MG Car Club of South Australia
ROAD TRIP FOR A “B”
From..Mark Abraham
S
ince my early 20s, I’ve had an admi-
ration for the small 2 door sports
coupe that looks like a windup toy. Now
that might be a little belittling for the
cool and sexy MGB, but you must ad-
mit, it kinda fits.
So, with my 50 th birthday on the hori-
zon, I knew it was time to chase my
dream to own and drive my very own
toy car. Having discussed this more
than once with long-time MG car club-
ber, Maurice (Mozza) Linehan, I knew
exactly who to call to assist in the
chase.
As soon as I quizzed him and asked for
help, he was as alert as a stallion in the
paddock. With very clear parameters of
model, year, colour and price, the
search was on and the emails, phone
calls, texts and hyperlinks flowed. Every
possible hiding spot for a decent ‘B’
was investigated and ruled out or in,
checked and followed up.
Eventually, we agreed that a ‘64, British
Racing Green ‘B’ for sale in Geelong
was worth the trip. Mozza had the car
trailer, I had the Prado and with an
Airbnb cottage booked, we hit the free-
20
way. A couple of bakeries later, we ar-
rived in Geelong to meet Martin and
Dawn for our first look at the prize. Un-
registered and uninsured, we could only
do a few laps around their cul-de-sac in
the toy car but with “Mozza’s Magnet
Test” passing with flying colours, we
seemed to be on to a good thing.
It turned out, Martin had worked on the
car more than he had driven it, so it took
some negotiating to see any sort of
price negotiation (reduction). We de-
cided to sleep on it and it was the main
topic of conversation over a great pizza
and bottle of red during the evening.
The night went on later than we had
intended and some of the sights in a
local bar, well… they had to be seen to
be believed.
It must be said, we were having such a
great time “searching” for a ‘B’ that we
considered not buying a car at all and
continuing the search as a means of
having driving trips away. Oh, the
places, we could go.
However, on 2 nd inspection the following
morning, we both realised it was too
good an opportunity to pass over and