MG Sports Cars

the worst that could happen is that we try to entice some new members and we fail.

I think it would be an appropriate topic for discussion at the next meeting in July.

We could be selective, but you guys let me in so darn near anybody is ok!

There have been other ideas like sponsorship but it seems that the voluntary "pass the hat"
fund raising method may have run it's course.

And it seems to me that some members don't even want the car for a week or two of personal use.

There is no waiting list to host the car. So sell it or raise enough money to keep it in circulation a little longer. I personally would like to take RM to some more events. And there may be 10 others out there who are willing to make a contribution in order to host the car. If no one steps up to the plate at least we tried.

What say yee speak up these are just my thoughts what do the rest of you think?

As I will not be able to make the meet this year, I am going to send $120 to Bill as my small contribution to this great project.

I was thinking that it would be great to have the RoadMaster at the NAMGBR annual gathering which next year will be in Niagara Falls, Ontario. If we still own it and it's any where near the East Coast, I'm sure it would be a hit at this gathering.

Hope to see everyone next year at Indy.

Richard Woodley

Jim is obviously getting frustrated, but I'm not sure by which: the fact that he still has the car, or that there is no money to support it? Both, likely.

Grab a drink-- this might be a long one. :-/

Any "volunteer" situation only survives if the participants feel they get something out of it. When you start adding in financial contribution, that becomes even more crucial.

"Charity" (donations) don't work without some reward. For instance, on the race team, we initially tried to get people to "donate" money to help the cause. AS the years (2-3) went by and the car didn't materialize, this faded away. When the car did materialize, however, it thus needed to support itself.

For the last 10 years (of 11 total that I've been involved with the B-Stingers) the team does TWO fundraisers a year-- this gives the necessary funds to have a (mild) racing season. And we found that you got more business selling the SERVICE to the customer, rather than the CAUSE.

(Read: don't tell them We need the money to go racing/ Tell them THEY need to rustproof their car, etc.)


So, how do we translate this to the Roadmaster? What is a "supporter" going to get out of it and what will make them stick with it?

Not to pick on Jim-- burnout is very common, and Jim's priorities have changed, which is understandable-- but at the moment his frustration is some of the worst advertising for the car. When even the originator of the project is fed up, it's kind of hard to find the value in the product. :-/

The loss of Bill, one of the true champions of the car, was a big blow.

And if people are quoting their money invested, then this indicates that the reward was NOT sufficient. Otherwise, the attitude would be: "oh, I don't care-- it's been a ton of fun", etc. (See any of PJ's posts, for instance. :) )


Now for the tough part of this post.

I'd like to call "BullShit".

This whole "for the Younger Generation" approach is NOT working. And we ourselves are horrible ambassadors.

Who brought their son to work on the Roadmaster? I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I don't know anyone who did. (And this applies to the WHOLE collector car industry. We are all older, and the younger generation is not stepping up in equal numbers to take over our old cars....)


Emily teaches the 'high schoolers" of Today. These kids have fantastically different cares then we did!

a) they don't care about sexual orientation, race, or many of the diehard prejudices that we had to weed through.
b) they don't care about cars-- it's just an appliance to them. They do NOT rush to get their license! (There are more 30-year olds WITHOUT cars then apparently at any time since 1960...)
c) They are well aware that petroleum is an unsustainable resource. The Roadmaster, to Them, is a Dinosaur, and would be viewed as wasteful.
d) You'd get more interest making the car electric, diesel, or wind powered. :-p

That's the Younger generation. Our generation, on the other hand, loves the car. :-)

So, IF this (BADASS) is to continue, can we change the Mission Statement to reflect ACTUALITY rather than a misguided notion that young kids will follow in our footsteps? They not only won't, but it'll probably be illegal in a few years for them to even do so. :-(

I'm happy to see the Roadmaster continue, but the car has yet to even emerge from it's teething period.

