SABCC Annual Family Picnic

After some discussion as to the date and place of our annual club picnic, the club voted to stay with our June13th date if at all possible.

It's possible.

We have put our name on the calendar at Oscar Johnson Memorial Park in Silverhill, Alabama. Located on Baldwin County 104 just east of downtown Silverhill, the park is shady, well-kept and has a grill and a very nice covered picnic pavilion with tables and electricity.

We'll try to eat around noon, but come on by whenever. The club will provide burgers and dogs and we may even be able to prevail upon our own Chris Cronk to be in charge of the cooking. Bring a side dish to share - we'll need sweets and savories so let your imagination run wild (but go light on the beans).

We will use this meeting (yes, this will be our June club meeting) to vote on a charity to receive a donation from the proceeds of this year's British Car Festival. Be there to nominate and vote for your choice.

Oh yeah, the Manet picture notwithstanding the town of Silverhill will probably frown on nekkid picnicking.

Caution - This Blog May Be Spam

This humble blog was tagged as possibly being a spam blog. Yep, Google's all-knowing bots determined that this missive may be harmful to the internet, mom and apple pie. Here's an excerpt from their email message:

Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and your readers will
see a warning page during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review
your blog and unlock it within two business days. Once we have reviewed and
determined your blog is not spam, the blog will be unlocked and the message in
your Blogger dashboard will no longer be displayed. If this blog doesn't belong
to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be
affected.

Investigating the spam issue further, I found this:

What Are Spam Blogs?

As with many powerful tools, blogging services can be both used and abused. The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

Hmmm, maybe they had my number after all.

A Perfect Day for the St. John's Lawn Party

The official weather forecast for Sunday was mostly cloudy and 70% chance of rain. After the near -tropical storm South Alabama endured on Saturday, no one could be quite sure what the weather was going to do. Weather radar showed light rain bands running north from the Gulf. An eyeball cast toward the skies saw scattered clouds and lots of blue.

I went to the rendezvous site for the trip to Magnolia Springs and was soon joined by Jack & Linda Ross and Richard Cunningham. We stretched our 9:00 AM departure to 9:15 to make sure any late arrivals had a chance to join us. No one else came so off we went.

The ride down scenic 98 was beautiful. It seems like there were more joggers and bicyclists than cars. We pulled into Fairhope and parked our cars at the site where SABCC was born. The former foreign car repair shop is now some high end retail space. We got a few snapshots and continued on down highway 98 past Point Clear and on to Baldwin County highway 1. We rejoined US highway 98 for the ride into Magnolia Springs. I thought the Mini set a pretty quick pace, but one of the Jaguar drivers begged to differ. Oh, well at least no one overheated.

Turning into Magnolia Springs we passed several lovely old houses and the famous Jesse's restaurant which had a large sign out front advertising a "Huge Meat Sale". Being in the Mini I had no room for huge meat so we pressed on to St. Johns.

We found our usual spot under the oaks and parked the cars. We enjoyed the fresh breezes and shade of the trees until it was time to partake of one of the lunches sold to raise funds for the parish. The bar b que was great and the portions were generous. After lunch the constant stream of adimirers kept us from napping off the meal.

We were joined by Sandy & Sam Walter and Chris & Cindy Cronk who came by to help support the club and St. Johns. Donna Cunningham also made a stop with her two grand neices in tow. After lunch with Richard she went on to Gulf Shores to visit relatives there. It was also a pleasure to see St. Johns parishoner Elaine Coll again. She and her late husband Vince were charter members of SABCC.

We all left at various times in the afternoon to make the return trip home, still enjoying the sunshine and cool breezes that we began the day with.

A Sleeping MGB is About to Wake Up

Many of you long-time SABCC members know my brother (and fellow SABCC member) Alan. Most of you know that he owns a '76 MGB. Those of you that became SABCC'ers recently have not seen either Alan or his MGB. Wait no more - here it is. Alan's car is a late '76 in vermillion (orange to you and me) - mine is an early '76 in chartreuse (that would be yellow).

Due to a minor electrical issue, family and work obligations, Alan parked his 'B some years ago snugly in his west Mobile garage with every intention of making it right and driving it soon. More years than was planned passed and the old girl now needs more than just a quick fettling to get her roadworthy.

