Boris the black "b"
This 1978 MGB GT was bought for £2800 in 1983 as an everyday car to replace my Monday-Morning-Metro and had a reputation as a ‘rogue’ - no-one could tune him, he was underpowered (even for a B) and tended to pop/spit and/or pink.
Eventually, I discovered that his valve timing was out by 10˚ (even when the timing marks were lined up) because some boy-racer had tried to reprofile the camshaft and got it wrong. Once the correct ‘bog-standard’ camshaft was fitted, all the problems disappeared and he has been totally reliable since. I’ve used Boris on the daily commute for the past 20 years and he has failed to start twice - once when the magnetic switch in the electronic ignition packed up and once when the battery Earth lead had corroded - which is pretty good for a Might Go Banger!
However, all those years of winter use took its toll of the bodywork and by 1999, the old car was ready for his second rebuild. I decided to get a Heritage shell and spent a happy year reincarnating Boris. He was then fitted with the 47,000 mile engine out of the Yellow Peril/Inca (Harvey’s current V8 conversion) and should be good for another 20 years.
Helen Kirkness