A classic autumn - driving a classic car
Time for something a little different this week: what does yours truly get up to when not scribbling about new cars, the leasing industry or motoring in general? You may not be surprised to know I tend to spend plenty of time messing about with cars.
Sometimes this is entirely self-indulgent. A car show, a road trip or some gentle maintenance, perhaps. Quite often though, it’s borne out of necessity. Having a passion for older cars does mean they enjoy their share of things need doing.
Much of my attention this month has been on my faithful MGB GT. Going against any advice I would give today, I bought it from a bloke selling it for someone else, in a pub car park in Blackpool. Still, that was almost exactly 30 years ago and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
Driving an older car is always an adventure, whether you want one or not. The M.G has had its share. Like the electrical fire in Bromsgrove. Or the pirouetting on a greasy road in the Peak District. Or…the indignity of overheating recently after picking up my son from school.
It was the last of those exceptionally hot summer days. Wouldn’t it be fun, I thought, sneaking-in among all the other parents’ SUVs in the yellow peril to collect the boy after post-school sports. And it was, with his infectious grin as he spotted the little yellow car. Then it wasn’t.
It wasn’t the car’s fault: stuck in roadworks on the baking-hot tarmac. The fuel simply evaporated in the carburettors before it reached the engine so we spluttered to a halt on the busy A6. And I flattened the battery trying to restart it. We pushed it into a side road for safety - and to cool down.
On the plus side, my 14-year-old son now knows how to push start a car - something he and many of his contemporaries won’t have seen. After bursting back into life, I didn’t dare stop for fuel so it has sat in the garage with bare fumes in the tank until today.
Trees are dropping their leaves rapidly now as we barrel into autumn-proper and thoughts are turning to wintering the car. In the ‘90s, I drove it pretty much every day of the year. I had to: it was my only motor. Now, it escapes the salt on the winter roads which is extremely corrosive but notdriving a car is also unkind. Fuel ages quickly - especially with the higher ethanol content - and it’s hygroscopic so takes on moisture. Damp winter air also assists corrosion on bodywork and exposed metal such as brake discs; it can also cause mildew in the interior.
Thankfully the ‘B fired-up straight away for a trip to fill-up with fuel. Super-unleaded of course because it has the lower ethanol content. It’s a considerable worry here in the UK about the effect of E10 on older cars, so while E5 is available, that’s what goes in the M.G. It’s a balance: good to keep putting fresh fuel in it but also important to keep the tank full so it reduces the amount of condensation which can form when the car’s standing. It sits connected to a trickle charger too, to keep the (now ageing) battery in as good health as possible.
Other things I’ll do include increasing the tyre pressures slightly (to stop flat spots where it’s parked). I’ll also roll it to different positions (when I remember) to help stop this. I won’t put it on axle stands as I’m still hoping for a few frost-free opportunities to get out-and-about before those first frosts.
As time moves along with us, there are some things we just have to let go of. Although we have recently seen the introduction of E10 petrol and CAZ's in cities, one thing they can't take from us is our love for timeless classics.