Marty's MGB Pumpkin Carving

Had some family pumpkin carvin' last weekend in Maryland...here's my attempt...

The Official MG "Smiley"

Background:
The MG "Smiley" is a magnetic smiley face that is awarded to any Keystone Region MG Club member who has a mechanical problem with their MG that requires remediation either to continue the drive or for safety purposes...while driving with the current holder of the "Smiley".

When "Smiley" is passed to the next person, a small star-shaped punch-out is taken from the smiley and left with the previous holder. The star may be stuck somewhere on the vehicle (inside the boot lid, for example) of the person passing on the "Smiley". Marty Chamberlain should be notified of any passing of the "Smiley" and the star punch so that he may keep this log up-to-date. The holder of "Smiley" is responsible to keep "Smiley" with his/her vehicle as well as to hold the star punch with the "Smiley".



Smiley's Holders To-Date:

8/21/2009 - Holder: Marty Chamberlain (at home)
This was the origin of the MG "Smiley". After his front brakes failed, Marty finished replacing most of the MGB's hydraulics, front bearings, rotors, calipers, etc. to be ready for Triathlon VIII.

8/28/2009 - Holder: Mike Jones (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon VIII, Jiminy Peak, Hancock, MA)
Mike’s MGB GT stopped running in the town of Kingston, N.Y., on Route 9W, a very busy commercial thoroughfare. Imagine Route 309 in Quakertown! A roadside repair was accomplished in a bank parking lot by replacing his dead fuel pump with one from Ed Haas' boot! "The Brotherhood of The Travelling Fuel Pump" was born.

8/29/2009 Holder: Marty Chamberlain (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon VIII)
Marty couldn't find his cell phone and finally found it clipped right where he left it...on one of the hood supports. Technically not a reasonable "Smiley" transfer, but he took it anyway. It wasn't going to stay with him for long.

8/30/2009 Holder: Mike Jones (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon VIII)
Leaving the Jiminy Peak resort, Mike smelled raw fuel. He had a loose clamp on his fuel filter. Luckily caught before a "carbeque" happened. Clamp fixed.

6/23/2010 Holder: Bill Webb (MG 2010, Belleville, Ontario, The Great While North)
Bill had a flat on his MGB as the group headed north on Interstate 81 in New York State. Fortunately, it happened just as the group was making a scheduled lunch stop at a rest stop, so the flat was fixed in relative comfort.

6/23/2010 Holder: Kim de Bourbon (MG 2010, Belleville, Ontario, The Great While North)
Kim’s MGB stalled as the group pulled into line at the Canadian border. It wouldn’t restart. Luckily, there were a lot of cars waiting to cross and everyone was at a stop — club members hopped out to give Kim a push start. Turned out to be a loose connector on the voltage regulator.

8/25/2011 Holder: Dick Horn (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon IX, Northport, ME)
Dick’s MGA would not start after the group stopped in a parking lot outside of Bar Harbor, Maine. Some parking lot diagnostics/under-dash gymnastics and Dick was able to find the loose wire under his dash to get going again.

8/28/2011 Holder: Marty Chamberlain (British Marque Car Club News' Triathlon IX, Northport, ME)
Driving home through Hurricane Irene with Dick Horn and others, one of Marty's wiper blades slid off the arm. Had to stop and replace it.

Who will be the next proud holder of "Smiley?"

"British Invasion" Exhibit at America on Wheels (a.k.a. MGB Gets A Warm Spot for a While)

The Keystone Region MG Club is well represented at the The America on Wheels Museum's "British Invasion" exhibit. I'm happy to say that all of the MG's in the exhibit are owned by current KRMGC members -- Mike Jones' MG TD, Tom Brobst's MGA and our MGB.

I'm lucky enough to have a next-door neighbor who is a Brit Car guy. Fred, who has owned MG's in the past, now owns two Sunbeam Tigers. He asked me one day in the fall if I was interested in being part of the exhibit being planned at the museum. He took a couple of photos of the MGB. Next thing I know, the MG has a warm spot for the winter!

Fred and I brought our cars over to the museum for "induction" on January 6th, leaving Nazareth with the temperature right about 20-degrees F. It was a bit brisk, but I went top-down! As the Swedish say, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." Or something like that. I got some interesting looks from pedestrians and other drivers on the drive over.

We ran into Tom when we got there as his MGA was being "inducted" also that morning.

I hope you enjoy some of these photos of the "induction" and the completed exhibit.

The museum described the exhibit:

"One may wonder why are the British invading America On Wheels. Simply stated there is an American love affair with the British sports car that dates back to the days of WWII. Many American GI's were stationed in Britain during the war and fell in love with their cars. As the war was ending, Britain was the only European country that had the capability to produce cars and they took advantage of that by importing their products to the US. The American GI was excited by this and purchased these products in droves.

All of the vehicles in this exhibit not only represent the vast variety of cars that were produced in Britain just after the war but also represent the true craftsmanship and engineering that the manufacturers were able to quickly bring to the table in an attempt to revitalize their manufacturing transition from the war effort to that of a civilian based one. In reality, it was this effort that kept the British economy alive after the war and the American GI gave them a ready made market in the USA."

The exhibit runs through January and is composed of 15 British cars representing a nice spectrum of styles and vintages. In addition to the three MG's the lineup was filled out by Sunbeam, Jaguar, Mini, Austin Healy, Triumph, and Morgan.

I hope you enjoy some of these photos of the "induction" and the completed exhibit.