Keith’s Blog: Adapt Your Driving to Suit the Car

A friend is driving his 1958 MGA on the upcoming SCM 1000. The route will take us over Mt. Hood, to Crater Lake and to other scenic destinations with plenty of elevation changes.

“The brake drums and shoes on my car are tiny. I think I better upgrade to front discs.”

“Why bother,” was my response. “Are you planning on going racing?”

Over the half-century I have owned classic sports cars (they weren’t so classic in 1960), I have fiddled around with upgrades to the engines, transmissions, rear ends, brakes, suspensions and ignition systems.

When these cars were in daily use, some of these upgrades made sense for reliability. And when I would regularly autocross them in parking lots, the improvements made a difference in my results.

But those were different times.

Today, none of our classic cars are used on a daily basis (or shouldn’t be, for safety reasons if for no others). We drive them a few thousand miles a year, primarily on pleasant tours on fun roads. We keep them in garages, some even climate-controlled. Many of us have spent exorbitant amounts of money replacing worn-out parts and getting our cars to drive pretty much like they did when they were new.

I suggest you stop and examine whether the upgrades you are considering are necessary, and if they will do more to alter the nature of the car than they will offer in improvements.

As far as the drum-to-disc conversion, my advice is to simply drive the car to suit the brakes you have. When these cars were new, people didn’t go careening off of cliffs because their car had drum brakes.

Yes, they faded. And they had minimal stopping power. But you simply drove the car to accommodate its limitations.

One of the great mistakes new collectors make is to think that an MGA is really a Miata with a swoopy body. They have no idea just how terrible the car is to drive compared to a modern car.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, it just means you have to be a different, more thoughtful kind of driver. If you assume that everyone else on the road – texting from behind the wheel of their three-ton pickups – wouldn’t notice if they ran over your Bugeye, you probably wouldn’t be wrong.

As far as modifications, given the relaxed touring that we now do with these cars, I see no need for bigger brakes, braided steel brake lines (if the rubber ones are in good condition), electronic ignition (if your stock system is working), or fatter tires.

In fact, most of us have figured out by now that these cars handle and steer better with their skinny stock tires than they do with more modern, fatter, lower-profile tires.

There are a few modifications that make sense. If you can install three-point retractable seatbelts, you are a fool not to.

Upgraded LED headlights are a real plus. I found this out when driving my SIII Jag coupe home from the Oregon coast, at night on a curving two-lane road. I couldn’t see a thing. But $600 later my problem was solved.

We could have an interesting discussion about suspensions. Let’s assume you need to replace your shocks and bushings anyway. In that case, I would go to upgraded shocks, a thicker front sway bar and a slightly shorter and stiffer shock.

For me, it simply makes the car more fun to drive without altering its essential characteristics. But you may feel differently.

As the 1300-, 1600-, 1750- and 2000-cc Alfa engines interchange relatively simply, the tendency has always been to go for a bigger engine.

Why, I ask? Are you competing in the Targa Florio? I have a friend with a later Super and a 1300-cc engine. It keeps up with freeway traffic and is fun to row through the gears.

When our 1967 Giulia Super arrived, it was fitted with a 2-liter engine. I wouldn’t have put one in myself, but having the extra torque was pleasant. However, I think my friend has more fun with his 1300-cc car.

While restoring our 1958 Sprint Veloce, I was told more than once how much simpler it would be to put a 1750 engine in it rather than deal with the mysteries of the original 750-series Veloce engine.

But I preferred to experience the unique feel and sensations of the original 1958 engine than replace it with a more modern powerplant.

Also, don’t forget that each thing you change introduces one more thing to fail. Our recently departed Volvo 122S kept dying on the freeway without warning. It took hundreds of dollars in searching to discover that when someone had “upgraded” the car to an electronic ignition, they had made a faulty splice in the wiring harness that was shorting out intermittently.

If your distributor and all your electrical components are in good shape and properly set up, there is no reason to alter them.

My final word on this is that if a car comes to you with upgrades installed, I would accept then and enjoy the altered characteristics of the car. Our 1967 GTV came with a 1750 engine installed rather than the stock 1600-cc. I was not about to change it back.

But if it is stock, think carefully before you start to change the character of the car.

I would rather see you adapt your driving style to the car, than adapt the car.

I look forward to seeing the drum-braked MGA crossing and re-crossing the Cascades on the SCM 1000.

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