As we're confessing our contributions, I kick in at the meets, but have contributed mainly with my time. (130+ hours). And I actually believe IF the car was made more reliable, that the sustaining itself would be easier to achieve. WE are currently faced with having to "pay the interest" on something that isn't going anywhere-- money is the SHORT-term problem. It would be greatly reduced when the car is LONG-term viable: then our generation would want to drive it, contribute to it, and keep it around.

Fess up: most of us are sitting here going "I'd take it, but I don't want it to break on me...." Neh?

Some moons ago I once again volunteered to help sort the car, but not until October when I'll have some free time. (But by all means, send it out West if it can make it!)

Even then, I'm volunteering to WORK on it, not just get it for a joy ride. My reward is the fact that if I can (one more time?) con my crew into helping Me (Steve, Carl, Tim)-- we all have a lot of fun. :-) The car, in many ways, is secondary to that fact.

$.02

Max

I have to agree with Max.
I worked on the car for the enjoyment of it and to meet interesting and talented people. I would be happy to work with the team on the car again and feel lucky to be invited to do so.
I will host the car again if no one else wants it. I have a garage it can sit in and I will drive it some. Car shows are really of little interest to me any more so I can't promise much that way.

If someone hosts the car and it breaks I do not feel they should shoulder the entire cost of fixing it unless they broke it. It just breaks down because it has not been de-bugged. That would take quite some time and lots of miles.

I will help any way that I can.
Jim may be right that it time to sell, but what does that cost. Big auctions are expensive and I am afraid many will be upset at what will be the sale price. The car is really not that desirable to the usual car collector. Drive in hot or cold whether and you will understand. Everything can be fixed, but by whom and at what cost?

Just my thoughts.

Steve

Good discussion. Max may be right on the assessment of the youth. There still are kids that are "car nuts" but not the majority. In the case of my family, my youngest daughter loves the V6-TR7 and is willing to learn and work on it some, but is so busy with other activities that the time is just not there. It is a lower priority. I see that with some of the kids of members of our local club. They like the cars but they have soccer, swimming, baseball, softball, music, etc. But they do have interest and the kids at the Career Center love this kind of thing, so they may not be a total lost cause.

I agree with Steve and Max about the camaraderie and the fun of working on the car. That is most definitely the best part. It is fun to drive too.

What if....we got with Moss and let them use it to Drive Away Cancer?

Dan,
I do not know about Moss and Drive Away Cancer. What is that?

Steve

Here is an article from last year: [www.mossmotoring.com]

Here is their website: [www.drivingawaycancer.org]

The first year they were in the old Healey, last year they used a Miata too and I think they have a Spitfire now.

East vs West, It's sad but seemingly not too much BV8 action, here in the west. How far west, did Roadmaster actually get ? Perhaps a list of western folks, who are willing/able, to get involved with this ? There are TONS of shows and events, in the west, just not too much BV8 stuff. Onward, roverman.

Roadmaster data from my Kansas City Trip on 5/16:

- I got between 18mpg and 20mpg on each fill-up...timed at 100 mile to 120 mile intervals.

- Oil pressure ran a constant 35psi at speed.

- Very little, if any, oil consumption during the drive.

- Water temperature stayed about 195*, even in rush-hour traffic experienced in KC.

- Car continues to turn heads, including those of State Troopers.

- There is a shimmy in the wheel at 75mph....not apparent at 65mph.

Gassing up in Missouri last Friday....

I talked with John Nikis again today, he plans to email info about RM joining drive away cancer
I'll post asap



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2014 10:03AM by lawnvett.

I believe I'm sort of expected to make a report so here's the latest:

B.A.D.A.S.S. Treasurer Bill Davidson, acting as interim President pro-tem called an emergency meeting which, given that there was a quorum of members present at the event was both timely and proper.

The first order of business was to elect new officers. After due discussion, Pete Mantell was elected President and assumed control of the meeting. No VP was elected. Bill will continue as Treasurer and Graham as Secretary where they will continue their duties in their customary manner.

Because there has been no support for the program to send the car westward the advisability of trailering it to Colorado was brought into question. (If Bill takes it he will not be able to drive it for personal reasons, meaning he will not be able to drive his V6 conversion either.) Because we have no member ready and able to accept custody of the car, the risk is just too high that Bill will then have to trailer it back to Kansas City and the burden of that two way trip is more than we could justify asking him to take on.

