Just to be clear, it isn't my car. It belongs to B.A.D.A.S.S., NLLC which is a charitable organization devoted to encouraging youngsters to develop creativity. And I want to personally thank everyone for their good wishes and encouragement. Last year Bill Young was elected president and my involvement with the project has decreased considerably. Which is a good thing because I have a blown 340 MGB to finish. The car made it's way up to Flying Circus in Virginia where the rear differential was swapped out for a quiet one with a lower ratio and gas mileage immediately went up to around 20. Max Fulton found the lug nuts were undersized and corrected the wheel wobble problem it had and Gerry Masterman provided a newly reconditioned steering column which is in the car and will be installed soon. PJ Lenihan (our transport driver) then drove the car to W.Va. where it will be until June when it will be driven by my brother Dan and me to Omaha for the annual BritishV8 meet, then coming back to Indiana and making a couple of the northern meets in the following weeks. I had mentioned the GS Nationals for this fall, maybe this year the car can make it there. We could use some help with the tuning of the engine and I can think of no more qualified group of people to make that better. Jim
I see plenty of combinations that improve mileage with higher numerical gears, in performance/hot rod applications.
:eek2: I think maybe we got a little cleaner install than that, just a bit. Though oddly enough, at the Nationals nobody seemed to quite believe me when I told them it was a factory special order option:TU:. (Well, the 215 V8 was, why not the 455?) Guys, we had a great time there and felt very welcome. Too bad about the rain. Sorry I didn't take any photos, seemed to spend all my time talking, but I know there are a few guys who will vouch for us that we actually were there, and there were a lot of camera phones out so maybe someone could post a pic? Maybe next year we can interest a few more owners of Buick powered conversions to show. It'd be fantastic if we could get Chris Gill to bring his 350 ci 300 conversion, what a beauty that one is. But he's in BC I think so it'd be a long trek. I will try to bring my 340 powered convertible, it should be shaken down by then. It seemed like everyone who saw the car immediately recognized the air cleaner. Most were somewhat incredulous about what was under it, expecting a small block or V6. That was fun too. I think we ended up with a pretty sweet example of a 455 Buick powered MGB, and it makes an excellent street driven car. It also happens to be the only one in existence, so a pretty rare bird. Jim
I followed this thread many years ago. Knew the car was "supposed to be" in BG. About died when I saw it in the Red Roof parking lot. Sorry I didn't see it drive or get to talk. Nick P.S. Couldn't y'all get some better intake on it...
Here you go... Forgot to ask when my brother and I were talking to you in between the rains Sat morning, but haven't read through everything lately, but have you run the car down the track, and if so, what did it run? Nice talking to you. Should have asked to put the hood down so I could get a pic.
You know, we've had it out on tour for 4 years now but it's only been in the last month that we've had it prepped well enough to consider running the 1/4 with it. Lots of minor things got taken care of but the main holdback was the fueling system which I upgraded last month. We now have a 1/2" drain from the center of the tank feeding a Bosch44 clone fuel pump, then 3/8" line forward and a 2 stage regulator. First stage is a bypass regulator so the pump will not have to work too hard, set to 8psi (which it won't go below because of restriction in the 5/16" return line) and then a deadhead regulator set to 7psi and a 3/8" line to the carb. Thanks for the advice here on getting that set up, it seems to work well.Sorry about the Posten intake, what can I say other than it was donated? (and lighter than stock) We had also just installed the electric power steering system which is still sort of experimental and it wasn't until after getting back that the handling was well defined enough to go ahead with a front swaybar install. Those two things made a world of difference in the handling and I can say without hesitation that it'll be safer on the big end of things getting back to a stop. We also just added a brake booster. The only iffy thing now is the T5 transmission. It's a weak link. It isn't rated for the torque of the 455 and breaking that would have been a serious inconvenience at BG since we drove in, even if it had been dry enough to run, so all in all I'd say we'd have been a little premature. At some point I'm sure someone will put it on the strip, and I think we could survive a run or two. But it'd be taking a chance. At one point someone suggested putting a TKO in it, but we've never had the funds to make that purchase. And, as with the Posten, the T5 was donated. Thanks for posting the photos btw. See? Proof! We actually were there! Sorry we didn't get to talk to everybody and not everyone got to see the car, but maybe we can make it back next year. Jim
