All classic car owners love feel-good stories about long-forgotten cars brought back to their former beauty, winning car show awards and making owners proud. And we’ve all heard the scary stories about cars ruined and parts stolen by come-to-find-out disreputable shops. My car story is in the scary/sad category, but now has a potentially happier…
The Triumph TR7 and TR8 have long provoked extreme reactions on both ends of the spectrum. Initially TR7 was brutally criticized, while the TR8 was named 1980 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Time magazine listed the TR7 among the 50 worst cars of all time, while Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car said the TR8…
Sometimes restorations go well. And sometimes they don’t. No matter how big the job at hand, having a written contract going into a job can pay huge dividends at the end—and ensure many fun returns. I always buy myself a birthday present. When I turned 25, I bought myself a sports car. I grew up…
Blake Discher’s most memorable moment in a Triumph occurred just after he crossed the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rockies. He was on his way home to Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan in his TR6 after attending the 2009 Vintage Triumph Register (VTR) national convention in San Luis Obispo, California when he came upon a flashing…
Attend any Vintage Auto Racing Association (VARA) event, and you’ll see many Triumphs signed by R.W. “Kas” Kastner, an icon who is revered by British car racers, owners and enthusiasts. At 83, he’s still attending races and offering advice to guys who are having the same problems he did half a century ago on the…
Classic sports car design, endless driving enjoyment and enduring value…the iconic MGB has all of that. You can’t ask for anything more out of a sports car. And yet the MGB does deliver more: it’s affordable, uncomplicated to restore and easy to repair. Throw in the avid network of clubs and crowded calendar of events…
The most amount of enjoyment for the least amount of money Cute, fun, and affordable are the key benefits that most MG Midget and post-Bugeye Sprite owners point to proudly. Pin-sharp handling and throttle response makes drivers smile. Vintage racers and autocrossers love the power-to-weight ratio and potential for hot tuning. In production for 18…
In the back of the Moss Motors facility in Goleta, California is a 3,000 sq.ft. research and development shop referred to by staffers as “the toy shop” and “the skunk works.” Only a handful of employees have keys to this secret domain, and access is restricted to the engineers, mechanics, and research staff who are…
What does Robert Goldman, co-owner of Moss Motors, love about his job? “I like going down to R&D and taking out a company supercharged MG for a test drive, and pushing it until it breaks. I call it destructive testing; you can learn from it. And I enjoy the fact that I can make a…
For many people, when someone says vintage sports car, the MGA is the iconic image that comes to mind. The flowing, curved body design with oval hood is one of the great automotive designs of all time, and it was a radical departure from the staid, upright MG TC, TD, and TF. Plus designers paid…
