24.12.01

Merry Christmas
 and a 
Happy New Year
 to you all !

I wish you always a handful tar under your wheels and a lucky 2002 to you and your families! 
As a small present the Register has a brand new screensaver for you. This time it features 12 different pictures from contemporary sales brochures. Again it is easy to install and even uninstall if you wish. Download here and enjoy it ! (1,5Mb) 

For those who can't get enough of Magnettes on their screen we also offer this picture for your desktop. Here's a description how to save the picture as wallpaper on your desktop. Please select  for 17" screen or 19" screen.  
At this time I would like to say thank you to everybody who helped to keep this site interersting with pictures, reports or just a note. Mainly I have to thank Paul Barrow,UK, for his enormous work creating the old articles from various magazines as pdf-files. 
Don't get tired sending pictures i.e. for the owners gallery.
That's all for the moment. Next month will see a bigger update...
Magnettic MotorinG
Günter

21.12.01

If you like to repair your windscreen washers to original  standard or just like to understand how it works with the vacuum pipe from the manifold you may find the windscreen washer article at "Hints & Tips" of interest (pdf-file 500 kb). 
I also received an hint on repairing tie-bars from Carsten Wivel, Denmark. Read it here.
And also another poll. Let's see what's the favourite colour nowadays and I will compare it with the sales figures 40 years ago.
And don't forget to visit us at christmas, a gift is waiting for you!
Günter

17.11.01

A few weeks ago we had our first poll. The question was: What is your favourite Magnette model? Here is the result:


This mirrors the figure sales of the 50's. Personaly I'm astonished that ZB's are the loosers. Although I own a Varitone I love the straight line of the ordinary ZB.   

We also have another nice article to download. It's a brand new article from Practicle Classic covering MG saloons from Z to Z! Look at Articles "Practical Classic 11/2001" . Thanks to Practical
Classics, who supplied us with some of the pictures!

Finally I have a request from our Register Historian Warren Marsh. He's looking for a representative in Australia. This person should act as co-ordinator in collecting information about all known Z's in Australia. Warren would like to be able to write (no e-mail) to one person over there rather than several people in different states. Please contact me at my e-mail address for more information if you're interested in this job and I will make contact to Warren.
Günter

07.11.01
I remember my first visit to the MGCC event in Silverstone in 1994. Amoung thousands of cars and spares I saw a couple who attracted my attention. They had a ZA and the dashboard was full of brass labels from car shows and MG events. 
Later I found out he was the President of the MGCC Z-Register. During the following years I saw him at different shows and found out that we not only had the love for Magnettes in common. He also was a racing cyclist like I was (when I was young).
With great sadness I heard of the death of Dixon Morris. Read Paul Batho's obituary here.

01.11.01
After two years with a leaking frontscreen it really was time to get it repaired. This time I thought it's better to get it done by a specialist. So I drove 100 km only to find out, that there was too much rust under the rubber, which had to removed first. But we managed to fix the frontscreen with tape so that I could drive home again. Hopefully during the next week I get the frame resprayed and then it's time for another try. 
This month we have some technical articles for you: 
First we have another article (pdf) about the very sensible Temperature Sender unit at our "Hints & Tips" corner.
The other is a "Safety Fast"-Tip from myself looking at the tie bars. 
Then we have another re-creation of an Magnette article as pdf-file. This time it's from a German Classic Car magazine (English translation will follow).
We also have some more cars on the owners gallery (where is YOURS??).
And finally we have another report from our East Correspondent Hideo Ohba from Tokyo: Japan III
Günter 

27.10.01
This year we had a lot of fantastic meetings with a lot of cars. One car surely was outstanding: it was Pat Gedney's blue ZB. Those of you who saw the car will agree. The result was a collection of trophies in Silverstone and also Norwich. Perhaps Pat fears to fill his loft with trophies if he doesn't get rid of it right now. I don't know, if  he really wants to sell it! Read "To sell or not to sell..." if you're interested in buying a lovely ZB. 

09.10.01
I just added a few more contemporary adverts, which Peter Bonthrone kindly sent to me and we have a few more pictures on the owners gallery.

01.10.01
Only a few month ago I was happy to announce the beginning of a new season and suddenly it's over again! It seems times flies by at the moment.
You may have recognized that there's a new navigation bar. I hope you like it. There are some new buttons, but "Collectibles_site" has to wait until winter. At the moment your input is very low, so keep this site running with reports and pictures. May I remind you to send a picture for the owners gallery!
I hope to find some time to do more during this month. So far enjoy our new "Adverts-site", which contains contemporary adverts.
Günter

20.09.01
The latest Register newsletter from Safety Fast can be read here. 
Paul Barrow doesn't get tired to create pdf's from old magazines. This time it's an article from Practical Classic 1997. Look at Articles.
And at least I received the following mail:
Hi Günter
I know you're in favour of using Z types. Here's one of me and Wendy Tomlinson doing the ghymkhana at MGCC East Yorkshire's Sledmere show this year. We didn't trouble the awards (though Wendy did it later with her dad in his MGB GT and won the "closed" class).
Cheers Greg Thornton
Here is the picture.

