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1996 MGF - Safety [Kettle] Fast


dugong

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Yes, Jon - the AS Farcebook page IS a joke.  Oh... ISWYM...

 

Please bring LBL to the Tour de Cafe on NYD.  I've never driven an MGF and it's a box that needs ticking  B)

You're more than welcome to have a drive of VLU at CMA if you can't meet LBL. Although no VVC so you may not be OMG.

FTMFW! U B @TDC on NYD?

 

;)

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Was this a on the press fleet? Something about the reg

 

EDIT- my bad it was some of the works minis that were LBL-- registered

 

In the best colour for these IMO

BL reg are from Berkshire - Abingdon was where most BMC/BL rally cars were registered after completion there - along with press Healeys, MGs and so on.   Seeing a BL plate (as opposed to a BL badge of course!) on any non-Chinese MG was nearly enough to make me wave money at it - if I had had any at the time.   Right about the colour too - its the only shade they look right in, to me.... 

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  • 9 months later...

LLpPqQc.jpg

 

LBL features quite prominently in this week's Classic Car Buyer. It took part in a Peebo to Land's End road trip to celebrate the mag's 300th issue (it's 300 clicks as the crow flies from the editorial offices to the Cornish fin del mundo). You should go out and read about it in the newsagents or while on the throne or something.

 

VbbUdYX.jpg

 

I got to drive it on the beach at Weston Super Mare and hoof round on the sand.

 

oZq85y0.jpg

 

I finally scraped enough pennies together for new tyres; Falken Ziex ZE914s came highly recommended by all and sundry, so I invested in a set. The car wore four different makes of boot with differing profile meats at the rear, which explained its ever so slightly lob-sided stance. I wanted a set of Yokohama Advan Neovas but the budget didn't stretch that far: they have a really stiff sidewall and were designed with the Toyota MR2 in mind. I was getting flat spots if the car was left for any amount of time, which was sorted by and expensive bead seat and grinding session at Hall's Garage in Lincolnshire.

 

Despite the 'F being the last bloody car you should mix and match farting tyres on, it was nowhere near as bad as some of the doom mongers claimed - unless you tried to push it out of bends. The Falkens sorted out a strange tendency to wander about at speed and quelled the worst of the understeer, but they didn't have enough miles on them to be taken around Cadwell Park without scrubbing themselves into barge fenders. I took the Piazza instead: that, as you know, ended brilliantly*.

 

Ur2IF5y.jpg

 

Pb9cR7P.jpg

 

6UHVxrM.jpg

 

Took it to MGF 20 and got temporarily lost in the colour coded car park. Every other car was terrifingly shiny.

 

BXGd5U7.jpg

 

Here it is with an MPI. I'd quite like a Trophy \ Freestyle bumper to better tie the front end down; I'm not keen on the blue car's bumper but it probably keeps the steering from going light[er] at speed.

 

wf1IC56.jpg

 

The original heater knobs were crumbling so I invested in a set of metal controls from a specialist at MGF 20. Someone copy and pasted this picture from elsewhere on the MGF Facebook group and got stroppy when I referred them back to the original post it was hoofed from - I didn't fancy explaining it umpteen times when all they had to do was scroll down a bit.

 

83yOxGj.jpg

 

LBL spends most of its time in work's unit now - it badly needs another service and the ends of the outer sills are turning brown. I reckon the immobiliser problems are behind it now; I still need to replace the dead clock, swap the head units round, fix the cigarette lighter which Lord Sterling accidentally broke and attend to the perilously slow electric window regulators.

 

q87Qi7D.jpg

 

Here's a final one of it at work. Best £550 car ever.

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we should have AS VVC drag race, against the beige MX5 owners, settle their hash once & for all. slitty-eyed barbarians...

 

My clock is also stopped. Better than no clock at all, is my opinion.

 

I stripped the door cards off and applied half a tube of lithium grease to each window mechanism. They are faster and much less shonky.

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we should have AS VVC drag race, against the beige MX5 owners, settle their hash once & for all. slitty-eyed barbarians...

 

My clock is also stopped. Better than no clock at all, is my opinion.

 

I stripped the door cards off and applied half a tube of lithium grease to each window mechanism. They are faster and much less shonky.

 

I'd be in for that.  In Rover 25 Gti form though. Be good for comparison.

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