My Third Car - A 1961 MGA Twin Cam

1961 MGA Twin Cam - the beauty of youth

It was the summer of 1968 - I had just completed a job in the Poconos - working as a camp counselor. My job was to take kids on overnight canoe trips down the Delaware River. It was one of those jobs that they paid you at the end of the season - my share was $700. To put it in perspective - 2 years later Panther Valley would hire me as a science teacher for a whopping salary of $6500 a year.

A fella on East Broad Street in Tamaqua by the name of Bob Clay had the sports car of my dreams. It was a 1961 MGA Twin Cam. I was fascinated by little British cars even then. It was 7 years old - back then that was pretty old for a car. Today the average car on the road is 12 years old.

I guess I saw an ad in the newspaper. Bob had the car stored in a garage behind his house. I went to see it - we dusted it off - and started it up. It had a pull starter button - it even had a hand crank if you wanted to start it with a dead battery. I counted out $600 in 20's - more money than I ever had and I only had that money a total of about 2 days. You would have been proud I held out that long. This car was right before Lulu came along - I am not sure she ever even saw it. 

In 1968 - the only cars that had double overhead cams were race tracks. Morris Garage only made 1000 of this car with this engine in order to qualify to race at Le Mans. At the time 110 horsepower seemed like gobs of power in such a small lightweight car.

I am surprised that my parents let me spend the money on such a car. It was a thing of beauty. It was turquoise in color with a white top and white leather interior. Truly a girl's car. It had plain disk wheels - blackwall tires - when everyone else was wearing big whitewalls. I seldom put the top up because sports car magazines said only a wuss would have a top up. I did have a snap-on tonneau cover to keep the seats dry. 

Although a sports car was not made for rapid acceleration - this little baby could smoke the tires in second gear and even chirp them in third. In my mind it was my little Cobra. You could not put it into first gear without first coming to a full stop - unless you learned to toe/heel the gas-break- and clutch. 

In all my years of worshipping cars - I have never seen one with a more classic - clean - beautiful shape. There were no door handles - you reached in the window to pull a chain on the inside to open the doors. Yes - it was that way from the factory. 

I took it to the Hershey Hill Climb - not to race - but to show it off. It did attract a crowd. Triumphs - Austin/Healeys - Jaguars - and many other early imports nodded and dimmed their lights as we passed by. I guess I have watched the movie  - Cars - too much. On the way home from Hershey - feeling my wild oats - I blew past a TR-something reaching 110 MPH. That was right before a big cloud of smoke from under the hood appeared around Hamburg. I had blown a hole in a piston. I limped home through Devil's Hole - sputtered past Heisler's. A visit to Tony's - of the famed fix it again Tony - in Emmaus cost $239 to replace a piston. Funny - the owner had given me a few extra parts including pistons that did save a couple bucks and months of time. He must have known something that I didn't. 

I kept the car one year - even then I sold it for $800 - made a profit of $200 - if you do not count the $239 for the piston repair. In that year I would take it to college at Kutztown and park it downtown - never once getting a ticket. In the summer of 1969 - I bought a new VW for $1650 - with long low payments. That is the car that attracted Lulu. A navy blue Beetle.

I gave owned 67 cars - scooters - trucks - campers - buses. Some cars are like boats - you have two great days in a boat - the day you buy it - and the day you sell it. I often wonder how much money I would have saved if I just kept one - and kept it all those years. This turquoise 1961 MGA Twin Cam roadster is the one I often think about.