Our website just took a full sick day due to malware. As I reflect this unexpected intrusion, my mind wanders to the white 1952 MGTD we have just revived (seen at left in an alternate universe), which seems the appropriate antidote to a stressful day fending off invasive bots. If you are reading this, it means the humans I contracted (with their team of helpful bots) have successfully reactivated our website, for a fee perhaps about equal to the MSRP of a new MGTD in 1952.
Why is the MGTD relevant in this age of servers and web hosts? This car is very basic. So basic, in fact, that one feels in a TD like they are riding a horse (that’s a complement) because life in this car becomes very simple. The ride is smooth, while not plush. The entire experience is well-damped by a wood and steel structure. 57 Horsepower seems just fine to me as malicious code invades my database and root files (whatever they are). All I really want to do right now is emerge from the mist on the moors with perfect patina. I love technology and the web and our modern computing power makes our business possible. But TD motoring remains a precious reminder of something that we once were.
This white TD pictured here last rolled under its own power when Hip Hop was not even a glint in the eye of Disco, and the former owner might have been heard humming Bee Gees riffs (“Stayin Alive, Stayin Alive?”) as his bell bottoms hustled the pedals of these wooden floor boards, last in 1982. We rescued this car out of its 35 year slumber for a new owner in Maryland and the car is now just about ready to depart for its new home.
To be fair, this car did have some malware of it’s own under the bonnet after our mechanical restoration… in the photo above you can see Russ scanning the fuel filter and purging all the malicious crud that populated this car’s memory, that is to say, there was still a little residual junk in the tank after we removed, boiled, blasted, soaked and cleaned the 35 years of debris out of the fuel tank. We apparently left just one fuel filter full of nastiness in the tank, which promptly filled the filter and shut off the car, which might have ruined my nice motoring experience were it not for Shawn, the 12-year old who lives up the street, who was happy to push me back to the shop. “Just like pushing the blocking sled at football practice,” he said.
And so with a new fuel filter now installed, the TD is ready, waiting only for the new steering wheel to arrive to replace the wire hoop that is all we have left of the original wheel.
If you like this sort of thing, we are selling another 1952 MGTD, this one a green in nicer cosmetic shape, fully restored about ten years ago. I owned this green TD twice before, and sold it to two different great customers who loved and respected this car. Scott has asked me to sell it for him now on consignment. You can see it in an older post linked here. The car still looks identical to what you see in the photos and videos, as it has only spent most of intervening time nestled in Scott’s very nice garage in Rhode Island.
It’s an excellent, capable and sorted TD we are selling for $22,995, so you too can enjoy next time your (bug)iPhone seizes, your antivirus software is out of date and tech support for your devices means a conversation with someone halfway around the world who you would love to talk with to hear about life in a foreign land, but when it comes to fixing your phone or television, somehow something just seems missing.
MGTDs are here to fix all that…
