UK Kiwis

Carole and I have always been MG fans right from the early sixties, it all started one Sunday when we saw TFs and TDs driving around markers on someone's farm in the New Zealand countryside. It seemed like fun and after a friend let me drive his TF1250 I was hooked. The love affair has lasted all our lives (Both with MGs and, yes, each other)

Our first MG was an MGA, a 1500, and one of the first two imported into New Zealand. I used to manage to dismantle the windscreen, bumpers and passenger seat, fit an aero screen and go racing with the smell of Castrol ‘R’ and 100 octane in my nostrils. I can still hear that straight exhaust pipe I fitted to it... ear splitting!

Our first visit to UK came in 1965 and we were treated so well by the MGCC. Gordon Cobham was the chairman of the club at that time. We also met John Thornley at a noggin in Oxford. He was the managing director of MG production in Abingdon at the time. Heady days and I remember attending the Christmas party at the Dorchester Park Lane; a black tie and dinner suit affair in the sixties.

Soon after this we bought a new MGB roadster from BMC in Piccadilly and toured through Europe in it, three up (My Dad) with all our camping gear aboard... sheer madness! In order to escape tax and import duty we shipped the car to Australia for a year in 1966 and made many life long friends with the Sydney MGCC. Then it was on to New Zealand.

We have been in the UK now for five years and in that time have attended many local events. Also the Callendar Classic in Scotland, the Coast to Coast in Wales and several European meetings; the latest of which was a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt to Belgium to meet up with Dutch and Belgium MGF register people in Kemprenrit.

MGs... We love 'em!

Many happy years have been spent with this wonderful make of car and we have owned several of them, the latest being a 1997 MGF VVC imported into New Zealand from Japan and then shipped over to the UK for us to use here in the UK. It is fitted with air-conditioning (very handy for demisting the cabin in winter weather) and also has a factory hard top which gives the car a more taught, quieter feel turning it into a coupe. The security frequency needed to be reset and the kilometre speedometer changed to MPH. Insurance was high to start with as it was an imported car! Work that out.

The MGF is a fast, nimble sports car built in the true 'Safety Fast' MG tradition and just made for the kind of events the MG Clubs provide.

The various MGs we have owned have been the link to many friendships enjoyed in several countries. Long may it remain so.