The ever-generous Richard Cunningham heard that Alan was about to begin work on the car and offered to house the 'B in his spacious Daphne garage. Since Richard found a gentleman to adopt his mid-30's Chevy pickup-hot rod project, there was more than enough room for an MG-sized car in his man-cave. Alan took him up on his offer and the rollback was dispatched with the slumbering MGB aboard.

The MG was dropped off today and a quick inspection revealed that the 'B is in better condition than originally thought. The clutch is free, the hydraulics seem to be fine and the engine turns. What fuel was in the tank has long since done its part for global warming - no sloshing was heard.

Alan is planning to mount a new set of tires (the ones on the car are at least 15 years old), install a new battery, fresh oil, coolant and hydraulic fluid. The fuel tank will likely come off to determine its ability to hold fuel. A new tank may be in the cards. Alan, Richard and I will do the work and I for one can't wait to see the car back on the road.

A Jaguar with the Heart of an MG

The few of you who follow this humble blog know that I loves me some high-po Jaguars. I even 'own' a Jaguar XJR9 in my Gran Turismo 4 garage.

On one of my last trips to the Rolex 24 at Daytona I was startled to see an honest-to-goodness Jaguar XJ220 in one of the infield parking lots. It was gorgeous in dark maroon metallic and boy was it BIG. Compared to a Jaguar XJS, it is 30 inches longer and 10 inches wider.

This hot cat was supposed to have a version of Jaguar's loverly V12 engine, but due to emissions issues and cost constraints, the engineers at TWR (Jaguar's engine consultants) had to find a suitable substitute.

It was around this time that the World Rally Cup rulemakers banned Group B and that left the folks at MG (and Rover, too) with a stock of pretty hot V6 engines that powered the MG Metro 6R4 rally car. TWR reckoned that TWO turbochargers would more than make up for the loss of half the cylinders and proceeded to buy the rights to the engine. TWR coaxed the little V6 into making 549 HP.

Jaguar eventually made 281 XJ220s with copies going to Elton John and the Sultan of Brunei.

And that, kids is how an MG engine wound up in a Jaguar supercar.

Is St. Johns Lawn Party Going to be Washed Out?

I really hate to say it, but it the weather on Sunday may not be in favor of the Lawn Party at St. John's Church in Magnolia Springs. This long-running SABCC calendar item may prove to be a wet one due to a nasty rain storm moving in from Florida this weekend.

As they said in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, "Watch the skies..."

Ailing MGB

Yep - my MGB is not well again. I planned to drive the Yellow Peril last Sunday but the old girl was not happy. Rough running and poor idle. Started right up, but it was in no mood to be hauling around an old, fat driver. Right, well sit there then.

It looks like the problem may lie with the number one spark plug lead. Mike Darby and Richard Cunningham used their highly developed diagnosis skills to determine that my 11 year old plug leads probably need replacing. Richard even dug out an old set from his V12 XJS to let me try one to make sure that is the problem.

I'll let you know how it turns out...

MGB Number 250,000 has a Local Connection

An excellent article by Ken Smith in the May/June issue of the North American MGB Register's excellent publication MGB Driver about the 250,000th MGB built. The car has a connection to the Mobile, Alabama area. If you aren't a member of the Register, you should join now and get your own copy of the Driver.

The car in question was given away by British Leyland in order to gain much needed publicity and help keep the aging MGB on the shopping list of sports car buyers. As it happened, the car was won by a Mobile resident who took delivery of it at the almost-new Road Atlanta race course.

Fast forward to 2009 and the article in the MGB Driver telling the story of the car and the contest jogged some memories. At the 2000 British Car Festival, a young man came by with photos of a Blaze MGB GT in less than perfect condition seeking investors in a restoration of the car. A sign on the roof of the car was the same as the one in the photo above. Yes, the man had the 250,000th MGB built.

The show was at its close and during the confusion, the young man with the photos disappeared. No name, no phone number--nothing.

If you know where MGB number 250,000 is drop me an email here at the SABCC site. I would love to see the car and let the world know that it still exists.

Second Mugs & Motors Enjoyed by All

The second edition of Mugs & Motors was well attended and everyone enjoyed 'coffee and conversation with motoring enthusiasts'.

Over a dozen SABCC'ers came to the Panera Bread location in Spanish Fort last Saturday with five British cars on display. The five cars parked nose to tail drew a steady stream of admirers and helped bring our hobby to the attention of the public.

The positive response from the members present may mean Mugs & motors might take place more often. Tell us what you think!