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Vintage Cars

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,795
Location
New Forest
If you like old MG cars, you will love this story. An amazing tale of a guy in the US bringing a British classic back to life.
MG-VA Restoration
MG-VA.jpg
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,795
Location
New Forest
Love the gold and black colors. How old is British Racing Green? I think a BRG and cream would be nice on one of these. Sexy.
Did you know that British Racing Green is actually Irish? British racing green, referred to as: BRG, is a colour similar to Brunswick green, hunter green, forest green or moss green. It takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of the United Kingdom. This originated with the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup, held in Ireland (then still part of the UK), as motor-racing was illegal in England. As a mark of respect, the British cars were painted shamrock green.

Although there is still some debate as to an exact hue for BRG, currently the term is used to denote a spectrum of deep, rich greens. "British racing green" in motorsport terms meant only the colour green in general – its application to a specific shade has developed outside the sport.

ireland became an independent republic in 1922.
 
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12,384
Location
Albany Oregon
Did you know that British Racing Green is actually Irish? British racing green, referred to as: BRG, is a colour similar to Brunswick green, hunter green, forest green or moss green. It takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of the United Kingdom. This originated with the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup, held in Ireland (then still part of the UK), as motor-racing was illegal in England. As a mark of respect, the British cars were painted shamrock green.

Although there is still some debate as to an exact hue for BRG, currently the term is used to denote a spectrum of deep, rich greens. "British racing green" in motorsport terms meant only the colour green in general – its application to a specific shade has developed outside the sport.

ireland became an independent republic in 1922.
This is a great education. Years ago, my 1973 MGB was a color called "Mallard Green" (underneath layers of a weird Triumph brown). It was a deep almost metallic green. Man, I miss that car.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,795
Location
New Forest
Using a TD Roadster chassis, Chicago car distributor Wacky Arnolt had 100 of what was called the MG Arnolt built. Thirty-six, like this 1954 model, were drop head coupes. The body was designed by the Italian company Bertone and made this perhaps the most unique looking MG ever.
the MG Arnolt.JPG
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,795
Location
New Forest
This looks interesting, I wonder how much shipping would cost. Interesting? It looks fabulous. I've been to Daytona beach, I wasn't that impressed but the locals told us to come back when the motorbikes hold their festival, but then added, if you can get a room. Quite.
https://www.gofsouth.org/
 

David Conwill

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,854
Location
Bennington, VT 05201
I've always enjoyed Austin Sevens. Their U.S. counterpart, the American Austin, was a staple of 1930s amateur road racing here, and I wouldn't hate owning an Austin-based special--though the hills around here might be a challenge. We have a Bantam roadster in the museum here and I am impressed by how roomy it is inside, even for a six-footer like me. Though the gear-shift lever could stand a little bend to the right for knee clearance.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,082
Location
London, UK
If you like old MG cars, you will love this story. An amazing tale of a guy in the US bringing a British classic back to life.
MG-VA Restoration
View attachment 150442

I remember reading a story in the early 90s about a guy in LA who rebuilt a Minor 1000 convertible with an auto-box and drove it daily on the LA Freeway. Great part of the world for regularly driving vintage, of course, as the climate helps avoid the demon rustmoth....

Did you know that British Racing Green is actually Irish? British racing green, referred to as: BRG, is a colour similar to Brunswick green, hunter green, forest green or moss green. It takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of the United Kingdom. This originated with the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup, held in Ireland (then still part of the UK), as motor-racing was illegal in England. As a mark of respect, the British cars were painted shamrock green.

That's a story I've never heard before - interesting. I wonder did the term develop along the same lines as Alasatian instead of German Shepard?

ireland became an independent republic in 1922.

Weeelllll..... Officially, on the British side at least, the 26 Counties became the Irish Free State in 1922. Sort of a 'devo-max' arrangement, where they had their own flag, currency, and army, and total control of domestic policy, but they also had to accept three 'Treaty Ports' giving a continued British military presence in the form of Royal Navy ships docked there. The Free State was not to be fully independent, but rather a self-ruling (with oversight) Dominion of the British Crown. Dail Deputies (TDs - Dail Eireann's equivalent of MPs in the House of Commons) were required to sign an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown, which continue to be head of state, represented on the ground by a Governor General. Britain did not recognise the 26 counties of Ireland as a fully independent republic until the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act in December 1948.

