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CLASSIC INTEREST
Beware the old British sports car
Research and patience can help you avoid landing in a money pit
By David Grainger
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Driving vintage British sports cars is a lot of fun. These cars give you a superb feel for the road and put you in touch with your own driving skills, but unlike a modern Viper or Porsche, you rarely pose a threat to anyone else on the road.
A good example of this is found while driving either the Triumph Spitfire or MGB, both small open-air sports cars. With either you can take any on-ramp at full throttle as if you were piloting a Formula 1 car - it feels like you're taking your life in your hands and yet you can pass a police officer parked on the shoulder and not even elicit a raised eyebrow.
Unfortunately, even the newest of these classically patterned cars are decades old so the purchase of them can be fraught with peril. While British cars have long suffered a reputation for unreliability caused by poor electrical systems, these problems are minor compared to those engendered by decades of neglect, shoddy repairs and outright abuse.
While driving these cars is very enjoyable, repairing them constantly can cast quite a pall over pride of ownership. In order to avoid purchasing a money pit rather than a sports car here are a few shopping tips.
First and foremost, even the smallest of these cars can be very expensive to restore. Average restorations can easily take up to 1,000 hours. Multiple that with shop rates and add $15,000 to $30,000 in parts and you can end up with a car worth only $10,000 in which you have invested $60,000 or $70,000.
If you intend to restore one, make sure that you are fully aware of what the financial liability and loss is going to be. Never restore any car with the intention of driving it for a couple of years and then selling it unless you simply don't care about the financial penalty to be paid. It should be a keeper.
If you are going to restore a British sports car you are better off restoring an Jaguar E-Type or Aston Martin rather than a Triumph TR3 or an MG TD. While restoration costs are not that different for any of these cars, the end value is significantly different. While a beautifully restored MG may labour to achieve a $15,000 value, the Jaguar can be worth $70,000. You will likely still lose on the Jag, but at least it won't be quite as embarrassing.
If you buy to restore you already know you are going to be sinking a lot of money into the car. If you buy what you think is an already restored car only to find it is in need of tens of thousands of dollars worth of work, however, then you have a tragedy. Avoiding the purchase of a money pit, however, is quite simple.
But doing so will require a certain amount of homework and research on your part.
After determining which car you want it is time to hit the books or the Internet in order to find out what you need to know. Check in with owner's clubs to determine the strengths and more importantly, the weaknesses of the car that you are purchasing. In most sports cars the under pans, rocker assemblies and doglegs behind the doors are a source of worry. They are very important to the structural rigidity of the automobile but are subject to vast amounts of corrosion damage. In many cases, what at first inspection appears to be an excellent car will actually be severely lacking if these areas are rusty or show signs of improper repair or camouflage. I would much rather buy a sports car with a blown engine than one with rust problems. Corrosion is the largest and most expensive problem that you can encounter with any old car and what you have to be vigilant for is not only the corrosion itself, but also its often unscrupulous camouflaging by the sellers.
Once you have assured yourself that these problems don't exist or have been repaired properly, you can assess the condition of the rest of the car. Listening to the car run as well as driving it will reveal a lot of mechanical problems. Ask for a compression test to be done on the motor if possible, and make sure you take a very close look at the electrical system and wiring harness, making sure that they are in good repair and not a Gordian knot of electrical tape and pig-tailed connections.
While inspecting any car you have to ignore your excitement and lust and let common sense drive the acquisition. Don't ignore or dismiss any little problem without considering its potential for expense. Take a careful look at the paint job and interior. Look for signs of poor craftsmanship or hurried sale preparations. If a car is restored, make sure it was a comprehensive and skilled restoration done for the love of the car, not for its sale, and if possible find out who restored it and when.
One thing you should always bear in mind is that buying the best and most expensive car that you can find is generally a lot cheaper than buying the one that seemed like a deal, despite the fact that it needed work.
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