Transformation begins!

Believe it or not I did consider racing my wife's frogeye (and she consented...sort of)! However at 6ft tall there was no way I was going to get me, my crash helmet and a roll bar under the hard top, and as the car is all steel and very original it just didn't seem right to take it racing, so that left my MGB GT. The B had been sat on the drive for 18+ months after I blew the engine at 100mph on the motorway. I brought a good secondhand engine straight away but never got round to fitting it. So the engine finally went in. The front and rear suspension was changed with new springs and uprated dampers all round, a stiffer front anti-roll bar and upgraded front brake pads (as well as braided steel brake lines). Some minilite wheels with Yokohama's should keep it on the road!

The engine got a tubular manifold and large bore exhaust, K&N air filters and electronic ignition. And that was it.......I just wanted to get the car together and handling well to start with, rather than worry about power. This going to be a long term project.

Safety wise the car got a rear cage (with the option to fit a front cage), racing seat and four point harness and a cut out for the engine.

A few number backgrounds, and other stickers just for effect, and the car was just about ready.

I got a sprint race licence from the MSA and joined the MG Car Clubs Speed Championship for some hill climbing and sprinting.

Work in progress. Chopping the frame of the webasto sun roof to fit the roll cage (on day I'll get rid of the webasto and weld the roof up)

The inside finished (sadly the lovely motolita steering wheel would soon be replaced by a 13" race wheel).

I can't remember how I discovered this (the car flew through the MOT and I never noticed anything when doing the front suspension) but about 3 days before my first event I found the front king pin was wobbling all over the place. A call to my parts supplier and the night before I was going to get up at 6am and head for my first event I was out on the drive replacing it!!

Even with the last minute drama everything was still ready to go on time.

History......

I've started this blog twice now, but forgot my user name and password twice (and couldn't retrieve them)!! So I'm going to have to recap the last 18 months in a few posts, and then pick up from there. This blog will primarily be about racing my MGB, and other internal combustion related stories, but I may also through a few family related items in to!

First some History.........

There's no getting round the fact that I am a petrol head, in certain company this is great and makes one a very cool and popular person, however with a large majority of people they just think your a bit sad! I have my father, and his parents, to blame really. As a boy my dad went to loads of motorsports events (they used to take their own scaffolding to build and mini grandstand to watch from), and of course he introduced me to motorsport. We've always lived quite close to Silverstone so I attended everything from Grandprix's to formula ford, worldsports cars, historic festivals and so on. Fortunately I got to attend GPs before it all became a commercial farce, as a result I've been able to wonder freely into pit garages (not just the pit lane), sit in GP cars speak to several GP drivers and even bump into Ayrton Senna who was wondering across the back of the paddocks after Saturday practice.....Dad even managed to get his foot run over by Alain Prost's Ferrari!!

Unfortunately Dumb & Dumber, and FIA (Ecclestone and Mosely) turned F1 into a joke, killed off Worldsports Cars because it became more interesting than F1 and ruined LeMans.......which kind off turned me off modern motorsport.

In the mid 90's the Coys Historic Festival at Silverstone really grew in size and excitement, and it was possible to wonder among priceless racing cars without being shooed away! I remember one time wondering past some trucks, well away from any crowds, and finding Nigel Corner's V12 Ferrari Dino parked on the grass, and I had it all to myself!! And an undying passion for historic racing was fuelled.

Ok this is rambling a bit...... being a petrol head one tends to drive a bit quick, and off course you think you know a bit about driving too!! The desire to compete has always been there, and I'd always wanted to get involved in classic or historic formula ford, not having the funds for racing single seaters I decided to put one of my road cars on the track.....but which one?