Post by Mike B on Dec 8, 2008 15:48:49 GMT -4
Howard Bruce was happy to assume the role of president of the Hoosier A’s chapter of the North American MGA Register, but he had one concern.
“I did not have an MGA,” Bruce said. “They said I ought to take the job anyway.”
Sure enough, the bylaws for membership are clear: “Current ownership of an MGA is not necessary.” Pay your $20, appreciate the tiny yet fierce British oil-leaking sports car and you are in.
The British Motor Corp. manufactured 101,081 MGA’s, designed by Syd Enever and introduced at the 1955 Frankfurt Auto Show, from 1956 through July 1962. Several are scattered around Bloomington.
Earlier this year, Bruce got one, too. The retired insurance man discovered a black 1960 MGA 1600 convertible buried inside a Kokomo warehouse, surrounded by 55-gallon barrels stacked three high.
Bruce had happened upon a treasure: top down, covered with dirt, tires deflated, a dead petrified opossum by the front wheel. He saw the car’s potential, aired up the tires, put a battery in and paid the woman whose husband had owned the car.
“She said that on Saturdays, he drove it to the barbershop,” Bruce said. That explains why the car was so clean, the engine so responsive, after 17 years hidden away, parked next to an MGB in worse condition.
In May, a woman contacted Bruce about two cars her father had stored in a warehouse. The man had died, and his widow wanted to get rid of the MGA and an MGB. Bruce went to appraise the cars, but could barely get to them because the building was full of hundreds of steel barrels. When the barrels had been removed, he returned. And when he got a closer look at the MGA, he wanted it.
“The first trip, we had a locksmith get us in, and we could not find any cars anywhere,” he said. “We called the locksmith to come back and he opened a door inside the warehouse and way back behind even more barrels we found both cars.”
He hauled the car home and decided to spray off the dirt. “The thing I am most proud of, based on the condition of the car, is that I washed it and underneath all of this dirt is an absolutely gorgeous paint job. It amazed the people who had seen the car before,” he said.
Bruce spent the summer “underneath the car with my legs hanging out.” Three months after he pulled the car into the garage, he pulled it out and went for a drive. It had all new fluids, rebuilt carburetors (the MGA has two), a new fuel pump and replacement exhaust parts. He drives it in all kinds of weather; in the winter, heat from the engine warms the car’s interior. Since August, he’s driven the car about 1,000 miles around southern Indiana.
Bruce prefers British-made cars; he also owns a yellow-gold 1971 MGB. He bought his first sporty car, a Triumph TR-3, in 1959, and sold it a few years later.
“I had that car until my first child came along, and there was no room for a child seat,” he said. “I got a black 1959 Chevrolet station wagon.”
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail message to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, 47402.
News article was taken from the Herald Times 12/06/08 and is by Laura Lane
“I did not have an MGA,” Bruce said. “They said I ought to take the job anyway.”
Sure enough, the bylaws for membership are clear: “Current ownership of an MGA is not necessary.” Pay your $20, appreciate the tiny yet fierce British oil-leaking sports car and you are in.
The British Motor Corp. manufactured 101,081 MGA’s, designed by Syd Enever and introduced at the 1955 Frankfurt Auto Show, from 1956 through July 1962. Several are scattered around Bloomington.
Earlier this year, Bruce got one, too. The retired insurance man discovered a black 1960 MGA 1600 convertible buried inside a Kokomo warehouse, surrounded by 55-gallon barrels stacked three high.
Bruce had happened upon a treasure: top down, covered with dirt, tires deflated, a dead petrified opossum by the front wheel. He saw the car’s potential, aired up the tires, put a battery in and paid the woman whose husband had owned the car.
“She said that on Saturdays, he drove it to the barbershop,” Bruce said. That explains why the car was so clean, the engine so responsive, after 17 years hidden away, parked next to an MGB in worse condition.
In May, a woman contacted Bruce about two cars her father had stored in a warehouse. The man had died, and his widow wanted to get rid of the MGA and an MGB. Bruce went to appraise the cars, but could barely get to them because the building was full of hundreds of steel barrels. When the barrels had been removed, he returned. And when he got a closer look at the MGA, he wanted it.
“The first trip, we had a locksmith get us in, and we could not find any cars anywhere,” he said. “We called the locksmith to come back and he opened a door inside the warehouse and way back behind even more barrels we found both cars.”
He hauled the car home and decided to spray off the dirt. “The thing I am most proud of, based on the condition of the car, is that I washed it and underneath all of this dirt is an absolutely gorgeous paint job. It amazed the people who had seen the car before,” he said.
Bruce spent the summer “underneath the car with my legs hanging out.” Three months after he pulled the car into the garage, he pulled it out and went for a drive. It had all new fluids, rebuilt carburetors (the MGA has two), a new fuel pump and replacement exhaust parts. He drives it in all kinds of weather; in the winter, heat from the engine warms the car’s interior. Since August, he’s driven the car about 1,000 miles around southern Indiana.
Bruce prefers British-made cars; he also owns a yellow-gold 1971 MGB. He bought his first sporty car, a Triumph TR-3, in 1959, and sold it a few years later.
“I had that car until my first child came along, and there was no room for a child seat,” he said. “I got a black 1959 Chevrolet station wagon.”
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail message to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, 47402.
News article was taken from the Herald Times 12/06/08 and is by Laura Lane