I have this perchant for collecting cars. Not like a lot of people that have vast collections, but sufficient to keep our driveway and garage full. Now, that doesn't take too many when we only have a two car garage and a two car driveway. Of course, Linda has her vehicle, Ian his 318is and ocassionally Sarah's will also appear. Throw in my 325is and M3 and you can imagine we have rather a full house.
I had sometimes made vague mumblings about building another car, probably another MGB. For the most part it was just that, mumblings, there just wasn't room. Linda suggested that if I wanted to build another car, all I had to do was get rid of the M3...there it was....gone!
The search for a decent restoration project was underway. I was looking for an MGB GT of
fairly early vintage, chrome bumper model to be exact. One day, scouring the pages of E-bay, this little yellow roadster caught my eye. I have no idea why, it was totally NOT what I was looking for... a rubber bumper (gawd they are ugly) roadster. The description was fairly vague compared to some and there was not an extensive array of pictures, certainly not enough to make an informed descision on buying. Still, something kept dragging me back to the little (ugly) roadster. A voice compelled me to bid on this car, and bid I did. Not that it was much of a bid, and honestly, I never expected to win. Four days later while perusing my e-mails, imagine my surprise to find I was now the proud owner of a '75' MGB roadster. I contacted the seller and forwarded a $500.00 deposit. Now comes the fun part...getting a inoperative vehicle from Tifton Georgia to Whitby Ontario. I called various transport companies only to find it was going to cost me twice what I had paid for the car to get it delivered to Buffalo. Tilden, U-Haul etal would not rent me a trailer to take south of the border, so I was stuck. A friend suggested I put out a plea on the internet and see what happens. Two days later I had a response from an old racing buddy that I hadn't seen for the last thirty or so years. A deal was struck and Brian Burgess was off to retrieve the new found treasure.
fairly early vintage, chrome bumper model to be exact. One day, scouring the pages of E-bay, this little yellow roadster caught my eye. I have no idea why, it was totally NOT what I was looking for... a rubber bumper (gawd they are ugly) roadster. The description was fairly vague compared to some and there was not an extensive array of pictures, certainly not enough to make an informed descision on buying. Still, something kept dragging me back to the little (ugly) roadster. A voice compelled me to bid on this car, and bid I did. Not that it was much of a bid, and honestly, I never expected to win. Four days later while perusing my e-mails, imagine my surprise to find I was now the proud owner of a '75' MGB roadster. I contacted the seller and forwarded a $500.00 deposit. Now comes the fun part...getting a inoperative vehicle from Tifton Georgia to Whitby Ontario. I called various transport companies only to find it was going to cost me twice what I had paid for the car to get it delivered to Buffalo. Tilden, U-Haul etal would not rent me a trailer to take south of the border, so I was stuck. A friend suggested I put out a plea on the internet and see what happens. Two days later I had a response from an old racing buddy that I hadn't seen for the last thirty or so years. A deal was struck and Brian Burgess was off to retrieve the new found treasure.I started swapping e-mails with the seller, a young lady who was given the car for her sixteenth birthday in 1986. The car had been repainted just prior to her recieving it. The car was yellow, her name was Janna, and the car was always referred to as "Janna's Banana", and so the name sticks. It had been in storage in an old barn on a peanut farm in Tifton, approx. one and a half hours south of Atlanta since 1990.
The Banana arrived hours before our departure for six weeks in Florida. When I finally laid
eyes on the car I was even more surprised than when I won the bid. It was complete, and in the short time I had to survey it, looked to be in pretty good shape. I was truly impressed and had second thoughts about heading off to Florida. We rolled the car off the trailer, with amazing ease, and into the garage. Thats it....six weeks before I could start prying away at this little gem. One thing I did find extraordinary was there was a trunk full of broken wing mirrors. Perchance did this young lady have a habit of shearing off mirrors (5 to be exact).....To be continued.
eyes on the car I was even more surprised than when I won the bid. It was complete, and in the short time I had to survey it, looked to be in pretty good shape. I was truly impressed and had second thoughts about heading off to Florida. We rolled the car off the trailer, with amazing ease, and into the garage. Thats it....six weeks before I could start prying away at this little gem. One thing I did find extraordinary was there was a trunk full of broken wing mirrors. Perchance did this young lady have a habit of shearing off mirrors (5 to be exact).....To be continued.
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