Safety Fast October 2017

Happy birthday to JCP 600F – my MGB GT is 50 years old! Registered on September 1 1967 and supplied to a gentleman who lived in Lawholme Lane, Keighley, West Yorkshire, by Cox of Keighley Ltd whose premises were on Bradford Road. I inherited a box file of receipts and other bits from its previous owner so I know a great deal about its history. It has had nine previous owners, for instance. Was originally Sandy beige in colour (not my favourite BMC Colour) but the interior is as it came out of the factory in red leather with red carpets etc. It lived in the West Riding for the first 40 years, a lot of that time in and around Baildon, Bradford and Leeds. So, why is it important? It is to me because I want to know such things, along with what has, or hasn’t, been done to it. That way, my rolling programme of maintenance has a purpose. A car this old, with an, almost, complete history is an environmental asset. It is thought that a car becomes environmentally neutral once it is more than 10 years old as, until then, the negative costs of its build still are being paid off. This presents a strong case for keeping and sustaining good, old cars rather than endlessly building, scrapping and replacing. The paper record in my now-bulging box folder helps that process and JCP 600F can continue, happily, in the manner to which it has become accustomed; a delight to drive which is still capable of holding its own in today’s traffic.

By the time that you are reading this the Register weekend in Lincolnshire will be done and dusted and I shall be awaiting Heather Charlton’s report on the event along with photographs from John Watson and, possibly, Roger Cooper. John has asked me to draw to your attention the Register Spring Run which will be on April 15 2018 and based on the Haynes Motor Museum, with a cream tea into the bargain. More details to follow and a longshot for your, new kitchen calendar is the Register September run for 2018 which is proposed for Shropshire and Ironbridge. I can almost sense your excitement from here!

DAVID BROADHURST

newsletter-editor@mgb-register.org