On the Irish side, things are rather more complex. The State, as most people nowadays, dates its foundation to Padraig Pearse's Proclamation of the Irish Republic, with which the Easter Rising of 1916 began. Undoubtedly, that was the first step in the radical changes in the way in which Ireland was governed began. There is still some dispute over how many Dails there have been; some count the first Dail as that which met unofficially in January 1919, constituting those Sinn Fein MPs who took most of the Irish Parliamentary seats by a landslide in the 1918 general election, but sought to set themselves up as the legitimated government of Ireland based on that electoral mandate, and abstained from taking their seats in Westminster. (This is why everyone today thinks of Lady Astor as the first elected woman MP; Constance Markievicz actually beat her to that post, but never took her seat because of the SF abstentionist policy.) Then there are those who date the first Dail (as, from memory, officialdom does now) as the one that first met in 1922 (composed on the same basis) after being officially recognised by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Then there are those who fought on in the extreme Republican side, long after the bitter and bloody Civil War of 1922-23: that IRA considered themselves to be the legitimate government of all-Ireland, and only ended their war on the Irish state in 1948, with the passage of the Ireland Act. The Dail, of course, had behaved as de facto an independent republic long before that, with the role that is now known as Taoiseach (pronounced 'tea-shuck', loosely) referred to as 'President of the Dail', and the creation of the modern written constitution of Ireland dating to 1937.

Typically Irish, nothing is ever quite simple. (I often wonder if, had it been, we'd have avoided an awful lot of bloodshed on our island in these last eight hundred years or so!).

However, I digress.... I find this stuff endlessly fascinating, but...

Using a TD Roadster chassis, Chicago car distributor Wacky Arnolt had 100 of what was called the MG Arnolt built. Thirty-six, like this 1954 model, were drop head coupes. The body was designed by the Italian company Bertone and made this perhaps the most unique looking MG ever.
View attachment 151954

Never seen one of those before, that is interesting. That first post-war decade was an interesting period for the British car industry trying to get on its feet again, where you had cars being produced with little change since the pre-war designs, either looking the same but with upgraded mechnics (Morgan spring to mind here: for all their mechanical upgrades over the years, aesthetically they seem to have stopped the clock not long after the decision to add a fourth wheel... see also the RM Riley series, or the Sunbeam Talbots of the late 50s). From theose, at least, this puts me in mind not so much of an MG Magnette as a Rover P5B - which, of course, it predates by some four years or so.

This little gem was in my local supermarket car park today. It's an Austin Seven.
View attachment 157249

The car that first brought motoring within the grasp of the middle classes... long before the mid-Sixties affordable car revolution, which I would argue did more to kill the British motorcycle industry than the oft-blamed Japanese.

I've always enjoyed Austin Sevens. Their U.S. counterpart, the American Austin, was a staple of 1930s amateur road racing here, and I wouldn't hate owning an Austin-based special--though the hills around here might be a challenge. We have a Bantam roadster in the museum here and I am impressed by how roomy it is inside, even for a six-footer like me. Though the gear-shift lever could stand a little bend to the right for knee clearance.

Between 73 and 75, my dad rebuilt a 1936, two-seater Austin 7 convertible - the Opal, to give it its model name. I well remember the car (and going on many runs in it under the age of ten, sitting on a cushion on the rear parcel shelf! As a donor car, he used an Austin 7 special (from either the 50s or 60s, I don't know - I was only a few months old at the time, born in late 74); I believe the tuned engine and gearbox from that went in. Well, the little Opal, being quite light, it went like stink with that in it. A few times back in those days when there was less traffic and the police had... other priorities in Northern Ireland, and - crucially - my mother wasn't with him ;) - he took great delight in shaming guys in flashy Minis and things who'd pull up beside him at lights, yell 'Tin Lizzy' and things, only for it to take off and leave them for dust. Invariably after that they'd just pull in behind him at the next set of lights...

