Dave North, Cambridge MGOC member on the 'Brookslands'stage of the
1998 Monte Carlo Challenge for classic cars
| North Goes South! | MGOC HQ Visit |
A few weeks back Kelvin Fagan your ace newsletter editor & 'internet guru' very kindly asked me if I would like to join the club for a trip to the MG Owner's Club Headquarters at Swavesey. I had never been there before so it would be an opportunity not to miss. I have also read so much about your club, which is so well portrayed by Kelvin's very hard and excellent work on the World Wide Web.
I hit the road, in my Czech style Eurobox*, as my M.G. is under going a suspension re-build, to join the clockwise rush hour traffic of the M25 at around half past four.
Alison my other half would not let me use the Peugeot 306, I wish she had! read on !!
Surprisingly I managed to locate 'Club Headquarters' around two
hours later. Instruction were to be there for 7.30, so I was early! Kelvin and his wife Linda
met me at 7.00 for a swift half at the White Horse, just a few minutes from Octagon House.
As 7.30 loomed we drove the short distance to to the MGOC HQ, where there was already quite a gathering of MG'a in the club car park.
I was able to drop off the exchange shocks that had been decorating the garage floor for the last month or so - I had been plucking up courage to go to the post office for some time so
this saved a few hundred bob.
After a friendly greeting in the reception area we were ushered into the boardroom to meet
the rest of the Cambidge & District club members, who were already partaking in coffee and custard creams.
Richard Monk (yes he really does play 'Ron Dixon' in Brookside when not at Swavesey!) briefly introduced himself, and other MGOC staff member who were on hand. We were then split into two large groups ( about 15 per group) for 'the tour', the reason for the visit.
After a quick view of the shop we were shown where Enjoying MG (MGOC Magazine) is produced. This is all created in house after an investment a year or two back of around £250.000. The couple of production rooms contain all the all the equipment needed in the form of Apple Mac computers, scanning and photo processing equipment required for high quality magazine production needed to produce a magazine ready for the printers - the printing is done elsewhere. Despite such a large investment, creating all the magazine preparation in house has more than covered the initial outlay of buying all the kit to do this. This good for us because hopefully it will mean even cheaper M.G spares for us club members!
Talking of spares we were then pointed in the direction of the spares warehouse. This area is extraordinary, for I have used the club on many occasions for M.G. parts but never really appreciated what an incredible stock the spares department carries. Everything was in stock, from diodes right though to complete reconditioned engines and car body parts. Before leaving for the workshop we were then told that we would have 90 seconds to fill our pockets with as many M.G. parts as we could lay our hands on for free!! ( Chris's little joke!!)
We were then shown the well equipped workshop area, where you can have your car just simply serviced or fully restored to any spec. There were two Midgets being given the 'Full Monty'. One of them was going to cost the owner around £11.000 upon completion (could get a good MGA for that sort of money..mmmmmm).
The MGOC get in the region of 600 new membership inquiries a week and
around 1000 membership renewals and cancellations in the same period -
boy the membership department is busy. We easily forget that the club
has around 50.000 members - WOW!
To finish off we were carefully deposited into the club shop,
strangely with staff manning to tills - yes I did succumb to a rather
dashing M.G. fleece jacket.
The rest of the evening was to be passed by elsewhere in the more atmospheric surroundings of the Golden Ball pub for refreshments and some ultra low calorie sarnies. Did somebody pinch them prior to our arrival? The beer 'Adnams Best' and company were excellent however and we even caught a glimpse of the famous Roche Bentley so all was not lost.
This was a smashing, interesting and very pleasant evening. I was also
honoured to meet such a lively diverse club with much spirit - thank
you again Kelvin. I hope that you will all be coming down to my neck
of the woods for the Brooklands MG Day on the 19th of April
Something had to go wrong, shortly after leaving the A1 and joining
the M25 my till then always reliable Czech* runabout suffered terminal
alternator failure - I finally got in at 3 am after the breakdown
services called it a night and towed me home. Former Iron Curtain
jealousy I suppose. Now this wouldn't have happened with my '71 Midget
would it .....NO! ( or even the Peugot 306!!)
*Admit it Chris, its a skoda, its not so painful to say it!!....Ed
Our thanks Chris Nevard for visiting us, and then taking the time to write few words for us all to enjoy..Inspired by the Cambidge Club pages, Chris has started a web site for his own local club the Surrey area of the
Midget & Sprite Club
Recently, (February 8th) Cambridge & District club member Dave North, set out on an adventure, to boldly go where he had never been before, MONTE CARLO.
But this was not to be a cheap weekend return on a charter flight to the south of France,
but a grueling 6 days or so across Europe and back, in his MGB, along with another 180 or so classic car owners, competiting in the 9th Annual Monte Carlo Classic Car Rally
There was an link here, not sure how long it will remain activeMonte Carlo Rally Page
I managed to make it to the start of the rally at Brooklands, and a small report and more photo's can be found Here
Dave managed to finish in 100th position, with which he was most pleased with. It was in fact one place better than professional rally driver 'Russell Brooks' who was also competing in a MGB.
If we can get Dave to put pen to paper, then I think he has some stories to tell of his experience. Well done Dave!
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