Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

WTF is wrong with that £350 MX5???

Nothing, really, apart from looking like a hooptie, and I already have one fast car with blown out red paint.

Nothing, really, apart from looking like a hooptie, and I already have one fast car with blown out red paint.

Not "looking like a hooptie" is not in this remit:

What's small, really light, handles like a dream and will allow fun to be had at low speeds?

It's small, really light, handles like a dream, you can have loads of fun at low speeds, and as a 1.6, it's not exactly quick.

This is all true, however something like a Midget/MGB would be a little event every time you got in it, an MX-5 that looks like it's one flat tyre away from scrap-mycar.com isn't.

Also this:

Is cheaper than these:

All I'm going to say is money pit.

a weber set-up will cost as much as that mx5.

if you want to spend £10, buy a k-series midge or a v8 mgb gt - one that has been converted already.

They're superb little cars. In the same vein I'm loving my Panda 100hp at the moment - grin inducing and so far no plans to sell! Looks hilarious with a 29er on the roof too.

Good choice! Ever since they came out, I've fancied getting a Panda 100hp!

There was a dallara kitted X1/9 fitted with a 3l v6 from and alfa 164 on Swedish Ebay.

That had more power than the original Dallara cars.

i love how the internet turns these^ questions...

into these^ answers.

didn't we end up putting an alfa v6 into a moggie last time? engine swaps are a MASSIVE PITA almost all of the time, but the internet turns swapping a b-series for an LS3 into a weekend exercise ("they are smaller than a rover v8, you know").

you then end up with something 3 times more expensive than:

...which would meet the initial brief

Think its the classic lines but with out the hassle of greasing kingpin, suspension joints every couple of 100 miles. Oil changes every couple of thousand miles. Classic cars are more labour intensive. Also they don't like sitting about.

With modern mechanics longer service intervals and fit and forget parts.

MG Midget is fine maintenance-wise. They are so piss-easy to work on that maintenance doesn't take very long at all - change track rod ends in ten minutes, thermostat in fifteen minutes, headgasket in two hours etc. Couple hours drive on Saturday, couple hours fettling/cleaning/improving on Sunday.

Yeah, it needs an oil change every 3,000 miles, but you'll likely do less than that each year anyway. Since I have the old manual handy - service intervals for points, plugs and leads is every 6,000 although you'll probably want to do it every six months or so (or fit electronic ignition, which I personally would)... service intervals for suspension components (like kingpins, steering rack etc) are 12,000 miles, not every few hundred, and it's easy since they all have grease nipples (unlike in the MG-A). Every year is plenty, if you don't drive it on wet/gritty roads.

That said, maintenance is part of the charm. If you really don't enjoy doing it, you shouldn't be buying a classic car - but you knew that anyway.

Think its the classic lines but with out the hassle of greasing kingpin, suspension joints every couple of 100 miles. Oil changes every couple of thousand miles. Classic cars are more labour intensive. Also they don't like sitting about.

With modern mechanics longer service intervals and fit and forget parts.

i agee with you, but just whacking a zetec into a midge doesn't instantly turn it into a swiss watch, either. unless you spend the £4k+ on the irs/coilover conversion, the £1.5k on brakes, the £5k on a full body resto and the countless other upgrades, you are still going to have a new (young?) engine in an old car.

so we now have a £20k midget

That said, maintenance is part of the charm. If you really don't enjoy doing it, you shouldn't be buying a classic car - but you knew that anyway.

^

(btw, 2 hours for a head gasket is good going!)

I've easily spent 10K on my Volvo, and ended up with a car that would sell for 2K.

That said, if I dropped in a standard T5 engine and exhaust it'd sell for the same, and I'd have a fairly pokey engine sitting on a pallet.

as i have mentioned, i am not sure the b is the car i'll keep forever, so i don't see the appeal of spending huge amounts on it. a 20k mgb is still an mgb and 20k in my pocket i'd be shopping for something else.

that said, i have read every single publication on the planet about v8/k series/zetec conversions and power upgrades for mgb s

(btw, 2 hours for a head gasket is good going!)

Uh huh. Drain radiator, undo throttle cable, unclamp manifold from downpipe, remove rockers and head bolts, pull off coolant pipe - then you can lift the head, intake and exhaust manifolds and carbs out of the engine bay in one piece - swap the gasket - put the head/exhaust/carbs back in one go (need a mate to help you with this), put the rockers back on, fill up the radiator - away you go. Stupidly easy. Two hours is doing it on your own - a mate and I did mine in half an hour, although we were in a rush!

This bloke reckons he can do it in 45 minutes on his own!

Thanks to this thread I have been looking at MG-Bs all day... I briefly had one and it was lovely. Not sure if I'd prefer a Midget or a B - the B is definitely a 'proper car' and a pretty comfortable cruiser, whereas the Midget is a little fun shoebox for local country lanes. Perhaps if I want an open-topped A-road cruiser then a 70s/80s Mercedes SL would be a better choice, and not much more expensive than a B these days either.

Yeah, I wasn't clear- I've got so much money in the Volvo that to sell it would be financial suicide.

I'd prefer anything new to wash it's own face as it were.

Saw the sexiest spitfire I've seen in a long time @ hackney studios over the weekend. BRG and a cheeky roll cage. Nothing else needed. Sounded immense too. If i was going classic roadster that's what I'd be getting.

What's small, really light, handles like a dream and will allow fun to be had at low speeds?

Saxo VTS, and none of this Spitfire / Midget nonsense.

Mini!

Saxo VTS, and none of this Spitfire / Midget nonsense.

106 Rallye/GTI beats Saxo VTS in a Top Trumps style on everything bar price! Saxos are so cheap!

For the money, hot hatches don't get much more fun

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/913847_555318457851778_382390249_o.jpg

Uh huh. Drain radiator, undo throttle cable, unclamp manifold from downpipe, remove rockers and head bolts, pull off coolant pipe - then you can lift the head, intake and exhaust manifolds and carbs out of the engine bay in one piece - swap the gasket - put the head/exhaust/carbs back in one go (need a mate to help you with this), put the rockers back on, fill up the radiator - away you go. Stupidly easy. Two hours is doing it on your own - a mate and I did mine in half an hour, although we were in a rush!

This bloke reckons he can do it in 45 minutes on his own!

Thanks to this thread I have been looking at MG-Bs all day... I briefly had one and it was lovely. Not sure if I'd prefer a Midget or a B - the B is definitely a 'proper car' and a pretty comfortable cruiser, whereas the Midget is a little fun shoebox for local country lanes. Perhaps if I want an open-topped A-road cruiser then a 70s/80s Mercedes SL would be a better choice, and not much more expensive than a B these days either.

Not one rounded nut or bolt, check the head for distortion, check the block for distortion. Possible cleaning and reseating the valves. Oil drain and refill with fresh.

Or is this like changing a beetle engine?

Every head gasket replacement I've done has always been work but then I choose not to replace gaskets as a service item, Payen gaskets for the A series are the best.

Head and block are both cast iron so unlikely to distort... nuts and bolts in an engine that old tend to be rather large and unlikely to round or strip. Oil change takes 5 minutes - 4 minutes of that is waiting for the oil to drain. We've all heard horror stories of stripped bolts and warped heads and so on, but I've never had any trouble working on any of the many 60s/70s cars I've owned - they are rare occurrences.

On the subject of 106 rallyes - this was a mates until recently, claimed it was running around the 210 mark.

Turbo?? Ruined that lovely NA delivery that the Rallye is famed for...!

DISCUSS?

Hot hatches are fun on track, totally admit that.