All British Field Meet - Portland Oregon
I drove my MGA out to the Portland All British Field Meet this weekend. Because it's about a 45 minute drive from my house, I could have been high from the long exposure to burning oil smoke but I had a great time. There weren't as many eye catching oddities as I thought there'd be but there were a few I saw that I thought I'd share.
The sun coming up over the tented land rovers was pretty cool. Would love to have one of these someday. What a fun rig!
This Bentley caught my attention for quite a while. There's just something about these cars that make them one of the quid-essential in my book. It's probably just because I read The Wind in the Willows too many times and Mr. Toad is one of my favorite literary characters. I wonder where Bentley went so wrong; they look like pimped out Chryslers now.
If you take a look at the picture of the "suspension" you realize there can't be much because I can't imagine that brake line running from the frame to the wheel assembly has much flex.
Is there a better looking motor than an e-type? Gotta love the polished valve cover and fuel injection on this one.
MGs dominated the show. A really strong showing. If you have any questions about your restoration I'm sure you can find the advice here.
The car below was runner up for best in show. The honors couldn't have went to a nicer guy as Craig Cootsona was glad (literally) to answer questions and brought a stack of build sheets to handout if anyone wanted to copy his techniques/vendors/parts. He said he's been working on this car since 2004 and just 6 weeks ago they "finished" it. He's been building it with his father who was also in attendance.
Over at the track the Sovren vintage racers were having a blast. Well, hopefully they were. In comparison with other races, like the Oregon Trail Rally, these guys have no crowds, often get taken off the track for cars dying/running off the road, don't dice it up much, and have to race in groups with a number of other classes because there's not enough people to field many of the classes. I'd still do it, but I'm not sure it's the most fun racing. My friends that compete in the Pro3 class seem to have a lot of fun and do more actual racing.
In the area for "Other Marques" a few rarities (at least in the states) were in attendance. I can't recall ever seeing any of the 3 cars below before.
Inside a big rolls royce someone had taken great pains to be as historically accurate as possible.
In the British car magazine you read often about how fun, and quick the Lotus Elan's are. You don't realize why until you're standing next to it. These cars are tiny and make the twin cam four mounted in it look big, especially those massive side-draft carbs.
Some fine Austin Healeys also helped fill the field.
This little red racer looked like a lot of fun!
Here's Pat Moss' rally car! Pat Moss was so fast she would beat the men flat out and take 1st place. I think it's funny to hear about Danica like it's some great movement for women when she's got nothing on Pat Moss 40 years ago. These women (Pat and her navigators) were classy too! I've read that their appearance was important to the factories image so they'd quickly clean up at checkpoints to make sure they looked good when their pictures were being taken.
Ok, after ogling this car for at least 10 minutes I got to talk to the owner. He admitted he was buffaloing me and this car was just a beat up old Healey he bought for $9500 and didn't want to spend $20k restoring. I'm impressed. He did a great job recreating a beat up rally car!
There were some fine looking big cats in attendance too.
Again, I couldn't help taking a picture of an e-type motor.
This little MGC was the only B/C in attendance wearing it's hard top. These hard tops are great and compliment the MGB shape well. I'd even go out on a limb and say MGBs look best with these tops on.
The cleanest MGB in attendance was a nice little blue one with a supercharger. A really clean car!
As an MGA owner, I'm naturally drawn to them and there were some great examples in attendance.
Elvas were built with MGA motors but had upgraded suspension and a fiberglass body. The body shape is unique and may not be for everyone but, unless Elva got the suspension geometry completely wrong, they must be fun to drive.
One of the most impressive cars in attendance was this all original 2nd owner (same family) car. The original owner (who passed in 2010) used this car hard. The current owner (a nephew) has 10 boards full of rally pins. Great to see! The owner says he's continuing to rally it in the Klamath Falls area.
What I want to know is, where is the dealership to test drive these little Morgans?!
Hiding over with the Jaguars was this early MG. Most striking was it's straight shifter pattern.
If you registered early for the event you could post a picture of your car for the program. You can find those pictures at - http://www.abfm-pdx.com/2013/registered_vehicles.
In the pits was this Fangio South American racer replica. At least I'm assuming it was a replica. There was some serious money in the pits though so it may not be a replica! It seems a little too nice for a '39 South American race car though.
Sunday morning kicked off the swap meet. Kellie and I brought down some of the junk laying around my garage and made our gas money back for the two days!
The cars for sale seemed to be going fast and there were some neat ones to buy. The british pickup below was my favorite being offered. I've never seen anything quite like it.
This MGA parts car was going for a grand!
This sprite had been there minutes when a sold sign was put on its windshield.
I came out pretty well, found some stuff I needed for a total of $57. Can't get much for $57 these days!
The 2013 All British Field meet was a great success with a lot of interesting and great looking cars attending. Throw in some racing action and a swap meet and you've got a great weekend. I also didn't manage to get pictures of the many events that were for charity (autocross, slalom and land rovers giving rides through the motocross track) but they added a touch of class to the event. In comparison to the american hot rod shows there is an air of bravado that is missing at these British events, for better or worse. Old Nigel just doesn't have the same attitude as the American's raised in the sixties. Somehow this equates to cars that turn, instead of going fast in a straight line... and less Harley t-shirts/vesties (score a big point for the British on the last one).
