Without Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, there’d be no Mini. The car’s chief engineer and designer—raised a subject of the Ottoman Empire by his Greek father and Bavarian mother—was widely known for penciling freehand engineering sketches. The stubborn eccentric designed the original Mini by eye and despised mathematics. “You must not mix function with fashion in…

When I bought my MGB, I knew just a fragment about the mechanical aspects of a car, but each day I would learn something new. One day it was how to set the gap on spark plugs and contact points. The next it was bleeding brakes and slave cylinders. By the time I had owned…

buh-loh-nee* 1. The result of spending way too much money in an attempt to make an old car look old.  2. A descriptive term used to deceive a potential buyer by creating an illusion of proper maintenance and care.  3. Justification for excessive cost related to owning a British car. British cars have a reputation…

I’m an empty-nester as I write this. My last child left home this past weekend and, like her three sisters before her, she will never return to live with me though I may see her from time to time. The move came suddenly, unexpectedly, as her 18th year in my house approached. One day I…

It has been a few years now. The beginning of an adventure I pray never to end. There are many things that forge a lasting relationship in life, allowing people to grow with one another and share in an adventure that raises high the human existence. It is funny when nestled prominently among those things…

Take one crazy farmer, a beautiful September day in Michigan, and MG car enthusiasts and it all leads to…an unforgettable time! Farmer Bill Hirsch, our current Old Speckled Hens president, who apparently doesn’t have enough to do, decided that if he took out 5 rows of corn it would be possible to make a maze…