1964 MG1100

I have already talked about my first foreign car but this is about my first English car,a 1964 MG1100 sport sedan. Found it at a Rambler dealership near my parents house. At the time I was a newlywed and going to college and we needed a second car. It was British racing green with a grey leather interior. A past owner had retrofit it with 13 inch wheels and tires to replace the 12 inchers. Of course it was a 4 speed and I thought I was Jackie Stewart everytime I drove it. Front wheel drive was news to me as were the dual carbs. It came with no owners manual but since Iwas young and knew everything that did not matter. There was full instrumentation on the dash but remember it was English. We Americans are used to red lights warning us of a malfunction. In the infinite wisdom of myself I did not realize the signifigance of the orange/yellow light on the dash. Turns out it was oil pressure and you guessed it I fried the engine on the way to school one morning. Alas that was not the end of this fine car as I went back to the dealer I bought it from and raised hell with the support of my dad. They finally agreed to pay a fair share for repairs. A few weeks later with a newly rebuilt engine Iwas once again off to the races. I was a good car and I eventually went back to the original 12 inch wkeels with a new set of Pirelli's that greatly enhanced its handling. Old green as she was called was a good car and a learning experience such as why it stopped running in the rain.(Water would splash up on the distributor and short it out) Cured that by fashioning a shield out of aluminum to protect the distributor.Later found out there was a factory fix for that. It was a shield like I had made. All good things come to and end and we traded Old green in on a new VW in 1970. That car has its share of stories also.
Later