Sadly it had to be sort years later, as it just wasn't big enough to take the family, and in the 90s neither little brother nor I were interested in taking one on (nor had we the money then to run a hobby car; ironically, living in London now I'd have the interest in a hobby car but not the budget or the storage space!). It's still around, though - went to an enthusiast. Dad's fussy about who he sells to - he once killed a sale at quite a good deal on a 50s Austin Cambridge he owned because the buyer let slip he wanted it for classic rallying, and it was far too tidy a car to thrash that way.

The glorious weather is certainly bringing the classics out. I took the MG out for a spin and stopped off for some provisions.
Same supermarket different car. A Morris Eight.
View attachment 157946

Lovely thing about the South of England: the climate is so much less cruel to them, and you have so much less salt on the roads.... means you can drive them so much more often.

Ford in a crate!
Some assembly required!
View attachment 158142

View attachment 158143

Here's a thing.... when they first started shipping them like that to the UK for assembly, the wood from the packing crate was designed to be enough to form the floor and frame - nothing wasted. Genius of efficiency.

Edward, I thought that I was a cynic, but you have such an air of eloquence about your cynicism that your subject might just take it as a compliment. You crack me up.

Why, thank-you! :D

Wow! Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp in the same photo! :D

I call fake Shemp! ;)
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Weeelllll..... Officially, on the British side at least, the 26 Counties became the Irish Free State in 1922. Sort of a 'devo-max' arrangement, where they had their own flag, currency, and army, and total control of domestic policy, but they also had to accept three 'Treaty Ports' giving a continued British military presence in the form of Royal Navy ships docked there. The Free State was not to be fully independent, buwith oversight) Dominion of the British Crown. Dail Deputies (TDs - Dail Eireann's equivalent of MPs in the House of Commons) were required to sign an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown, which continue to be head of state, represented on the ground by a Governor General. Britain did not recognise the 26 counties of Ireland as a fully independent republic until the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act in December 1948.

On the Irish side, things are rather more complex. The State, as most people nowadays, dates its foundation to Padraig Pearse's Proclamation of the Irish Republic, with which the Easter Rising of 1916 began. Undoubtedly, that was the first step in the radical changes in the way in which Ireland was governed began. There is still some dispute over how many Dails there have been; some count the first Dail as that which met unofficially in January 1919, constituting those Sinn Fein MPs who took most of the Irish Parliamentary seats by a landslide in the 1918 general election, but sought to set themselves up as the legitimated government of Ireland based on that electoral mandate, and abstained from taking their seats in Westminster. (This is why everyone today thinks of Lady Astor as the first elected woman MP; Constance Markievicz actually beat her to that post, but never took her seat because of the SF abstentionist policy.) Then there are those who date the first Dail (as, from memory, officialdom does now) as the one that first met in 1922 (composed on the same basis) after being officially recognised by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Then there are those who fought on in the extreme Republican side, long after the bitter and bloody Civil War of 1922-23: that IRA considered themselves to be the legitimate government of all-Ireland, and only ended their war on the Irish state in 1948, with the passage of the Ireland Act. The Dail, of course, had behaved as de facto an independent republic long before that, with the role that is now known as Taoiseach (pronounced 'tea-shuck', loosely) referred to as 'President of the Dail', and the creation of the modern written constitution of Ireland dating to 1937.

Typically Irish, nothing is ever quite simple. (I often wonder if, had it been, we'd have avoided an awful lot of bloodshed on our island in these last eight hundred years or so!).

However, I digress.... I find this stuff endlessly fascinating, but...



Never seen one of those before, that is interesting. That first post-war decade was an interesting period for the British car industry trying to get on its feet again, where you had cars being produced with little change since the pre-war designs, either looking the same but with upgraded mechnics (Morgan spring to mind here: for all their mechanical upgrades over the years, aesthetically they seem to have stopped the clock not long after the decision to add a fourth wheel... see also the RM Riley series, or the Sunbeam Talbots of the late 50s). From theose, at least, this puts me in mind not so much of an MG Magnette as a Rover P5B - which, of course, it predates by some four years or so.



