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An introduction to me and my MG BGT-K
This section added 12th April 2006:
Introduction
to the GTK
I
have had a mild fascination for MGs ever since I was in primary school and had a
ride to a friend’s house in his Mum’s red MK1 GT.
I have always tended to appreciate a coupe to its open-top counterpart
and so I never really looked at roadsters, but think that the GT is a very good
looking car.
In
2001 I changed jobs to one that was more office bound and my cheap run-around
that I had, which sat outside my house for months at a time when I was
previously on site, was starting to need work.
Needing inspiration for something a bit different I bought ‘Classic Car
Weekly’ and enjoyed looking at long-forgotten makes and models and dreaming
about owning one and doing something unusual with it. I kept coming back to MGs though and a chance phone call at
Christmas that year lead me to buy the car in early January 2002.
It didn’t earn the nickname ‘GTK’ until late 2004 however, as a
joke between Martin and I that stuck as others heard it.
K of course as in Kompressor…
Right
from the start my philosophy was to have a car in which I enjoyed driving and
which was something a little unusual. I
love old retro cars, preferably anything with a race heritage; in fact I tend to
walk past all of the shiny concours examples and head straight for the battered
race cars and replicas. Therefore
with the MG I wanted to do something which echoed those race cars in spirit if
not looks and performance – not produce another ‘classic’ looking MG!
Essentially
where I am heading is to have a stripped out car with few unnecessary extras but
that is otherwise comfortable and safe to be in.
It will be fast but composed and easy to drive.
We are more or less there, it just needs tidying around the edges.
So then, what type of MG is it?
The car is an MG BGT in Mallard Green. It had an Autumn Leaf interior, built March 1972 and first registered in Wimbledon, May 1972. It has spent most of its life around Bedfordshire, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire it would appear. I bought it in Peterborough, at the start of January 2002.
Bodywork was (I thought) excellent, short of a small amount of bubbling on the nearside rear winglet and an awful rubber radio aerial that someone had drilled through the roof to affix. She's a recessed grille model, which doesn't fuss me one bit, in fact I would argue that it makes the car more sporty and less pretentious... To drive it was maybe a bit sluggish, but all the gears were fine and so was overdrive, the interior mint etc etc. A nice example as far as I was concerned and I was well chuffed!
Unfortunately for me however, full throttle in 4th gear and 3000rpm on my 5th day of ownership spelt curtains for the original cylinder head (remember I said it felt a bit sluggish)! Arrgh! I assume there was some history of unleaded usage in the car, although I haven't ever gotten to the exact cause. Bu**er!! I took it to a local specialist and had to put a new standard but unleaded head on the car (I wanted a Peter Burgess fast road head, but I could not afford that so soon after buying the car, so, a full service and new (standard unleaded) cylinder head later, we were back on the road!!
In the next 4 months I managed 5000miles! Come April 2002, I had got used to the car and we were working well together, proving you can use a car this old as a daily driver. However things were starting to fade, the ride had got steadily worse, the brakes shuddered, the wheels weren't balanced, the suspension felt like a 40yr old Land Rover - weaving in a straight line, the tyres - well don't even get me started on my pet hate of old cars and crap tyres!!! It soon became obvious that the poor thing needed a bit of TLC over and above the full service and fluid change it had when I bought it.
My intention was to get everything that was worn, original and back to baseline - how it came from the factory. From here I could work out what I liked and disliked and then start to change things to my taste.
After
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