Purchased in 1972 during my senior year at high school, the MGA replaced my interests in motorcycles and muscle cars. In previous years I had owned numerous vehicles including a 1965 Mustang GT, a 1969 Chevelle SS 396, and a 1954 Harley panhead with a suicide clutch and jockey shift that I had chopped into a low-rider. Though I had considerable experience working on American made vehicles, the English MG quickly tested my skill and patience.

        The MGA was in reasonably good condition for an English-made vehicle, but still I spent more time working on the car than driving it. The interior's condition was less than ideal, likely due to the car being left in the weather with the top down. The front bumper and grill had relatively minor damage, the body itself was straight, and the dull silverish paint appeared to be a primer, which was considered unimportant since I soon developed a desire to do a full restoration.

        I suspect that there is no such thing as a mechanically sound English vehicle regardless of how much effort and expense an owner pours into the car. With a little trial and error I soon became quite good at balancing the Stromberg carburetors, and with frequent practise I was able to rebuild the electric fuel pump within a few minutes. Generally, if a car part moved or had electricity flowing through it, I worked on it at least once.

        I didn't mind the positive ground electrical system, and I didn't mind the constant repairs, but I did wish that the heater would have been warm in winter. The MGA is most definitely a fair-weather car.

        A piston burned a hole after I had owned the MGA for a few months, leaving me with the choice to either rebuild the engine or drop in a Ford 289 V8. Top-end speed had been just a little over 100 mph, and I was interested in more horsepower, but my financier (father) decided for me that 100 mph was fast enough, which was a good thing: in later months the lever-action shocks began breaking off the frame, causing an immediate collapse of the front suspension. It was a bit surprising to lose the front suspension at 35 mph; I would not have enjoyed the experience at 140.

        When we disassembled the engine we discovered that the crank was cracked. It took several months to find a new crankshaft, and while waiting for parts I started minor restorations. Removing the wooden floorboards will never be forgotten! Every bolt holding the floorboards was rusted, with most bolts having to be drilled-out and have the frame threads re-tapped.

        With the engine rebuilt and dropped in, I took the car for a test drive and quickly decided that I would wait until warmer weather before reinstalling the forward floorboards: heat from the engine poured into the interior, and for the first time I could drive the car during winter without having one hand in a heater vent.

        As the months progressed, I did the only sane thing - I tore out all of the Lucas and replaced with it with American and hand-made parts. Though the twin Strombergs were working fairly well, I installed a nice looking Weber. The Weber was far more dependable but I did not notice a sizable improvement in performance, and none in gas mileage. With the rebuilt engine, the MG's top end speed was a little under 120 mph, but I had stopped caring about speed, my preferring to simply enjoy the fun of driving.

        Nearing the end of summer, I packed the trunk with every tool and spare part I might possibly need, and I made a trip up into Colorado's mountains. Today it seems a bit ridiculous to even consider owning a car that cannot be trusted to continue running for 300 miles. As expected, before reaching Denver I had to stop three times beside the highway to repair the fuel pump. I do not remember if I ever did figure out why English fuel pumps were so undependable; the design looked OK, but it appeared that perhaps the materials themselves were simply not capable of withstanding continual use.

        After the last fuel pump repair, I was able to drive for two whole days without any problems, and I greatly enjoyed the drive through the mountains. I stopped at the Continental Divide, and while other visitors were taking photos of their family members standing by the sign, I took photos of the MGA.

        On the way home, and late at night, the headlights suddenly dimmed and the water temperature began to rise, indicating that I had thrown a belt. Not having a flashlight, I improvised by using a signal bulb and miscellaneous wire to rig a light so that I could look under the hood. The belt was indeed off the pulleys, and only after fussing with the belt for several minutes did I finally realize the problem: the crankshaft pulley had broken in two! On the MGA the crankshaft pulley has two sides that are riveted together; the rivets had sheered, and so, of course, I was fifty miles from nowhere and not having the one part that I did not think was needed in the trunk. After allowing the engine to cool, I turned around and began driving back towards Colorado Springs where I knew that a MG parts dealer would be. I drove to the top of a hill, cut the engine and let it cool while I coasted down the other side of the hill, I then restarted the engine at the bottom of the hill to drive back up the next hill, and I repeated the method all the way into Colorado Springs. After sleeping in the car for some hours in front of the MG dealer's lot, my waiting for them to open, I was lucky to discover that the dealer did have a new pulley in stock, and the replacement pulley was a solid cast model, not the cheap OEM.

        Within days of returning home, and my planning to return to Colorado to live permanently (after restocking the trunk with more parts), a girl in an Edsel pulled out of a parking lot, traveled across three lanes of a four lane street, and ran into the front left fender of the MGA. Without my having enough money to pay for a new fender (if a new fender would even be findable), my plans to move to Colorado were dashed for the year, as were my plans to finish restoring the MGA. I later sold the car to my oldest brother who planned to restore it, but who later sold it back to me in pieces. After some months I sold it to someone else who planned to do the necessary repairs, but I have never seen the MGA since.

        Regardless of the fact that the MGA was the single least dependable car I have ever owned or ever heard of (the Yugos have a better reputation), and in spite of the fact that I would never choose to own another English car as an only-vehicle, still, the MGA was the most fun driving car I have ever owned, and for my personal tastes the styling has never been equaled. I have owned MGBs, MGB-GTs, many Mustangs including Mach 1s and Cobras, a Triumph TR-7, a 1970 Trans Am 400 Ram Air IV, and a wide variety of other cars, but none gave me the wonderful memories as did the MGA.