New MGF TF owner losing his Jap car bias, maybe, possibly, definitely maybe.

Hi TA22GT, Reading your first post was so close to my own thought process (bias pr-Japenese cars, especially Toyotas), plus I ended-up buying a low-mileage, (almost) rust free, Silver 2002TF! Also, I have fitted the 280mm disc conversion, for exactly the same reasons as you!

My Toyota bias probably comes from selling the Burnaston Factory testing equipment for the sheet metal used for the body pressings. I was very impressed by the professionalism of everyone there, having spent a lot of time training them to use the kit.

Hope you continue to enjoy your new "toy". Is you TA22 "handle" your postcode perchance? The SW F owners in the MGCC have some meetings near that Postcode.

I'll wager TA22GT refers to the Toyota model designation code for the car in his avatar.
T = engine family
A = Celica
22 = series
GT = well...the obvious model name for a high end sports variant

I'm an ex-Toyota mechanic too!

Hi @ EllisJo
Wow we have very similar experiences and choice of cars!
My "bias" goes back to 74 when I saw a friends Celica arrive in a car park we were gathering at to go scuba diving. I had a Hillman Hunter at the time and as we waited this red spaceship drove towards us. The vision blew me away! It had a rev counter! An oil pressure gauge and a 5 speed box. 5 speeds! Lol.
2 months later I bought a 1972 one in white and there was no going back.
Incidentally, on the 200 mile trip back from the diving exhibition to St.Abbs the Hunter blew up trying to keep up with the Celica and the Celica towed me home!
I am genuinely loving the MG, I have plans to improve the brakes, a re map and perhaps the suspension. 
I may be a bit long in the tooth but I have not lost one inch of enthusiasm for driving and enjoying cars.
Thanks for the welcome!

Welcome to the T Bar from a fellow scuba diver and former frequent visitor to St Abbs...😉

No experience with Hillman Hunters, but a big "me too" on Scuba: Most memorable dive was in the Maldives, where I had the privilege of seeing a HUGE Whale Shark cruise by me. I COULD have reached-out and touched it, but did not. One idiot in our group DID, and received the most humungous bollocking afterwards from the dive supervisor. We HAD been told do not touch, apparently it can damage the mucous layer on their scales or some such.

Enjoy the TF!

Cobber wrote:

I'll wager TA22GT refers to the Toyota model designation code for the car in his avatar.
T = engine family
A = Celica
22 = series
GT = well...the obvious model name for a high end sports variant

I'm an ex-Toyota mechanic too!

As ever, your information is an EDUCATION!
 

Hi Cobber...spot on!  That chassis designation is burnt in to my heart.

It's amazing to find another ex Toyota mechanic on an MG forum but you will get my tongue in cheek introduction. lol

I worked for John Midgley in the 70's and we were the 6th Toyota appointed dealership in the country back then. I was a kid and just enthralled with everything car and especially Motorsport. John Has been rallying Toyota's for over 50 years and he won Group A in 1985 driving his Corolla for Toyota in the British Championships. Working for him and starting to rally a Celica myself I got all his s/h tyres and suspension etc so I got to do relatively cheap rallying!
Our friendship continued long after I left and moved to Scotland and I have serviced for him on many rallies. I got to go to AUS to do the classic Outback in 2016 and New Zealand to do the Silver Fern in 2018. I'm not bragging I have just been blessed with very good friends and I appreciate it.

It is through John that I got to drive his £45k Celica at Goodwood FOS on the rally stage that my all time hero Hannu Mikkola designed. He signed my helmet that day and I treasure it.

I restored the car in my avatar in 2010. It was two scrap cars that made one good one. I sold it in 2020.They are exceedingly rare these days. It was very hard to let it go!

I had never been in a MG TF never mind driven one but I started to hanker after one as a project because they are relatively cheap to buy and they are a good looking car. I read all about the HG and the subframes and the sills and thought it might be hard to find a solid car but it wasn't. My welding and painting days are over so as long as the car is solid I can do the rest. The car I went to see blew me away in how solid it was. With no ramp I had a quick look underneath and was surprised at how good it looked. The paintwork has zero rust spots anywhere. So even before I paid for it I was falling for the car!
It has to sit outside the garage at the moment until I sell my MX5 and it pains me to see rain on the soft top. I have waterproofed it already and it is sound but I want it inside so I can work on it!!
A pic of my own car at a Hillclimb and me driving John's at Goodwood. 
  

 

I am really looking forward to doing some upgrades on the TF and am devouring the info on this site!



 

David Aiketgate wrote:

Welcome to the T Bar from a fellow scuba diver and former frequent visitor to St Abbs...😉

Thank you David....I am reading a lot of your articles on here!
 

EllisoJo wrote:

No experience with Hillman Hunters, but a big "me too" on Scuba: Most memorable dive was in the Maldives, where I had the privilege of seeing a HUGE Whale Shark cruise by me. I COULD have reached-out and touched it, but did not. One idiot in our group DID, and received the most humungous bollocking afterwards from the dive supervisor. We HAD been told do not touch, apparently it can damage the mucous layer on their scales or some such.

Enjoy the TF!

That must have been amazing to see and a bit scary being so close. They may be harmless but can easily knock your mask off!   My scuba diving days are long gone but they did introduce me to my Celica! 
 

I never got into jap stuff, in fact I've never had one, I was was more into Euro (mainly Italian) Pommy (the good stuff not the pleb shit), local Aussie stuff and a bit of pre 80's Yank iron.
I didn't mind the 1st gen Celicas, but the got dumbed down to fat lazy slugs for window dressers with the RA40 and beyond, A bit like the Datsun 240Z and it's successors, they just got fatter, dumber and lazier with every update. I liked the rear wheel drive Corrollas for their simplicity and honest design, but the front wheel drive stuff was not my thing, I hated all Hlluxes narrow gutted top heavy rubbish on saggy springs and the likes of Coronas and Camrys were just so boring even the red ones were beige!

So not much of a Toyota fan then Cobber! lol.

I agree totally about them getting fatter. It was to attract the American market but with 2ltr engines it was never going to work against 4ltr gas guzzling, soft, underpowered lumps of iron that were as exciting as a puncture in the rain.

Now I am a proud MG TF owner the memory of my previous life is fading......

Interesting reading this.
I have a Honda Accord bias. Having driven hundreds of thousands of miles in a handful of different models, some built in Swindon before they kept their brexit promise and closed the works.
I also had a lot to do with Nissan when they opened up the Sunderland factory, supplying parts for robots and automation generally.
The post 2nd world war history interests me, when Leonard Lord despatched our brightest and best with the latest multi station tooling to Japan to teach mass production techniques, as part of the Marshall plan to establish a military presence in the Pacific to combat the "soviet threat"
And boy did we make a rod for our backs?
I believe Churchill said we won the war and lost the peace, he should know having instructed the boffins to scrap the worlds first computers.
But, as a TF owner of just 6 months I can testify just how much fun they are and a good well tended example is as reliable it seems, as pretty much anything out there.