MG MGB and MGB GT Tech Talk
From Lloyd's profile: "Been into MGs and Corvettes for 50 years. Love C4 Corvettes...they cost the same as MGBs ! !"
Holy Cripes, Lloyd!!!!
I thought we were about the same age!
Guess I am older than you!
(I'm 56.)
:devil:
Actually 50 years is not correct....its been more than that. I'll tell a short story....what sounds great in a dark bar when the beer is flowin', just doesn't have the same ring on a Friday morning in front of the computer.
I grew up in Duluth Minnesota...there were more exotic sports cars there than any other place in the USA of anywhere near the same size. Why? Iron ore from northern Minnesota was shipped out of Duluth to the steel mills of Detroit, Gary Indiana, Pittsburgh......it was just about the most strategic spot in the USA during the cold war. If the Russians bombed the docks.....the US would be out of business. Therefore, we had a fighter interceptor squadron based there flying sorties with armed nuclear missles....this was in the late 50s early 60s.
If you were a newly hatched fighter jock, who just finished jet school in Texas and New Mexico, 2 things happened. 1. you bought the most expensive and exotic sports car you could afford. 2. You were shipped to a very important duty post that nobody with any rank wanted to go to.....Duluth. You loaded up your Ferrari, Porsche Carrera or Cobra and drove there. What seemed like fun in July didn't last long...winter set in. Ever try to start a 250GT Ferrari when its -40F? Stay warm in a Cobra (it would start.....but stay warm...forget it). First chance these guys got...they were outa there...and left their exotic cars behind.
My neighbor was the Minnesota state flat track motorcyle champion by the name of Ted Archer. He ran a British bike dealership where he sold all the neat stuff...Vincent, BSA, Triumph, Royal Enfield, Norton, Velocette. I hung out there as sorta like the little kid mascot. My mom was very worried about the guys with the black leather jackets and greased duck tails. Ted took on the BMC franchise in 1956 and I was hired to clean up the newly arrived MGAs....I was 12 years old. All those abandoned exotic cars found their way to our little dealership. I was a high school car freak who didn't dream about all the great cars I saw in magazines. I went down to the shop with Ted and test drove them...........unreal even then.
To make this short, I was kinda like the 'older brother' to Ted's two oldest boys. I raced in the 60s and they followed it all with great interest. Bobby and Tommy Archer........grew up to be racers themselves....Bobby won the '80 runoffs with Tommy on his bumper, nearly lapping the entire field. They turned pro.....Tommy raced Vipers at LeMans and was Speed GT champion in a Viper.
I've had a great life so far............
Check out those bias ply tires on my first race car..........
Great story Lloyd - I grew up in Minneapolis in the 60s and 70s. I had no idea Duluth was the exotic car capital of the upper midwest.
Paul
I had been an MG guy since 1965 and I can attest to Lloyd's expertise by the time I met him in 1972 just after he arrived in Orange County California. He still has a little Minnesota accent but back then he sounded like a character right out of Northern Exposure. He and I are almost exactly the same age.
It's funny, I never heard a MN accent until I had lived in Seattle for ~10 years. Has my sister always talked like that??
Lloyd
Great story
The last time I passed through Duluth on my way to Ft Francis I must of missed all those exotic cars. Hell, I could not even find any exotic bars. I am not far behind you in age and those new jet jockeys are still buying exotic cars but now are getting Range Rovers too.
You had a great opportunity when you were a kid and I am glad you enjoyed it. I could not find a lot of exotic stuff growing up in west central IL unless you wanna talk tractors. Of course there were the street racers in their Hemi's, 427's, 413's 440's, 409's, 428's. 429's etc. So my time was from the mid 60's to the mid 70's and I had the first 396 Chevelle in town so was pretty hot stuff. Traded it all away for a 64 MGB.
Ron
it's posts like this one that make me love this forum and its members more and more....
thanks for the story Lloyd!
