9:15 to make sure any late arrivals had a chance to join us. No one else came so off we went.

The ride down scenic 98 was beautiful. It seems like there were more joggers and bicyclists than cars. We pulled into Fairhope and parked our cars at the site where SABCC was born. The former foreign car repair shop is now some high end retail space. We got a few snapshots and continued on down highway 98 past Point Clear and on to Baldwin County highway 1. We rejoined US highway 98 for the ride into Magnolia Springs. I thought the Mini set a pretty quick pace, but one of the Jaguar drivers begged to differ. Oh, well at least no one overheated.

Turning into Magnolia Springs we passed several lovely old houses and the famous Jesse's restaurant which had a large sign out front advertising a "Huge Meat Sale". Being in the Mini I had no room for huge meat so we pressed on to St. Johns.

We found our usual spot under the oaks and parked the cars. We enjoyed the fresh breezes and shade of the trees until it was time to partake of one of the lunches sold to raise funds for the parish. The bar b que was great and the portions were generous. After lunch the constant stream of adimirers kept us from napping off the meal.

We were joined by Sandy & Sam Walter and Chris & Cindy Cronk who came by to help support the club and St. Johns. Donna Cunningham also made a stop with her two grand neices in tow. After lunch with Richard she went on to Gulf Shores to visit relatives there. It was also a pleasure to see St. Johns parishoner Elaine Coll again. She and her late husband Vince were charter members of SABCC.

We all left at various times in the afternoon to make the return trip home, still enjoying the sunshine and cool breezes that we began the day with.

A Sleeping MGB is About to Wake Up

2009-05-23T21:52:00.010-05:00

Many of you long-time SABCC members know my brother (and fellow SABCC member) Alan. Most of you know that he owns a '76 MGB. Those of you that became SABCC'ers recently have not seen either Alan or his MGB. Wait no more - here it is. Alan's car is a late '76 in vermillion (orange to you and me) - mine is an early '76 in chartreuse (that would be yellow).

Due to a minor electrical issue, family and work obligations, Alan parked his 'B some years ago snugly in his west Mobile garage with every intention of making it right and driving it soon. More years than was planned passed and the old girl now needs more than just a quick fettling to get her roadworthy.

The ever-generous Richard Cunningham heard that Alan was about to begin work on the car and offered to house the 'B in his spacious Daphne garage. Since Richard found a gentleman to adopt his mid-30's Chevy pickup-hot rod project, there was more than enough room for an MG-sized car in his man-cave. Alan took him up on his offer and the rollback was dispatched with the slumbering MGB aboard.

The MG was dropped off today and a quick inspection revealed that the 'B is in better condition than originally thought. The clutch is free, the hydraulics seem to be fine and the engine turns. What fuel was in the tank has long since done its part for global warming - no sloshing was heard.

Alan is planning to mount a new set of tires (the ones on the car are at least 15 years old), install a new battery, fresh oil, coolant and hydraulic fluid. The fuel tank will likely come off to determine its ability to hold fuel. A new tank may be in the cards. Alan, Richard and I will do the work and I for one can't wait to see the car back on the road.

A Jaguar with the Heart of an MG

2009-05-22T12:11:00.005-05:00

The few of you who follow this humble blog know that I loves me some high-po Jaguars. I even 'own' a Jaguar XJR9 in my Gran Turismo 4 garage.

On one of my last trips to the Rolex 24 at Daytona I was startled to see an honest-to-goodness Jaguar XJ220 in one of the infield parking lots. It was gorgeous in dark maroon metallic and boy was it BIG. Compared to a Jaguar XJS, it is 30 inches longer and 10 inches wider.

This hot cat was supposed to have a version of Jaguar's loverly V12 engine, but due to emissions issues and cost constraints, the engineers at TWR (Jaguar's engine consultants) had to find a suitable substitute.

It was around this time that the World Rally Cup rulemakers banned Group B and that left the folks at MG (and Rover, too) with a stock of pretty hot V6 engines that powered the MG Metro 6R4 rally car. TWR reckoned that TWO turbochargers would more than make up for the loss of half the cylinders and proceeded to buy the rights to the engine. TWR coaxed the little V6 into making 549 HP.

Jaguar eventually made 281 XJ220s with copies going to Elton John and the Sultan of Brunei.

And that, kids is how an MG engine wound up in a Jaguar supercar.

Is St. Johns Lawn Party Going to be Washed Out?

2009-05-20T07:54:00.003-05:00

I really hate to say it, but it the weather on Sunday may not be in favor of the Lawn Party at St. John's Church in Magnolia Springs. This long-running SABCC calendar item may prove to be a wet one due to a nasty rain storm moving in from Florida this weekend.

As they said in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, "Watch the skies..."

Ailing MGB

2009-05-17T18:18:00.003-05:00

Yep - my MGB is not well again. I planned to drive the Yellow Peril last Sunday but the old girl was not happy. Rough running and poor idle. Started right up, but it was in no mood to be hauling around an old, fat driver. Right, well sit there then.

It looks like the problem may lie with the number one spark plug lead. Mike Darby and Richard Cunningham used their highly developed diagnosis skills to determine that my 11 year old plug leads probably need replacing. Richard even dug out an old set from his V12 XJS to let me try one to make sure that is the problem.

I'll let you know how it turns out...

MGB Number 250,000 has a Local Connection

2009-05-17T17:52:00.004-05:00

An excellent article by Ken Smith in the May/June issue of the North American MGB Register's excellent publication MGB Driver about the 250,000th MGB built. The car has a connection to the Mobile, Alabama area. If you aren't a member of the Register, you should join now and get your own copy of the Driver.

The car in question was given away by British Leyland in order to gain much needed publicity and help keep the aging MGB on the shopping list of sports car buyers. As it happened, the car was won by a Mobile resident who took delivery of it at the almost-new Road Atlanta race course.

Fast forward to 2009 and the article in the MGB Driver telling the story of the car and the contest jogged some memories. At the 2000 British Car Festival, a young man came by with photos of a Blaze MGB GT in less than perfect condition seeking investors in a restoration of the car. A sign on the roof of the car was the same as the one in the photo above. Yes, the man had the 250,000th MGB built.

The show was at its close and during the confusion, the young man with the photos disappeared. No name, no phone number--nothing.

If you know where MGB number 250,000 is drop me an email here at the SABCC site. I would love to see the car and let the world know that it still exists.

Second Mugs & Motors Enjoyed by All

2009-05-17T17:44:00.004-05:00

The second edition of Mugs & Motors was well attended and everyone enjoyed 'coffee and conversation with motoring enthusiasts'.

Over a dozen SABCC'ers came to the Panera Bread location in Spanish Fort last Saturday with five British cars on display. The five cars parked nose to tail drew a steady stream of admirers and helped bring our hobby to the attention of the public.

The positive response from the members present may mean Mugs & motors might take place more often. Tell us what you think!

They're at it Again

2009-04-24T22:37:00.003-05:00

Just when you think the folks at MINI might run out of ideas, they do this...