Thank you for watching and your lovely comment. I think folks are "rediscovering" the much-disparaged MGC. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is a special place, and we are trying to keep it that way.
A fantastic video with stunning scenery. Well done with the restoration. The MGC in GT form is one of the best and most practical grand tourers ever made. I am slightly biased as I have one here in the UK. Took a six week trip last year from England down to Sicily. Around 4500 miles round trip. A very enjoyable trip where the car was in its element. Looking forward to more videos.
Thank you for watching and your very kind comments. I agree. I've had MGB's, MGAs, and a couple of TDs. This one is my favorite, especially as I get older.
What a lovely drive! I love this car! I would think that a lot of these cars had that cast iron block engine replaced with a modern aluminum block engine with more power and much less weight. Not something I would ever do but I bet it would cure the plowing.
Thank you for watching, commenting, and subscribing. The only engine replacements that were done over time to a few cars were V8 and V6 aluminum and cast-iron blocks and/or heads. The factory produced two special bodied (aluminum) with aluminum block and head 3 liter 6-cylinder engines. They were only raced a few times and were set up for long-distance endurance racing and were quite successful given their very short history. I call re-engined MGCs "C Minus" cars.
The C is really special. Just short of 9000 were built with over half exported from the U.K. it was vilified by the press but has found its niche in touring. They’ll sit comfortably at motorway speeds over long distances and is one of the most comfortable classics I’ve ever driven.
Oh my goosh! . . .you really brought this thing from the dead. I'm not familiar with the way you can have overdrive from both 3rd and 4th gears. Interesting. As usual, the Virginia countryside is BREATHTAKING in the fall! Thanks for sharing Ken! 🙂
Thank you for watching. Yes, it was a labor of love. The Laycock De Normanville electric overdrive unit is a decoupling pump that contains gearing at a "taller" ratio than the stock final gear in the transmission. It can couple and decouple that taller gear with the car's standard third gear and fourth gear making about a 500 RPM difference resulting in kind of a half-gear ratio. Leave it to the British to complicate things. Why not just use a 5 or 6 speed transmission? I think the answer is lack of space for the extra gears.
Apparently at the time electric overdrives were developed there was some feeling among some manufacturers that joe public wouldn't go for more than 4 gears. It's very much more a European sportscar thing but electric overdrives did used to be popular in automatics as well. Personally I find them quite a cool feature of cars of that age and for all their complexity they tend to be pretty tough and reliable Probably not really necessary in an MGC with it's low revving torquey motor but essential in MGBs if regularly used at highway speeds IMHO
Thank you. It was professionally done with a German single stage high gloss paint called Glasurit. The same paint Mercedes Benz used to use in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. It was sanded many times between coats.
Thank you for doing this. You've done a great job. My wife and I own an MGC-GT ('69) that we have had since 73. It's been parked for 30 yrs. and now we want to get it back on the road. I wonder if you have the source for the aluminum radiator you have. Also, was there a factory badge on the C pillar? Best regards, Quentin Reader.
Thank you for watching and your lovely comment. I don't remember the source for the aluminum radiator. It was done sometime between 2006 & 2009 as a one-off item. Aluminum radiators in MGs was not the thing yet. MGC did not have a factory badge on the C-pillar. Later on, all MGB-GTs received pillar badges to conceal weld cracks that would develop over time. I just like the look and had them added to my car.
Thank you for watching and commenting. I thought so too. During the restoration I decided to purchase British Motor Heritage replacement front wings, air dam (valance), and floor pans as the shop showed me why it was less expensive to go that way rather than repair those items. The driver's door had been bashed in, but it came with an extra door. I think it had been a stalled restoration that had been cast aside.
In much better condition than the one I had restored, we ended up patching the floors (you can get repro floors for the C now but couldn't at the time) as they are significantly different in shape and ribbing to the MGB ones. Love the color I've always thought darker colors suit the B/C GTs due to the contrast with the brightwork around the windows
We love the color too. The restoration was done from 2006-2009 and body pieces (including floor pans) came from England made by British Motor Heritage. @@tomedge1044
Hi, looks like you did a really nice job. Could you tell me when you fitted the new dashboard did you have to change to the earlier non collapsible steering column? I am from New Zealand and have a US imported MGC roadster which i am thinking of changing the dash on.
Thank you for watching and your lovely comment. I must emphasize (maybe I did not in the video) that I did not do the work myself. I paid a well-known local restoration shop that knows MGs very well to do the restoration work. Changing to the metal dash was not easy and was expensive but well worth it. However, since the car had to be stripped down and needed a rotisserie restoration the task was easier. In addition to requiring a new wiring harness and gauges, the old-style steering column was needed too. I purchased a derelict 1967 MGB-GT for the dash and steering column. The shop parted out that car to recoup my cost. All the gauges I sourced off Ebay and were NOS except for the speedometer and tachometer. The center console, speaker box, and extra rows of toggle switches were fabricated by the shop. I am very pleased I had this done as I just cannot stand the US Abingdon Pillow dash.
Thank you for watching and hour kind remarks. No. The entire dash (instruments, wiring harness, switches, steering column) came out of a 1967 MGB-GT. All US bound MGBs and MGCs got the ugly "Abingdon Pillow" dash. The rest of the world got the beautiful metal dash. Since this was a complete ground up restoration, I decided to have the dash changed out. It was not an easy or inexpensive job.
