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I have dearly loved the style and grace of the MGTD. I fell in love with the car at the age of three in 1956. I always wanted one of these awesome automobiles and for fifty years kept up my search for the right one to come along. I debated back and forth, REAL or REPLICA. In my mind it was more like AUTHENTIC or FAKE. I read this on the internet and laughed myself to the floor,
http://www.cartalk.com/content/testdrives/Reviews/mgtd.html
Then I realized that the replica WAS the way to go. The best of both worlds. I have the style and grace of the body design and the mechanical technology of a newer era, whether the timeless German VW engineering or the American water cooled version, it was a win/win situation with the replica. Add to that rust proof – dent proof fiberglass.
If you want to enjoy some great humor from the CarTalk guys, click on the link above, it is so worth the time for laughter. Then go out and sit in your replica and SMILE
James
What a hoot! That sounds like Click and Clack of auto maintenance
column fame.
I went the replica route for a very good reason. I owned a 1952 MG TD
when I was in college. Driving the car anything above 60 MPH was an
excise in terror. And the car did break down a lot. One dark and stormy
night, I was driving down a back road at around 50 MPH when the lights
went on strike. There I was in total darkness and she never went out with
me again.
So I adopted a BCW kit car a couple of years ago. It was barely running
when I got it. It has a 1976 Chevette 4 banger engine that is totally
reliable and doesn’t leak a single drop of its precious bodily fluids. It
easily cruises at 65 MPH down the freeway, It handles nicely and has good
brakes, AND LOOK GREAT!
Dick, I have heard
Lucas Lighting is the prince of darkness.
When I read the Click and Clack review, I was hearing their voices saying it, what a great review. Sounds like you agree. My car is the Fiberfab, but I do love the BCW.
James
James,
I had stumbled across the CarTalk article as well. One of my favorite quotes from it:
“…Though not designed for it, the MG has been known to go off road from time to time ? to the garage, mostly, where it invariably spends a number of months and sometimes a full season or two.”
Really funny. I’ll keep my Ford based replica, thank you.
Rich
I fell in Love with the TD on a road trip to Maine with a friend who has a stable of restored MGTD’s. Last summer we went back to Maine to his restorer to check on a 1953 RED MGTD is was going to put up for sale. I was in Love, but my wife can’t drive a stick and after all the years of marriage I new that would be a problem. Also I wanted a sports car for my retirement (in a few years) than didn’t need a mechanic on retainer.
A few weeks later I saw an ad for a TD replica that could have been the twin to his “real” TD. It was for sale by a retiree and lived about 2 miles from my retirement home in Florida. Better yet the Ford drive train has a automatic. That was in August of 2008 and I communicated with him till Dec. 2008 when we went to Florida. We went to look and drive the car. I wanted it but……..the wife? As we were looking at it a couple of friends saw us and stopped their car. My friends wife told my wife “she would look great in that car”, I owe that lady for the rest of my life.
The car is mine and lives in Florida, while I pine away for a drive. I will be down there in June and PM the car and get her on the road. she was built by York Sports Cars using a donor Mustang II with a CMC body. John York has been great in giving me help and advise and I look forward to driving my Red TD for many years.
(Note from Paul – Don’t worry, all I did was remove a bunch of blank lines.)
luvmytd39912.5927314815
Because of a co-worker with a real TD, my wife had wanted one for years. I remembered from the 80’s when all the replicas were first coming out so I went for a search for one. The wife couldn’t understand that I wanted to “go with what I know”. When I explained that I would have to get all new tools (I know, that was kinda sneaky of me), she was good with the search. Now she loves the car and we have spent a lot of good times on the road with no real problems.
The co-worker still has his TD but doesn’t drive it much due to fear of expensive breakdowns. What a shame.
My Duchess is some of the best money I have ever spent!
Ringo
LOL….I really like the excuse of ‘having to get new tools’, that is priceless
. I’ll put that in my vocabulary for future use. Probably get to use that many times over and over. One of my favorite tools that I found at an off brand tool store was for a metric adjustable wrench. It was on a rack next to the SAE adjustable wrenches….the metric costs more, just like the metric screw driver and metric pliers that cost more.
James
I agree with all of the above.
A good friend is in the middle of an original MG TD restoration. “In the middle” is being kind. After a few years, the frame is pretty clean, the engine is “over there” in the corner of the garage, the body parts are “up there” in the rafters of the garage. You get the picture!
In 1981-1982, I was about to buy a Fiat 124 Spyder (still a beautiful little roadster with amazing room for those of us over 6 feet tall). At the time, Classic Motor Carriages had their Gazelles displayed in major airports all over the country. I got sucked into the kit car world. I was thisclose to buying a Gazelle kit when the salesman finally aggravated me enough to call off the transaction.
I went with my second choice, my Classic Roadsters Duchess, and never looked back. Ordering and delivery took about a month. And after a nine month build, in December of 1982, I backed out of my garage for the first time. I’ve told the first drive story in the First Drives thread.
Since then, my VW based Duchess has NEVER stranded me. We driven all over the north east, and as far west as Indianapolis for one major national kit show and Cincinnati for another national show.
I’ve had one major expense, I re-did the engine after about ten years, not because I had to. But because I wanted to.
I’m pretty sure I could not tell the same story had I bought the 124 or an original TD.
PMOSSBERG39910.6004976852
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
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