MG Car Club of South Australia
MGC NEWS
MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, November 2018
H
The Price of a ‘C’
and a GT in Victoria for $40,000. Both
‘C’s look like nice cars. Cheap ah!
ello again, it’s Richard here. Have
you ever heard of ‘inflation’? It’s
when you use your month to blow up
one of those colourful, round, rubbery
things at a child’s birthday party. When
you sit on it and it goes pop, well that
called deflation. Now, if you keep your
wealth as physical assets the value usu-
ally keeps up with inflation. If you keep
your wealth as money, given enough
time you won’t have enough to buy any
assets. So, if you have an account full
of cash, go out and buy an asset and
may I suggest that you buy an MGC ‘cos
if enough of you do that, it will push the
prices up. But that’s not called inflation
that called demand and supply.
If you still fancy a ‘C’ and have been
interested in MGs for a while you may
have heard about the poor handling and
the heavy steering of the model. Well,
the British press of the day were pretty
much correct but there are improve-
ments you can do today to improve
things. Regarding the handling and
power there are a few definitions that
you need to understand:
“Understeer is when the front of the car
hits the wall;
Oversteer is when the rear of the car
hits the wall;
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall;
Torque is how far through the wall you
go;
If you observe the speed limits today
and drive slow enough these definitions
are totally irrelevant.
So how much are they worth right now?
Well a lot more that an MGB I’ll tell you.
If you live in the UK you can pick up a
beautiful roadster for only £33,000
(that’s about AUD59,000). In the Neth-
erlands one was available for €17,000
($27,000) or choose a better one and
spend €30,000 ($52,000) complete with
the US Abingdon pillow. The asking
price for another beautiful UK ‘C’ was
€34,000 ($55,000).
A small number of MGC owners have
fitted electric power steering to over-
come the heavy front end and believe
me it makes a surprising difference.
There is another option that works well
too and that’s fitting trunnion needle
bearings to the top of your king-pins.
If you want a ‘C’ that starts easily and
doesn’t use as much fuel as a standard
car there’s a beautiful European build
(Benelux/Belgium) MGC from 1969 in
primrose yellow with overdrive for
£27,000 ($49,000). The roadster has a
fuel injected engine.
“This amazing little invention replaces
the bronze thrust washers in the top
trunnions to reduce friction and give an
almost power steering feel to your car
without any major alterations to your
vehicle. Makes the heavy manoeuvring
of your classic a thing of the past. Very
high quality and not to be compared
with cheaper alternatives available on
the market.”
Now, if you’re reading this magazine you
are probably living in Australia, so if you
fancy a lovely MGC two were advertised
recently, a roadster in NSW for $34,999
SC Parts Group in the UK has them,
Part No:489911 for £72.00 a set, but
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