01.09.01
Again time for an update. My hands are still dirty as I had to stop working in the garage to get you punctually informed. So wat's new?
Well, we have an short article about a restoration. But there's a difference to a "normal" restoration. Look here what I mean.
I also added the winners of the Norwich event. So look here if you're interested.
Also visit the Articles and Owners gallery pages. They are under permanent work and change often. I still have to create a button for quick and easy access, but time is limited at the moment.

Finally I received some news of another trophy win:
As you may recall, I'm a fairly new Magnette owner (though not new to MGCC), having bought my 1958 ZBV, VRU 976, in April this year. Since then, I've renewed the carpets, spruced up the interior trim & leather, and detailed and cleaned the engine bay. 
I'm pleased to tell you that I won the Y&Z Concours class at MGOC's Northern National, held at Pateley Bridge in the Yorkshire Dales on 12th August, particularly as cars have to achieve a minimum 72.5% of the available marks to be eligable for an award. This fact had concerned me a bit, it was my first entry at Concours, I'd only entered Pride previously.
I'm really pleased with the car, and have used it a lot since I bought it, but I did find out they're not really suited to doing gymkhanas on sloping fields of wet grass at MGCC's Yorkshire Centre show at Sledmere House this July!
Jill Thornton
Here's a picture of the car

Congratulation Jill !  But Magnettes are not to bad for ghymkhanas and driving tests. You just need a bit more space...

I think that's enough for the moment. I will update in a few days again, as there are some interesting articles and pictures in my postbox.

Please notice that there are also new price lists on the suppliers page. 
Günter

22.08.01
The biggest Magnette event of the year has gone by now. 56 Magnettes attented Lou Shorten's event in Norwich. They came from all over England and also Scotland (and myself from Germany). I met a lot of people who congratulated for the website which encourages me to carry on. It was nice to meet you all and I hope to see you again next year.
My Magnette did the 1,200 mile journey without any problems. The engine ran beautiful at an average speed of 65 to 70 miles for hours!  Water temperature was o.k. all the time and oil consumption was 1,5 litre. Now it's again time for the 6,000 m service.
Click here for report and pictures of Norwich.
The owner's gallery is growing slowly. There are some new Magnettes. Have YOU already send your car details and a picture?
Much more next month!

Günter

01.08.01
Some of you may have found out that the Magnette's temperature gauge often reads wrong. The fault is quite often the sensor which is one of the parts that are unobtainable. We have a report from David DuBois about the operation, and for the more electric-experienced a manual how to calibrate the MGB-units for your Magnette on our "Hints and tips" page.  

I also started with the Owners Galley. Please help to make this the largest collection of all Magnettes! Your pictures are needed!! Please send a picture and some details if you like. If you don't want to see your name or location on the gallery for any reason please give me a note. Those of you who already sent pictures to me please give me permission (and car details) to include them!

While surfin' around the net I found some new sites that contain Magnette stuff. They are marked at "Other Links".

There are good news for our European friends. The Z-Magnette-Day 2002 will be organised by our Dutch friend Henk Kroese near the Dutch/German border (what really is a nice place). So mark the the last weekend in June 2002! Thanks Henk for your offer! Perhaps this time we can say hello to Belgian and some Dutch cars? More information to follow.

And finally there are two more pdf-files of older Magnette-reports on our brand new "Articles"-site. 

I think that's enough for August at the moment. I hope to see many of you in Norwich. Can Lou top her last year record with 54 Magnettes ? I gonna tell you next month!

Now it's up to you with owner'spictures ! Im waiting.

Günter

11.07.01
Good news for those of you who wanted to read Ken McKimmie's book, but didn't want to order it from Australia. The book is now available in UK from the Register via Andy Brock (for contact details look on the Regalia site). Also Lou Shorten has some too. However, there are only a few copies left. So hurry to get yours.
If you don't know about this book look at the Books site.  It is a very good non-technical, adventure book and is extremely well written and an easy read as well as a"must have".
 

10.07.01
There's a new price list from John & Lou Shorten on the supplier page. I also added some more pictures of Silverstone. 

02.07.01
Another Magnette weekend has gone by. The German Z-Magnette-Day was a big success with 12 cars from four countries! It was good to see so many of you and talk to. Hope to see many of you next year in Germany! Look here for a photo gallery and a short report.
More pictures of this event and Silverstone to follow this month. So watch the updates.

Again we offer a reprint of an old article as a pdf-file. We don't know where it's from and when it was first printed. Should anyone know more about this article, please send us an e-mail. Here is "Magnette.pdf" (498 kB). Credits for creating the file go again to Paul Barrow. Many thanks! 

A few weeks ago we asked our American friends, who were interested in a "get-you-home-service" and who were able to help other Magnette owners. The result was depressing. No answer at all arrived in my postbox !