From the Cockpit – Spring 1994

Recently I was driving around Los Angeles on one of the myriad freeways that criss cross the City of Angels, although there was nothing at all angelic about this particular day! Raining, six lanes of backed up traffic, accidents all over the place, rowing up and down through the gearbox, stop and start, stop and start, I often liken it to a zoo!

The radio is really the only thing that stops you going bonkers at times like these, you don’t really listen to it, it’s just there in the background, but suddenly a phrase leapt out of the speakers which at first seemed incongruous considering my surroundings.

It was a commercial for an automobile, and I can’t honestly remember which model they were pushing, maybe it was Chrysler but the punchline of the advertisement was “This car will bring back a pastime you may have forgotten it’s called driving”! I ruminated on this sober thought as we encountered yet another wreck at the roadside! I thought how lucky we are to have our little British sports cars, which look and drive so differently from the rest of the thousand of vehicles around us. Not many (if any) of our cars are leased, an in many cases, they are all paid for! And how different when we are able to go out and get  sheer pleasure from driving – what a pastime to be sure! Even being asked to take the other half on a trip to K-Mart can be an adventure, because of the delight of moving up through the gears and getting admiring glances as you park  in the only space available – clearly marked “compact” while the guy in the Lincoln has to park three blocks away!

And Boy! – when you get off those freeways what delights arc opened up to us on the back roads and lanes, the mountains and the shorelines of this great country, made even more enjoyable because we are driving something we either love and cherish, or hate but are determined that one day it will run properly, so let’s show the car what’s in store if it behaves itself! You needn’t drive far, but you do need to drive your car if you arc to get the maximum benefit from owning such a classic. I myself have driven in eighteen different countries around the world, and through 47 of the 50 states, and yet I still get a thrill when I drive the few miles to the office each morning in my British Sports Car.

Get in, fasten the belt, pull the choke and turn the key – there we go! Out of the drive, turn into the road and let her go. Wave at the MGB driver I see every morning going the other way, and by the time I reach the first set of lights it’s time to push home the choke. Then a long stretch to the next set of lights, where usually one of my co-workers in a Triumph pulls alongside me and we both grin at each other while people wonder what the heck is between these two. Well, if you have to ask then don’t ever buy a British sports car! Pulling into the company car, park I see MGs, Triumphs, Healeys, sometimes even a Morgan and my car knows it is among friends.

The point of all this is that I am urging you to get out this coming Summer and drive your British Classic, even if it’s only to work! You’ll feel a lot better for it and the car will appreciate getting some fresh air around its trunnions!

Finally thanks to all of you who responded to our ‘clunker’ article in the Winter issue of Moss Motoring, we give below some of the organizations you might like to contact for more information on this insidious, creeping trend which seriously threatens your car and the aforementioned pleasure of driving it! We would also like to compliment the various club publications who have taken up the task of informing their members as to what’s happening-one more reason to join your local club and be in the forefront of the ‘save the classic’ movement.