The car that first brought motoring within the grasp of the middle classes... long before the mid-Sixties affordable car revolution, which I would argue did more to kill the British motorcycle industry than the oft-blamed Japanese.



Here's a thing.... when they first started shipping them like that to the UK for assembly, the wood from the packing crate was designed to be enough to form the floor and frame - nothing wasted. Genius of efficiency.



Why, thank-you! :D



I call fake Shemp! ;)

woodie! :D
30351B2D-2612-49AD-BE9B-B8E07A74A3E3.jpeg

As the automobile matured, so did steel-stamping techniques. Over the decades, steel replaced hardwood in many applications, including frames, fenders, and hoods. Yet manufacturers and custom-body builders still used wood for major sections from the windshield back for station wagons, sedans, convertibles, and trucks. The 1929 Model A was the first of what we've come to know as a mass-produced woodie.
 

David Conwill

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,854
Location
Bennington, VT 05201
1935 Eb Lunken Willys 77.jpg
Reyburn Hamill Whippet Whiff.jpg


Excuse the awful photos of photos, but with all this talk of specials, I've got to mention my enthusiasm for the road-race specials built by fellows in the Automobile Racing Club of America back in the '30s. I recently gained access to a copy of Joel Finn's book American Road Racing: The 1930s and I highly recommend it. I don't believe there's any other book quite like it.

ARCA was the pre-WWII equivalent to the SCCA but has been largely forgotten. The membership started out racing home-built contraptions powered by Briggs & Stratton and motorcycle engines circa 1929-'33; moved up to MG Midgets, Bugattis and specials based on Ford, Willys, and Whippet parts in the 1934-'37 era; then on to serious equipment like Maseratis by the end of the decade. Their last race was at the New York World's Fair in October 1940.

I've got a bunch of old Chevrolet parts just begging to be turned into something like one of the Willys/Whippet specials above. Someday, after my Model T, Tilly, is finished!
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,082
Location
London, UK
woodie! :D
View attachment 158253
As the automobile matured, so did steel-stamping techniques. Over the decades, steel replaced hardwood in many applications, including frames, fenders, and hoods. Yet manufacturers and custom-body builders still used wood for major sections from the windshield back for station wagons, sedans, convertibles, and trucks. The 1929 Model A was the first of what we've come to know as a mass-produced woodie.

It ran on a long time, too. Aside from specialist interest luxury options like the Morgan, the Morris Minor Traveller, which stayed in production until as late as April 1971, has wood trim which is also structural.

View attachment 158269 View attachment 158270

Excuse the awful photos of photos, but with all this talk of specials, I've got to mention my enthusiasm for the road-race specials built by fellows in the Automobile Racing Club of America back in the '30s. I recently gained access to a copy of Joel Finn's book American Road Racing: The 1930s and I highly recommend it. I don't believe there's any other book quite like it.

ARCA was the pre-WWII equivalent to the SCCA but has been largely forgotten. The membership started out racing home-built contraptions powered by Briggs & Stratton and motorcycle engines circa 1929-'33; moved up to MG Midgets, Bugattis and specials based on Ford, Willys, and Whippet parts in the 1934-'37 era; then on to serious equipment like Maseratis by the end of the decade. Their last race was at the New York World's Fair in October 1940.

I've got a bunch of old Chevrolet parts just begging to be turned into something like one of the Willys/Whippet specials above. Someday, after my Model T, Tilly, is finished!

That would be a really fun challenge: build what is effectively a 30s hotrod with period parts.

View attachment 158281
AUTO RACING WAS WILDLY DANGEROUS IN THE '30S—AND A LOT MORE FUN
View attachment 158282
View attachment 158283

Yipes, I dread to think what the death rate was like. Comparable to board racing? Course, motorcycle racing is still prety dangerous - it's taken three of the Dunlops in the last nineteen years alone.
 

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