• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Article: General Public's Opinion of our LBC's

Share this page

Quote: " What seems to shade folks' opinion is the result of poor quality maintenance the cars generally received and the poor level of respect they had from most independent shops. Not any inherent frailty of the machines."
Very true Doc. And don't touch those SU carburetors.
Back in that era I too was more or less of the same persuasion as your Sam. I as many at the time were weaned on the big lumbering V8. Those little 4 bangers which need high rpms for power would never last we were convinced. And those foolish dual carburetors surely needed constant adjusting. So I drove a 289 Mustang with a good stout floor shifter. I later bought an MGA (reasoning is for another story). After restoring it I drove it all thru New England and into Canada on Holiday eventually selling the Mustang. Today the Healey and the MGB in my garage are the least troublesome of my stable.
 
It's something difficult to explain to "mainstream" Americans. My first car at age 18 was a two-year-old, '66 MGB. When I got it home my father looked at it and said: "You spent $700 on THAT?!?!" Many years later and over 200K miles on that MG, his remarks had changed: "Those cars are the most amazingly well built machines I've ever seen." Over the years since then I've had at least one MGB in the stable, knowing THAT car will get me where I need to go.
 
Those are great stories. At the risk of being thrown out as a member of this forum I'll admit that I have not helped our cause in the past. In the early '80s when my 1974 Spitfire was my daily ride it performed well, even on snowy icy roads here in NJ during winter months. However, i did often tell friends that in order to rely on it during the week I would usually spend Saturday performing maintenance or fixing some small mechanical or electrical issue, maybe a bad connection, a new fuel pump, etc. I'm a lot more knowledgeable now on maintenance than I was back then and agree that if well maintained we can rely on them for any trip, anywhere, any season. Thanks for sharing your stories above, I'll probably reference it when some of my Ford Mustang loving friends make fun of my Triumph or Austin Healey in the future.
 
I found my British cars to be wonderfully reliable if you have the money and knowledge to take care of them. My first couple cars, Sprites, had various issues, most of which could have been fixed by a little money (marginal batteries) or a little more experienced mechanic and driver at the helm. By the time I was in my 20s I drove my TR4A around and it worked great year round, including starting right up on many sub zero winter mornings.

Also never had anything in a engine break, despite flogging the bejesis out of them in my youth.
 
glemon said:
I found my British cars to be wonderfully reliable if you have the money and knowledge to take care of them. My first couple cars, Sprites, had various issues, most of which could have been fixed by a little money (marginal batteries) or a little more experienced mechanic and driver at the helm. By the time I was in my 20s I drove my TR4A around and it worked great year round, including starting right up on many sub zero winter mornings.

Also never had anything in a engine break, despite flogging the bejesis out of them in my youth.
Click to expand...

I am on my first British automobile. I got sidetracked by motorcycles, still have three. Another story. However, I have always liked Triumph TR6, Spitfire, and MG. I just knew they could not be as bad as some made them out to be.

It amazes me (and some still think this today) the people that think a positive ground system is unreliable. Those people are surprised to hear that the battery does not care which terminal is grounded.
 
We all had the same time in life with that first LBC. I have had a few mostly TR's so I will pass on one story of the MG TD 1953. I already had gone through two TR 's TR4 and TR 250 but life and kids came a long. In the late 70's my wife though the TD's were neat so I got her one. Nice little car but did not do well in Sacramento summers. I had two Jeeps a CJ 5 and a wagon either one I took to work. As for the story one AM heading to work non of the Jeeps would start battery's and the like. So the TD was next in line low battery but a quick turn of the crank and off to work. Pulling into the parking lot ( construction site ) the guys asked why I came in that thing. Quick reply: The only dam car that would start. Madflyer

1973 TR 6 been running for 27 years any time I want TRUSTED RELIBALE
 
Back
Top