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  1. #1
    Rocket Surgeon Swish's Avatar
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    It's the British Invasion of 2009.

    The 15th annual 'British Invasion', sponsored by the MG Club of Lancaster, was held in Gettysburg today, so my wife and I hopped in my freshly washed Triumph TR8 and headed west on the Turnpike, then down the G-Burg Pike (Rt. 15) to the Outlet Shoppes where the event is held. This is an 'all British' car show, so on the way I popped XTC's English Settlement to get in the spirit of all things British.

    My 8 is pretty sweet. I'm the 2nd owner of this rare 1980 ragtop wedge with only 35,400 on the odometer, and it's all original, save the tires and cd player. It's also the last model made by British Leyland before they bit the dust in 1981. They only made about 2200 of them, so I'm going to keep it for a long, long time. They're not terribly valuable now, but they're great cars and their time is coming.

    There were so many awesome cars, maybe 200 or so, dominated by Austin Healeys as far as I could tell, although there were a ton of MGBs. My favorites were a fairly rare TR250, a really sweet Austin 3000 ( I think it was a 1960), a Lotus Esprit from 1981, a genuine Shelby Cobra (the bodies were made in England I believe) with a very rare 460 engine and signed by Carrol Shelby on the glove box (this thing is worth more than half a million I am sure. Most you see are reproductions, but Shelby won't sign the glove box on those!), a Triumph TR4A that has about the nicest shape of any Triumph, a Bug Eye Sprite that sported a new, deep red paint job...I could go on and on. TRVs, Morgans, E Type Jags, a nice Jensen Healey.

    What a fun day with bright sunshine and great tunes. That's what I did most of today.

    Swish
    I call my bathroom Jim instead of John so I can tell people that I go to the Jim first thing every morning.

    If you say the word 'gullible' very slowly it sounds just like oranges.

  2. #2
    Retro Modernist 02audionoob's Avatar
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    I dig those British roadsters. I had an MGB in my high school days. My father had a 3000 when I was still a kid. We also had some sort of a boxy Triumph for a while...memory fuzzy on that one. I've grown into a nut about reliability after my MG experience, though.

  3. #3
    Rocket Surgeon Swish's Avatar
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    Reliability? Half the fun is sharing all the foibles of...

    Quote Originally Posted by 02audionoob
    I dig those British roadsters. I had an MGB in my high school days. My father had a 3000 when I was still a kid. We also had some sort of a boxy Triumph for a while...memory fuzzy on that one. I've grown into a nut about reliability after my MG experience, though.
    ...British cars. I must say my TR8 is very reliable. You just have to make sure you don't have any leaks and to get them sealed up if you do. The MGs had tons of issues, as did some earlier Triumphs, but you can actually work on them, unlike cars today where you can't do much more than change the oil. Fixing, cleaning, and restoring are like a hobby for most of us. I don't tinker as much as most guys, but then again, I don't need to unless I buy an older one, and that may be in the cards in a year of so. My oldest brother has a 1960 TR3, a 1968 TR250, a 1972 TR6, a 1975 (I think) Spitfire, a recently restored MGB and an all-orginal '76 Datsun 260Z. He could own a hundred more if he had the space to store them, and he's a bona fide Triumph expert. We also have a British car expert mechanic in the area, and he can take them apart and put them back together, along with doing total restorations, so I never have to worry.
    I call my bathroom Jim instead of John so I can tell people that I go to the Jim first thing every morning.

    If you say the word 'gullible' very slowly it sounds just like oranges.

  4. #4
    Retro Modernist 02audionoob's Avatar
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    As long as you're not far from homee

    Quote Originally Posted by Swish
    The MGs had tons of issues, as did some earlier Triumphs, but you can actually work on them, unlike cars today where you can't do much more than change the oil.
    That's true. I did much of the repair work myself, as long as I could find a little guidance. I lived in a small enough city where I wasn't usually too far from home when the MG left me stranded...until I went off to college. Speaking of the Z, my mother had a 1973 240Z. Pretty economical to buy at the time. Seems like they were maybe $3,000 while the 1973 MGB was over $4,000...I think.

    I still like the MGB to this day, especially the black one with the black-and-white British flag in the stripe on the side.

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