Death by Tesla

I have never run into another car. The only accident I've been in which did not involve a car running into me was caused by sand having washed down into a sharp curve in the road. That ultimately resulted in me driving off a cliff and the car landing upside down on the beach about 150 feet below. Fucked up that little car big time. Pissed me off - that was my F Production car.

What's an F Production car?

That's a class of car in SCCA racing.

Pictures or it didn't happen

What didn't happen?

Google seems to think an F Production car isn't a particular model, but some kind of regulation for, I dunno, power or safety features so I still have no idea what kind of car you're talking about.

That's why I said it's a class of car. It is not a particular make or model.

So WTF was it?

Nothing special. It was an Austin-Healey Sprite. Much modified, of course.

That's a name out of the past, for sure. Not really that great on performance, but a lot of fun to drive, or so I was told (never tried one myself).

I had two Sprites and one MG Midget (same car).

The performance is greatly enhanced by removing all non-essentials, and doubling the power. Well, almost doubling; mine showed 116 hp on the dyno.

I was preparing to rebuilt the engine when I wrecked it. I still have some of the new components in the garage. The rest of the engine was melted during a fire in 1985.

_Howard wrote:

I had two Sprites and one MG Midget (same car).

Is that the "bug-eyed Sprite"?  I didn't think the MG was the same car at all.

One of my Sprites was a 1960, which was the "bug-eye" body.
The other was a 1967 MKIV, which was the same car as the Midget, except the Midget had the chrome strip down the middle of the hood, and the Sprite didn't.

I have also had a Triumph Spitfire, an Austin Mini, a Triumph GT-6, a Triumph Stag, and a Jaguar E-Type. I'm know there were more that I can't remember right now.

Always loved the Spitfire.  Always lusted after an MG-TD.

Friend of mine once offered me, gratis, a Jenson-Healey if I would please just take it off his hands.  I declined.

Same car?  I guess that's possible...  Less some chrome.

Wikipedia wrote:

An MG version of the car was introduced in May 1961 as, 'the new Midget,' reviving a model name which had been a great success for the MG Car Company in the 1930s and again as the T-type Midget in the period from 1945 to 1955. The Midget was to prove more popular with the public than the Sprite and by 1972 had completely supplanted it within the BMC range. In October 1962, both Sprites and Midgets were given a long-stroke 1098 cc engine (engine code 10CG).

The Mark III Sprite was also marketed as the Mark II MG Midget – differences between the two were again restricted to minor trim detailing. Although still 1098 cc, the engine had a stronger block casting, and the size of the crankshaft main bearings was increased to two inches (engine code 10CC).

NoCo wrote:

Same car?  I guess that's possible...

It's not just possible, it's a fact. I owned them and worked on them. They are the same car except for trim.

That was probably a good move on the Jensen-Healey. I don't recall ever hearing a good word about them.

The TD is a great little car. I maintained a TF with an MGB drive train for a judge in town. Wound up tearing out every inch of wire and rewiring the entire car.

I also maintained a Jaguar XK-120, an Aston Martin DB5 with right-hand drive, and a Morgan Plus 4, among others.
Such fun. So much more psychically rewarding that writing software.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Always loved the Spitfire.

If you loved the Spitfire, you should have tried the GT-6. Nice little car, no matter how some griped about the swing axle.
Then again, the fuel tank is just behind you, more inside the car than out.

You could raise the bonnet and sit on a tire to adjust the valves. Very handy.

I mentioned that my Sprite engine was mostly melted.
My MG Midget body and much of the Sprite engine I was rebuilding to put in it are somewhere in this mess.
Along with (what were) some very nice classic cars.
This is about one mile from my house at the time of the fire.

Doesn't look like there was much of anything left. Any idea what happened?

We had a huge wildfire in 1985. My family was evacuated from our home. The picture is of my friend Dave's ranch, which was destroyed in the fire.

Wow. My condolences to all on the receiving end of that one.

Yeah, it got a bit hairy at times. One hundred degrees with fast and shifting winds. The fire lasted over a week and burned about seventy or eighty thousand acres. Destroyed about a dozen houses. The flames were thirty feet high less than a block from our house.
I made two trips back to the house to get the type setter and my bike. Had to sneak in off-road because the streets were closed. Scary shit.