belonging to a faculty member at school. It had been owned since new and had covered only 54K miles. I did a full mechanical restoration and repainted it black with a tan interior and chrome wire wheels. That project funded the purchase of a '73 MGB GT that became the daily driver. The floors of the '64 Jag were going so I sold it and bought a dismantled '67 E-type coupe that was very clean with only 57K |
miles. Ten years later I sold it to my brother to finance the purchase of the Sebring coupe. He did a stunning restoration of it. This picture of it appeared in the 1999 Snap-on calendar. |
After 4 years of Dental school I decided to specialize in orthodontics which meant several more years of full time training. Mid way through, in August of 1980, I got married, it was about time since we had been dating for 14 years! Of course there was only one car I would consider getting into as we left the church and only one place to go on our wedding trip, Abingdon. |
The closing of the MG factory had already been announced and all tours had been stopped but fortunately for me, my father-in-law worked for British Leyland and was able to arrange for us to get into the factory and have a tour of it and the Comps Department too. During our trip I had a chance to sample a BGT V8 and decided that once home I would build my own using my mustard yellow GT and a Rover V8. I bought lots of original factory V8 parts and began the conversion. Here is the result. |
Click on a picture to see a full size image |
I modified an MGC OD gearbox to mate with the V8 and used BV8 close ratio gears and an MGC 3.31 rear end. The engine had an Isky |
cam and lifters, 10:1 compression and a Holley 390 four barrel carb on an Offenhauser manifold. By using a wire wheel rear housing which narrowed the rear 2", I could run 205-60 tires on 6.5" wide Minilites without fender flaires. |
Automotively speaking, the 80's were a quite time for me. Most of my attention was spent on having a family, buying a house and establishing my practice. My search for a Sebring 'A' continued ( I'll describe that separately) but not much was doing with the cars until a lot of loose ends came together and I finally acquired #43. |
