My first car was a 1959 Bug Eye Sprite that I bought in 1966, on the day I turned 16 and got my license. The Bug Eye was just seven years old at the time. Today, we think nothing of buying a seven-year-old car—doesn’t 2004 sound like new? But back then, a seven-year-old sports car was very likely to be on the last of its original legs. My little Sprite had dents on every quarter, a piece of the lower front left fender was just missing—as if a Rottweiler had chomped on it—and it made horrible sounds in first and reverse […]
My first car was a 1959 Bug Eye Sprite that I bought in 1966, on the day I turned 16 and got my license. The Bug Eye was just seven years old at the time. Today, we think nothing of buying a seven-year-old car—doesn’t 2004 sound like new?
But back then, a seven-year-old sports car was very likely to be on the last of its original legs. My little Sprite had dents on every quarter, a piece of the lower front left fender was just missing—as if a Rottweiler had chomped on it—and it made horrible sounds in first and reverse gears due to a chipped tooth in the cluster gear. As an aside, driving a 948-cc, no-first-gear car in San Francisco was an immediate introduction to clutch-slipping.
Because of all these flaws, the Bug Eye was just $30—yet it was my ticket to enter the sports-car fraternity I had been reading about in Road & Track for the previous decade. Yes, I was the lowest-of-the-low, but I was in the club.
I waved at other sports car owners, got an Austin-Healey patch to sew onto my jacket (next to the Laguna Seca Raceway one) and even wondered if I would look good in a tweed hat.
Worn Out
At just seven years of age, the Sprite was completely worn out. The suspension bushings were history, and the front Armstrong shocks leaked fluid as fast as I could pump it in. I remember putting the one new tire I bought on the front left, and my grandmother helping me hold the string that I used to self-align the car.
Cheap and decrepit sports cars. That’s what most of us started our “collecting” with. Unsuited for high-speed American highways, these little foreign rattletraps spun their engines into oblivion after 50,000 miles. A lack of thoughtful maintenance didn’t help either. After all, on a $30 car a $60 tune-up represented 200% of its value.
The world of old cars is very different today. First of all, cars that were just seven years old in 1966 are now 52 years old. By and large, those that have survived have been through at least a couple of restorations. And they are now “collector cars.”
Where Bondo-laden repairs, quickie resprays and cheapo seat covers were once the norm, now even inexpensive cars like MGAs receive decent paint jobs, reproduction chrome and interior kits. When engines and gearboxes are overhauled, work is generally done to a high quality, not the knurled valve-guides and pistons of yesteryear.
Today, as these cars are now “collectible” and no longer daily drivers, they are better taken care of than they were nearly-new. What was once a purchase of desperation, a cheap, worn-out sports car on a peanut-butter budget, is now a “collector car” with its own prized place in the heated garage.
The $15,000 Challenge
I’ve found an excuse to buy some more entry-level sports cars, and I believe that it will be easier to find a decent-condition 50-year-old sports car today than it would have been to find the same-condition, seven-year-old car in 1966. I’m looking for two driver-quality MGBs and a GT under $5,000 each for a family road trip this summer.
The All-MG Register gathering is in Reno this year from June 13-17 (www.mg2011.com). More than 1,000 MGs of all flavors are expected to be in attendance. I’ve caravanned to Reno once before, that time in a Big Healey for that marque’s 50th anniversary, and it was a glorious two-day affair with a stop at Crater Lake on the way down.
Just think—our entire family in three MGs, with 4-year-old Bradley securely strapped in the back of the GT and Wendie and I in the front, and teenagers Tyler and Drew in one B, and Alex in the other. All in the company of MG fanatics, cruising the 1,200 miles to the convention and back.
I confess that not all of my family shares my fascination with this—in fact, at this moment, none of them do. The three teenagers, when I sent them a description of the event and some pictures of MGs available for sale, replied, “You want us to drive crappy old cars a really long way from home, hang out with a bunch of weird grownups who never got over this car thing, and then drive home—hoping that no parts fall off the cars or that they don’t set fire to themselves in the middle of the desert?”
Wendie wanted to know why we couldn’t drive her comfy and capable 2010 BMW 528 and “put an MG sticker on it or something to show them we were a part of the gang.”
I reminded the youngsters that as it wasn’t a Lotus convention, the MGs were not likely to self-immolate. And I told Wendie that duct-taping an MG badge to the grille of the Bimmer probably wouldn’t do the job.
Add to the Fleet
My search is on. Can I buy a decent 40- to 50-year-old MGB today for under $5,000? No rubber bumpers or Abingdon pillows, please; target years are 1963-67 or 71-74. Searching the Holy Trident of Affordable Classics: Craigslist, eBay Motors and AutoTrader Classics, there appear to be examples in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. If you’ve got a candidate, email me at keith.martin@sportscarmarket.com, or call 503.261.0555 x 210.
If you’d like to be a part of this SCM caravan, drop me an email. There is a cross-country rally as well.
Old Cars, New Experiences
We at SCM continue to maintain that the primary reason to be involved with old cars is the experiences and opportunities they create, and the people you meet as a result. Buying three goofy old British cars and subjecting my family to a week in them sounds like a good idea to me, and I’ve got a few months to win them all over.