MGA Twin Cam

Beautiful car, Gerry! Congrats!

 

That car is not from a dealer in CT is it? Regardless it is beautiful. A buddy has a 1960 or so black coupe which was his dads car and he refurbed it. Always loved the lines of an MGA, they are so timeless. Enjoy it.

 

How in the world did you luck out to get that car. What a gem.

 

Pretty little cars getting some respect finally. Lots of affordable fun still.

Nice.

 

AWESOME! I love all MG's, really love A's, and REALLY love the Twin Cams. What a great car and motor. That is one of the best looking engines of any classic as far as I am concerned. How is it to drive?

 

Beautiful!

BTW - why do the wheels say Dunlop?

 

Because made by.

 

Great Investment, especially being a "Rare Twin Cam".

The body lines remind me of 120-150 Jaguars & Austin Healey BN4/BN6.

Were you holding up the bonnet by hand?, as the bonnet hold up rod inserts into the radiator shroud hole.
ENJOY!!!

 

Yes,the twincam was fitted,as standard,with pressed steel wheels with a knock off hub. I believe the only production car in UK to use this Dunlop product.Appart from a small "twincam" logo on the boot(trunk) panel,it was the only way of recognising the model from the standard MGA.However,the twincam engine was a total nightmare in service.Head,valve,cam problems gave it a terrible reputation,and pushed it towards an early grave.

 

It's now believed that many twin-cam engines blew-up due to a harmonic vibration occuring within a particular RPM range. The vibration shook the SU carbs causing the fuel to froth, leaning the mixture out too much. Ka-Blammo as Mr Hobbs would say.

 

Tis' true. The SUs should have used soft mounts like on the Lotus cars.

 

Beautiful car!

Would love to see some in-car video of you rowing through the gears.

Almost. The MGA "Deluxe" used disc brakes and knock-offs from the Twin Cam, but with the pushrod motor.
Much rarer than the Twin Cam model.

Here's my Dad's that he bought new in NJ and owned until the mid 70s. I'll have to ask him to scan in a couple great photos of him autocrossing it.
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The pushrod version is known as Mk.II Deluxe, having the1622cc engine. The means of distinguishing the two are by looking at the front grills and not the wheels: the grill slats are flush on the twin-cam, recessed on the bottom for the Deluxe. The tail lights are also different.

 

The MGA was facelifted later in production,the grille was recessed,rather than flat. Rear lamp clusters were horizontal,as opposed to vertical,and as suggested,the 1622cc later B series pushrod lump fitted. By this time ,the twincam had gone out of production,due to its horrific unreliability problems.