Compounding the difficulty is the fact that we also have no member stepping forward to take custody of the car at any point westward of Colorado. Because of this, and because interest in the car began to wane just about at the point when we painted it and has continued to do so ever since, we agreed unanimously that the time has come to offer it for sale.

A motion was made, seconded, discussed at length, amended, and passed with the following provisions. The car is now available for sale to any qualified purchaser, as-is, where-is. The price, which takes into account the uniqueness of the car, the many custom elements, the current condition, and other considerations including its provenance and the unique manner in which it was built, is $35,000 This is estimated to be less than 1/4 of the cost to build including parts, materials, cash donations and time invested but is hoped to result in a ready sale as well a pretty good investment opportunity. (Other cars such as the Berlin GT having sold for much higher amounts.)

Upon sale the proceeds will be placed in a Municipal Trust Fund and the interest from that fund will be disbursed annually to provide support for the annual BritishV8 meet and the BritishV8 Newsletter, in proportions of 75 and 25% respectively. Won't be a great deal of money but it will be dependable and perpetual.

In the meantime the car can continue to appear at events, and if it has not sold by the onset of cold weather Pete has agreed to store it for the winter (unless we send it south). The door has not completely closed on any chance of a western tour, but without a unified plan of support it is not likely to happen, particularly as there are quite a number of events in the east where it can appear, including the GS Nationals at Bowling Green, whose participants helped build the car by providing the engine and other components.

In closing I would like to say that it has been a privilege and a pleasure to have been involved with the people who brought this project to fruition. What started as a joke, morphed into a plan just to prove this conversion could be done, and ultimately resulted in an historical example of LBC car conversion art has in the process brought us all closer together as a family, as it was intended to do. For that I want to thank you all.

Jim Blackwood, former "BADASS Boss"

Note:
PJ is now the Transportation Secretary and as before, Rick is Chairman of Ways and Means.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2014 03:54PM by BlownMGB-V8.

Bill Davidson has done more work on the Roadmaster that needs to be documented here.

Yes. As he told me, he tightened up the bushings in the steering column with a technique involving hammer and dolly. The rebuilt column needs to be returned to Gerry Masterman as it does not fit. He installed the door lock and may have adjusted the windows. He replaced the clutch master cylinder with one having a smaller bore, greatly improving the clutch action. Am I forgetting anything?

Jim

Was the slave cylinder left as is? The alternator was replaced in French Lick. A part # would be good.

That distributor cap with no plug wires blew some minds at MG2014 in French Lick. Someone was overheard to say it was trailered in since there were no wires going to the cap!

Would have been fun to run it through John Twist's tune-up tech session. ;)

Some attendees were observant of no plug wires, but noticed the coil packs. These were the more progressive MG bunch.

Bill cut off the top of the distributor to make it a cleaner install.

I've not seen the car yet, but will go down to Pete's and take a picture.

I've also not yet driven the car with the new clutch slave installed.

I thought about taking the car up to Michigan to the UML Summer Party, but opted for reliability and creature comforts that the 300ZX provided.

I'll retrieve the rebuilt steering column and return it to Gerry.

Bill listed the part number in the log book for future reference. It would be nice to have an Excel file with all of this data in one place.

I will think about driving the car down to St.Louis in September for the All-British show.

Quote:

I thought about taking the car up to Michigan to the UML Summer Party, but opted for reliability and creature comforts that the 300ZX provided.

After my Kamikaze run to Colorado Springs & back in the heat, that smacks of a very non-Spurious, wimpy (another w-word comes to mind) way to travel to a LBC Party. :)

I remember what Ian had to say about trailers...

Okay, just kiddin'!

I picked up the Roadmaster today and will take it to a local show in Savoy, IL on Saturday.

Then it goes back to Pete.

The tach is in not working.

The license tag goes outdated the end of September. I have contacted Jim Blackwood regarding same.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2014 09:23PM by mowog1.