Just when Kermit had probably given up hope of ever finding another MGA to rev around with on club runs, along comes "Chilli", named by my wife for a reason that will become obvious when you see her pictures below.  Chilli is an Australian-assembled MGA 1600 (car #1403) which came off the line between January and April 1961.  (Please click images below to enlarge them).

 After long-distance discussions, a purchase price was agreed (subject to an inspection), a one-way plane ticket was booked to Sydney and the inspection organised for Wednesday 2nd May 07. 

The inspection uncovered some problems (mostly highlighted by the owner), however nothing was found that would stop me buying her.  She had a "less-than-perfect" panel repair to the passenger door, an oil leak (as they all do) from the rear engine seal, modern shock-absorbers fitted up front, a boot lid seal in need of replacement, electronic ignition, indicators not working and SU carburettors in need of a good tune.  In consideration, it was still a great deal, so the owner kindly offered to replace the indicator flasher and off I drove in Chilli with a huge smile on my face.

The modern shock absorbers are a major improvement in handling under speed on the highway.  She felt stable, powerful and a pleasure to cruise in.  Still smiling!

As I exited the freeway north of Sydney the next morning, heading north on the long run to Queensland, I pulled over, quickly adjusted mixtures sufficently to let her idle a bit more smoothly and pulled back out into the flow of grey nomads heading north, receiving lots of friendly waves and smiles as I passed by.  It was still running a little rough at idle, however there would be time later for investigation.  For some reason unknown at that time, the front carb was set VERY rich and the rear one had been set VERY weak.

The reason for the irregular mixture settings became clear when I had a closer look and a thorough feel around the carbs for possible air leaks.  Sometime in the past, someone had evidently overtightened the carb-to-manifold bolts, unknowingly creating a huge crack in the underside of the insulator for the front SU in the process.  This of course, allowed additional air to be sucked in (click on the picture on the left) and hence created a much weaker mixture.  When it had been tuned following the mishap to the insulator, the mechanic must have adjusted the mixture richer on the front SU to compensate for the airleak.  As the crack was at the bottom of the insulator, covered by gravity in a thin film of oil from up top, I suspect that occasionally oil may have blocked the crack, thus the inconsistency in mixture.  Epoxy resin on the crack provided a temporary fix until a new insulator could be ordered.

Everything was going very smoothly until about 7pm that night when I was having a fantastic time negotiating the twisty highway on the hills south of Tenterfield.  On each side of the road, the ground fell away to rolling hills and valleys.  I was thundering along without a care in the world doing about 65mph thinking about what type of pizza I would order in Tenterfield for dinner.  Coming towards me were two double trailer semis coming down the grade doing a similar speed.  Lifting the left foot, I tapped the headlight dimmer switch and instead of getting a low beam (as when I had tested earlier), I got no lights at all!!!  The problem was that it was a twisty road and with the added high beam headlight glare of an evidently very scared truck driver, I could not see the road at all.  A few expletives and a second later, heart pounding, I slammed on the brakes and hoped the trucker had decided to stay on the road while I used his headlights for a reference point and drove as close to his left side as I dared, expecting any second to drop off the side of the highway.  Meanwhile left foot was repeatedly trying to get a beam while right foot was still on the skids.  Scary.  Pulled off the road, calmed down and checked all dimmer switch connections with a screwdriver.  One bad connection was corrected.

Next morning (a very chilly day) at Tenterfield, the starter motor shaft jammed when trying to fire up for the second day's drive (not an unusual event in old morries).  A little gentle rock back and forth in third gear fixed the problem and I was on the road again.

Chilli and I arrived home in Hervey Bay on the night of 4th May 07.  The family reception was marvellous.  My 8-year-old son suggests that we may end up with more little MGs if Chilli shares the garage with his beloved Kermit.  Suggested offspring names included "GREEN CHILLI".  I'll have to have a long talk to that boy.