New Home In Scotland For BGT

1973 MGB GT owned by Simon Goldsworthy owned since: 2017 mileage: 4200 (recorded).

Last issue I explained how I wanted to have a shake-up of my cars, ideally with the goal of having fewer cars that each got used more. It was the realisation at the BGT’s MoT that it had only covered 584 miles since its last test that prompted this action.

I put a note to this effect on Facebook, and John Gearing got in touch to ask about the B. You may recall that John won our New Writer competition in 2016 with his tale of doing Scotland’s North Coast 500 in his MG Midget; he also featured last issue telling the story of competing on this year’s London Lisbon Rally in the same car.

Well, John has clearly developed a taste for long-distance classic rallying, but did feel that an MGB GT might be a more suitable tool – bigger, more powerful, more storage space and more comfortable than the Midget. So we agreed a price and arranged for an independent inspection at Hall’s Garage – John lives in Hong Kong, which made a personal road test rather awkward.

Sometimes I swear that cars know when you are selling them and get resentful – literally as I was pulling onto Hall’s forecourt, the clutch release bearing started to squeal. It has never done that before in my ownership, and it didn’t do it again after this visit – explain that one if you can! Everything else was fine with the car, so John and I agreed a suitable reduction to cover a new clutch – the squeal would have been coming from the carbon release bearing, but while the engine was out to replace this with a roller bearing, it would make sense to fit a brand new clutch too.