Car:                           MGB

Model Year:            1963

Original Colour:     Tartan Red

Current Colour:     Tartan Red

Odometer:               80,000

Heidi & Rob’s 1963 MGB “Jenny”

If you look at the PEI license plate on the rear of our car, you’ll see it reads MGB63. However, if you look at the front plate, you’ll see the same lettering but from a different place, the state of New Hampshire. That’s where our story of the MGB first began on September 24, 2014 when we purchased it from Bruce Graves of Keene, NH. But it really began on May 9, 1963 at Abingdon, England. That’s when “Jenny” was first started to be built. Four days later the tartan red roadster was completed for North American export (left hand drive) with the following options: wire wheels, heater, red tonneau cover, folding hood, ashtray(!) and whitewall tires. It left on May 21 destined for a dealer in Northampton, Massachusetts and was sold on July 5, 1963 to Mr. Richard Carmel for the princely sum of $2,791.80. Over the next 22 years and 64,000 miles, Mr. Carmel drove the car from beaches to mountains all over New England with family and friends.  Then on May 28, 1985, Mr. Carmel decided to sell his MGB to his nephew Bruce Graves, the man we eventually bought the car from. So in essence our MGB was a single family owner!  Bruce then drove the car much as his uncle did throughout the area with the only difference being he would also enter into various car shows, some of which he did very well in. For instance, at the American MGB Association’s National Meet in 1993, the car placed second in its class. Not bad I’d say! For close to 30 years, Bruce kept the car running in tip top condition.  He had the car repainted in 1992 and overhauled the complete engine and transmission in 2006 when it had only 75,000 miles on it. Eventually though Bruce began to have to consider selling this most prized possession. However, he was concerned about who to sell it to. He wanted it to go to a good home.  That’s where we came in.

Heidi and I used to be avid motorcycle riders, each with our own bikes.  A few years ago, we decided that maybe it would be easier (and more comfortable!) to give up the bikes and drive a little convertible sports car instead. Heidi had always wanted a little red MGB (originally maybe a 1967 model). So we put in a call to my brother Ken in New Jersey who just happens to restore British sports cars; MG, Triumph, Jaguar, Austin Healey, etc. We told him what we were looking for and off he went on his mission. Through his contacts, he narrowed down his search to several MGBs from the eastern US and Canada. The first one we thought we’d like was in Indiana. It was a 1967 MGB in great shape with a great price.  However, when we went to make the offer, the poor old fellow had passed away the day before. So back to the search we went.  Not too long after, Ken spotted our car. It was a little older than what we were looking for but was in peak original condition. Ken contacted Bruce about the car and reached an agreement on our behalf but first Bruce had to talk to us directly. After we assured Bruce that we would give the car a good home, a deal was struck and we purchased the car.  We picked up a U-Haul car trailer in Charlottetown and drove down to NH to pick it up. It was a sad day for Bruce but he did share with us a lot of history and pictures, including original paperwork, manuals and the entire maintenance record.

After we brought the car back to PEI, we proceeded to find a great local mechanic in Kensington, Bruce Bell, who worked on all sorts of older vehicles. Bruce was able to help and coach us in keeping the car in top shape. Since we purchased the car, we have installed or replaced the following parts:  interior door panels, seat belts with some new black ones, steering wheel with an original mahogany Les Leston model, molded carpet set for the trunk, clutch slave cylinder.  We also installed new floor mats and mounted some original Lucas fog lights (thanks Bob Bentley!) on a new badge bar. When we bought the car it came with some beautiful wide white wall tires. Unfortunately, these bias ply tires were from the 1970’s and for safety reasons needed to be replaced. We looked all over for some replacement radial tires with wide white walls. After much searching, we couldn’t find any in our size so we decided on an all black set. They may not have the same look as the original but the ride is awesome!  This winter we will replace the fuel tank and sending unit as well as install a new front crankshaft seal and wire in a cutoff switch for the battery.

So that’s the story on Jenny. We have also met a lot of new people with the car, including our friends at the BMAPEI club. We look forward to many more years of driving (and working on) our MGB63.

So why the name Jenny? That’s in memory of Heidi’s mother, whose family just happens to be from England.

Cheers!

Heidi & Rob Litke