Chilling with an MGA
It's a nice feeling when you have some time alone with a classic. Sitting on an empty track with a camera in my hand, this was a great afternoon.
It's a nice feeling when you have some time alone with a classic. Sitting on an empty track with a camera in my hand, this was a great afternoon. The weekend of the "Holetown Festival" in Barbados usually starts with a classic car parade, and after this parade, drivers usually leave the festival for a chance to chill and hangout with other owners.
This MG was gorgeous. I think I am developing a bias for blue cars though but that's beside the point. This MGA started its life off the production line in 1959, sporting a 1.6L single carbureted, single overhead cam engine. It makes about 78hp with a 4 speed transmission.
This MG was special though. It was bought in the US, it was spec'd for the US market, left hand drive, and before it was blue, it was red, the upholstery was a different colour as well.
The owner stumbled on it one afternoon coming out of a mall. He saw a car show happening in the car park next door and decided to take a look at it. Owning this car was a childhood dream of his, he recounted the principal of his elementary school owning one, and before he would leave on afternoons he would give the children a show, a nice rev. This memory drove him to purchase the car.
Restoration is always never an easy job. Like was mentioned before, the car was a different colour and the driver seat was on the opposite side plus the car was in rough condition. After importing the car, much work began, from the ground up, the chassis was sandblasted, primed and rust sealed. Then alterations were made to the dashboard, a new tortoiseshell coloured one was placed and the steering moved over to the right hand side. and the upholstery was changed to tan.
Tan, might sound like a boring colour, but I must say, it really complimented the blue of the car. I bet you didn't notice the missing door handles. This car was fitted with a string on the inside of the door inorder to open the doors and windows were in the trunk, if you wanted to use them.
Sporting the Tortoiseshell Dash
Inside the car, you have your basic needs, a steering wheel, some dials and gauges, and a gearstick and pedals, I mean, what else would you want in a car ? Driving this car, is an experience in itself, not to be filled with distractions.
It wasn't just meant to get from A to B, it was meant for the driver as well as the passenger to be engaged in the journey from A to B.
MG streamlined the body panels of the car, with the sweeping curves and bubble design of the 50's "Hi tech" design, proving to be a nice vintage astectihc as the car aged. Owning an MG for him, is like owning a childhood dream, and few can say the same.
- Alex, until next time, keep motoring.
Vintage Car Show
The open field in Content, St. Thomas came to life one Sunday afternoon filled with Vintage cars from all over the World. This is the first event for Vintage car owners this year.
The open field in Content, St. Thomas came to life one Sunday afternoon filled with Vintage cars from all over the World. This is the first event for Vintage car owners this year, I believe. They spend hours tinkering and cleaning and getting their cars ready for display.
There were so many cars to see and photograph, but a select few really stood out to me, and I wanted to share those with you.
Making my way around the cars this Lotus Elan really stood out from the rest of the MG's it was parked next to, those cars were already pretty small, but this was even smaller. It was tiny ! I started photographing it and met the owner, he gave me a history of the car. The history was definitely bigger than the car itself. The designer of the car Colin Chapman, believed in achieving peak performance through low weight, and boy was he serious about this.
This was the first Lotus to use a "monocoque" chassis and a fiberglass glass body, it weighs in at about 726 kg. In fact the current owner doesn't trust anyone as yet to paint it because the materials for the body are so different, so it has the original paint job from the factory. This design actually influenced Formula 1 design.
The engine makes about 126hp, from a DOHC layout, it was pretty advanced for its time period. On paper it's said to do 0 - 60mph in about 7 seconds. It really is a special machine.
E- type ! Classic car hype boys assemble ! I don't think there's really any other car that gets as much, hype, admiration and love like a Jaguar E - Type V12 at classic car shows. This iconic machine has actually had the pleasure of being owned by just one person, since it was bought, it was daily driven, but as the years rolled on, it's kept more as a show car now. The owner knows its value.
Seeing this car up close is really spectacular. It's like one of those really old houses, that are well maintained, old furniture, and intricately hand crafted objects that just tells you it was from an era we lost and probably will never see again. The long swooping lines of the body all the way to the tail, showed a streamlined design. The funny thing about this car, at the front, most of the front is basically engine, a V12 is pretty enormous in a car of that size.
The AE-86, or Hachi-Roku it depends how you want to call it is a staple classic for persons who want something they can daily. This one isn't from Japan though. It's a GT-S from the US Market, but the owner replaced the internals with JDM parts. It's still a work in progress but it's well on it's way to being finished, with just an engine map left to do.
The 16valve 4A-GE makes about 160hp to the crank and 150hp to the wheels, it's actually pretty refreshing to see someone interested in restoring an 86.
It's clean, simple and works.
Yes, this is also an 86, in a sense. I have heard persons call them the 86's ugly cousin, coming off the same production line as the AE-86. Daihatsu made the Charmant, the parts were interchangeable, it uses the same 4A mount configuration in the front and the car is also RWD.
The owner replaced the original engine with the 16V 4A-GE which is a pretty common occurrence, apart from this, the car is pretty much the same from the factory.
This build is also really simple and clean.
This Ford Shelby Cobra, although it was a kit car, it's still pretty amazing to see one here. The Shelby has a pretty long history itself, even how it became so iconic. This car uses the 5.2 liter 302 BOSS V8, and it sounds absolutely amazing. The owner still wanted to make sure that the car stayed period correct in terms of specifications.
Across the Atlantic, Ford in England was making another icon for a totally different market. The Escort, although this one was a rally car, it really made me realize how much markets affect the design of cars. Both were icons but you could say in a sense they were polar opposites. 4 cylinder vs V8, economical car vs low mileage high power just to show a few.
Can you believe that's a Nissan ? This car was actually very intriguing. Made me do some research.
Its called "Le Seyde". Originally Nissan made about 500 of them, in 1990 and they were all sold out, it was based on the S13 Silvia Chassis, they did a another run in 2000 that was based on the S15 Chassis. This one in particular though, was from 1990, on inside of the engine bay the chassis tag said S13.
- Alex signing out till next time.
Some other cuts from the show.
