Page 60 - Jan2023

MG TD continued from page 59

Speed being a relative term, of course, with a TD. When the car was new, it had a top-top-top speed of 74
mph. That number came in fourth gear, at the dizzying engine speed of 5500 rpm (a.k.a. the precipice of
valve float).
The third reason I wanted to follow the car on that first leg? I am a visual person. Watching the MG
bumble across eastern North Carolina was going to be fun

That three-hour estimate would prove optimistic. At first, everything seemed fine. Ten minutes in,
t
however, the car began to lose speed. Q raised his left arm and signaled? TDs don? have visible turn
signals? to pull off into a parking lot. The words of Road & Track?s Peter Egan arose from deep in my
consciousness: "It's always the points."

I prepared myself for a little roadside diagnostics. This would be the first stop of more than a dozen. Over
the next seven, not three, hours.
.

Pulling the distributor cap and rocking the car around in gear showed that, indeed, the gap on the MG?s
ignition points was too small. Q assumed the kneeling position beside the engine, a posture familiar to
T-Series owners (and to owners of early Porsche 911s? it?s a position of petition and humility, as if
praying to the electrical gods). He made a quick adjustment and then we were off again, confident in our
roadside tune-up.

60