The History of Sports Cars...

…according to one.

#1 – 1964 MGB

I was in the Air Force, stationed at Lajes Field, the Azores Portugal. I was a medic, a public health specialist and had just turned 20. Some of us were offered a chance to fly on a C-130 to the Canary Islands for a 4-day period of “rest and recuperation”. I jumped at that and we were off! We spent virtually all our time in the city of Las Palmas on the Gran Canaria, the main island. It was, and probably still is, a beautiful cosmopolitan European city surrounded on three sides by ocean.

Four of us, buddies, were there and we were dazzled by the hospitality of the islanders as well as the beauty of the Spanish women there. We also had a chance to rent an MGB sports car. I was totally amazed at that car… so sleek, so low to the ground, so quick and nimble. With the top down, it was pure joy to ride and drive, especially at night in the city. It was totally big time to me… a hayseed out of small town North Dakota and Ohio. I would never forget it.

Fast-forward five years and I was in Riverside, California with my new, beautiful bride Julieann Marie. We were preparing to leave the Air Force as I was thinking Julieann and I could make a better life by other means. Then, I was promoted and we faced the prospect of a re-enlistment bonus that was over two grand! We were thinking that was big money and I had started night school for a degree so we figured we would ride that possibility a little more. I will never forget signing up and getting that cash (a fortune to us at the time). I took it all in bills to our apartment and tossed it on our bed. Julie and I just studied it, and laughed at it for a while then we put it in the bank.

At that time, Julie was also working full time so we had two incomes and a brand-new 1970 Cougar with a 351 Cleveland engine in it.

I was working in Intelligence (an oxymoron I know) at the time. One day at work one of my buddies said he was going to sell his MGB but had to rebuild the engine first so he could get a decent price for it. I was pretty naïve about those things so I just said, “Why don’t you sell it to me and I will take some leave (vacation) and rebuild it myself”? So he did… for something like $900. It was sometime around the first of the year, a pretty cool time even in Riverside but I would not put the top up. I just drove that puppy around with the heater on, top down and blew giant clouds of smoke around the Riverside area. I had to add a quart of oil for just about every tank of gas.

After a couple of weeks, I decided to visit the MG dealer and get an estimate on the cost of parts to rebuild the engine. I pulled up there, talked to a service tech and he checked things out. He put his hand over a certain point on the engine, asked me to rev it a little, and then quickly proclaimed, “You need a PCV valve.” I didn’t know what that was so I asked him how much that would run me. He said less then ten bucks and he could put it in right there and then. I was dumbfounded but managed an “ok” and he did it. From that point on the MGB ran like a dream and I couldn’t believe it. The famous “PCV valve” had become hopelessly clogged causing the car to blow out tons of oil and replacing it was all that was needed. I was in Fat City driving that sports car and loved every second of it. I kept driving it well into the spring without putting the top up.

Not long thereafter, I was assigned to do a tour in Thailand and we sold her, at a handsome profit of course.