MGF First Hand Reports

MGF First Hand Reports

Jacqui and I both travel extensively with our jobs and for years we have simply zoomed along in our various saloons, fully insulated from the elements, and by large, travelling to our destinations via the major routes.

It is only very recently that we have entered into open top motoring. We bought our first MGF as our second car, two years ago. I clearly remember the trepidation with which we first lowered the soft-top, scared that we might damage the rear screen, prior to our first experience of topless travel.

The “F” has been a revelation for us and has certainly changed our leisure time. We have discovered the joys of motoring with ëwind in our hairí. Wherever we take the ìFî we try to choose routes that are scenic-the open top mode gives you such a spectacular view of the world, albeit at first we felt a tad exposed without the security of a roof.

The ëMG waveí was initially a strange thing for us. A colleague and MG enthusiast at work told me about the procedure, but initially Jacqui and I felt rather awkward about waving, just in case we were being subjected to a wind up. We quickly learned that this was not the case. At the onset the challenge for us, as the new ëFí on the block, lay in recognising the elder brethren of the clan soon enough to react. We have become reasonably adept at spotting “A”, “B”, “C”, “GT”, “RV8” and Midget, but we still find the previous generations of MG more difficult to identify underway. Failure to return a wave has never been intentional

We seized every opportunity to lower the top, but we some important lessons to learn in our first months of ownership. The first lesson concerned the weather.

I had to travel from home to Bournemouth Airport to pick up a family member. They had never seen the car, nor had they tried open top motoring. As the weather was fine, I thought the least I could do was to educate them. The weather remained fine as far as Southampton but looked gloomy to the west. I reassured myself that: (a) it didnít look like rain, and (b) I had read somewhere that provided I maintained a speed of over 45mph, the aerodynamics of the ëFí would simply whoosh the rain over my head, and I would remain dry.

As luck would have it, just past the potential shelter of the garage at the Rufus stone turning, the heavens opened. I quickly discovered that aerodynamics are fine in principle, but in practice the various vortices and turbulence passing over the car created a local weather system in the cockpit, and I began to get very damp. My arrival at the airport did not have quite the impression I had wanted to create. I was wet, the inside of the car was wet and my new passenger thought I must have been barking mad. A lesson was learned- check the forecast before you travel.

Another lesson also involved aerodynamics. It cost us a couple of baseball caps to learn not to expose the peak of said headgear above the top of the windscreen when travelling at any speed. We also learned that autumn leaves, a volumetric alarm system and an open top are a noisy combination not appreciated by the unwary passer-by.

A more serious lesson we learned the hard way, was how easy it is to get sunburned without noticing it is happening; care really must be taken as the cool breezes ameliorate the heat of the sun.

Last Christmas (1999) we bade our sad farewells to our BRG 1.8i whom we had become to know affectionately as ëFerdleí (R654 FDL). In his place we have a new addition to the family. The car is an anthracite MY2000 VVC. We opted for a heritage hard top, bright pack and leather trim, and we still have to pinch ourselves when we see the car to remind ourselves that it is real and it is ours.

The new chariot is a stunning looking car and we are quietly pleased at the admiring glances of people and the comment friends and strangers alike have made about the car. The hardtop has brought a different feel to the car, but it is nice to be able to savour the car all year round regardless of the weather. It is our intention to fit the hardtop over the winte r and run the car in its native form for the rest of the year. After all there is no substitute for dropping the hood on a sunny day and revelling in the ownership of a car that is an MG.

I was fortunate enough to ëacquireí an MGF as a company car in June last year. My company allowed me to select a convertible, 2 seater sports car, even though most of my business mileage is on the boring and noisy motorway. To be honest, if I had been splashing out my own cash I probably would not have chosen a sports car, let alone an MG. But now I have experienced the fun of driving one and belonging to the biggest ownersí club in the world, I fully intend to buy it from the company, once I have clocked up the obligatory 40,000 miles.

There are two observations I should like to make. The first is the wonderful way other MG owners acknowledge each other out on the road. Even though the MGF could never be described as anything but a modern car and certainly not (yet) a classic, all other classic MG drivers acknowledge me with a flash of the headlights or a wave of the hand sometimes both. For my part, I always do the same. Regrettably though the same cannot be said for the majority of MGF drivers. Whether this is because they are new to the MG experience and not yet aware of the tradition, or whether they feel they are not part of the (classic) club is not clear.

The second point is (slightly) technical. In a recent article it was stated that, possibly because of the aerodynamic design of the windscreen, the wind ësuck-backí hitting you at the back of the head is more acute in the F than in other MGs. It was therefore suggested that an essential purchase for every MGF owner must be a ëWind-Stopí. My advice is that if you happen to have £200 to spare, then this may well be a good move. However, if like me, £200 can only be found in emergencies and not simply to stop one’s hair from parting at the back of your head, then do the following when driving with the hood down:- Raise the passengerís window (keep the driverís window down). Yes, thatís all – miraculously, the back draught stops . Donít ask me why, it just does. This should only be attempted on the coldest of (sunny) days. The rest of the time, Iím quite happy to have my hair parted.

I’m so pleased I chose MG….something with a bit of history and a reminder of the time when all the best sports cars in the world were British. The alternative was something sounding like an oriental light bulb.