When the world is topsy turvy, there are some of us who find sanctuary in a garage and peace of mind with the turn of a wrench. Joseph LeamingMy ’79 Spitfire was part of an elderly man’s extensive collection of dilapidated Spitfires that were left abandoned when he passed away, his children uninterested. The gentleman…
by R.L. Corn I decided to call my brother-in-law who is a Master Mechanic and an owner of several vehicles from across the pond. In minutes, we found a break in the condenser wire. Unfortunately for me, none of the boxes on the front porch held a new condenser—another call to Moss Motors. At this…
by R.L. Corn We all do things that make our lives more complicated. Life is difficult enough without expensive, time-consuming projects that raise the blood pressure—and yet, here I go again.For the tenth time in my life, I bought another sports car from the country of England. I stepped into that long line of non-mechanically-minded…
By Casey Yunker I became infected at the age of four in 1978. You know how the story goes, Uncle Rick had a 1965 MkIII Austin-Healey, black with red interior, and he’d take me for rides. The disease spread quickly in our family, given how contagious it is, and my father in 1981 got it…
By Chris Seely I’ve always had an eye for cool old things—mainly tools, toys, pocket knives, etc. This was fostered by my mother who took my sister and I to yard sales nearly every weekend. For several summers growing up, we would get into the back of her Subaru station wagon and navigate her to…
By Sid Bridge I recently bought my first British Roadster—a 1980 Triumph Spitfire. I wanted an MG or a Triumph ever since I was 12, but I never had the guts to buy one given all the warnings I would get from responsible adults. I’m an adult now. Responsible? That would depend on your definition….
by Joel Justin If you’re like me, or should I say like my Triumphs, keeping their engines running cool in warm temps can be a challenge, especially when sitting at a stop light or in slow moving traffic in the summer. One thing I’ve done on some of my cars is to add an electric cooling fan…
A Drive Through the Desert It started out as many driving adventures have – subject to precious little deliberation but with an ambitious goal to use a British sports car as regular transportation to get from one point to another just like occurred on a regular basis ‘back in the day.’ In this case, the…
Upon converting to LED tail lights on my 1959 TR 3 A I found that the backside of the tail light lens reflector was blocking proper light emission by more than half of the lumens. To offset this I removed the glued-in reflective lens (with a Dremel tool) and now the light is even in…
During the years I spent restoring my 1960 MGA, I heard many frightening and cautionary tales about the importance of the hood latch mechanism and the alignment of the hood. Specifically, I was told to make sure the latch was working perfectly before installing the grille; if the hood ever jammed closed, the only way…
