Page 22 - May2022

Left: Mike and Carol at
an earlier St. Patrick's
Day parade with the
Kestrel wearing the
green.

In 2022, as a new
member of NBCC, I
celebrated St. Pat's day,
green with car lust, in
their garage.

Mike is surprised. He tells me that he always asks people if they want to drive the Lynx and is almost
always taken up on his offer. I fear I've disappointed him; yet, discretion remains the better part of
valor, at least for me, and for the car as well. It will not end up, if I can help it, wrapped around a tree as
I fumble with driving from the right while dealing with the pre-select, clutch timing routine.
We head to the house, oozing not grease but elan. Back at the garage, I'm already starting to rethink
maintenance and whether or not it's better to own and enjoy a car or to maintain a car (s) that insists
on setting its own terms for how it is to be enjoyed and displayed, essentially owning you.
Mike is more than comfortable in the land of ?preservation in place? I, thanks to years of life with father
;
and his daredevil approach to car care, remain a compulsive maintainer. We are, in fact, two people
with entirely different approaches (Mike lives, quite cozily, with his version and I, along with an extensive
support team, deal with mine). Yet here we were, happily basking in the attributes of his Lynx, where the
ancient Lucas electric system has never, according to Mike, been touched (along with some other items
like points and condenser that he mentions are pretty much in virgin territory when it comes to
replacement--the thought of which makes me quake. At peace , he is disinclined to tinker and fuss. If I
owned the Lynx, it would take one look at me, laugh knowingly, and collapse into a parts pile.)

The idea of a dependable, untouched Lucas system boggles my mind. In fact, I?d find it hard to believe,
based on my own experiences, if I hadn? made Mike?s acquaintance. After he praised Lucas' reliability in
t
the Lynx and demonstrated it, I was too embarrassed to pull out my old chestnut of a joke and ask him if
he knew why the English drink warm beer-- the answer being that Lucas makes refrigerators, too.
Mike had told me earlier about a completely successful, round trip of 516 miles he made in 2016 in this
very Lynx. In 92-degree weather, he led a group of elderly MGs to an event in Kentucky, which included
some expressway driving. At that moment I'd mentally clutched my pearls at the thought of it. In
hindsight I realize that Mike knows his machines, is confident in what they will do, and was too much a
gentleman to remind me that in both driving and performance ?pretty is only as good as pretty does? .
I headed home from my afternoon in Franklin as happy as I?ve been for a very long time, the result of
living not by the demands of perfection made by clock and cars but being relaxed on Riley time. The
Int erview with Mike Long follows on p. 27.
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