CALL OF DUTY

1977 MG MIDGET 1500

‘PCB has been extremely affable of late, putting up with periods of inactivity punctuated by sudden bursts of fizzing enthusiasm from its thoroughly unreasonable owner.’

So began my report on PCB’s trip to Classics on the Green near Rickmansworth with the rest of the CCW Massive back in early August. And you can almost hear the relief in my voice, because the trip wasn’t quite as relaxed as I made it out to be.

Why? Well, it involved a long, high-speed return schlep on the A1 (including huge tailbacks at the Black Cat roundabout on the return journey), its first encounter with rush-hour M25 traffic in my ownership

(in its entire life, for all I know), hilariously changeable weather and a heart-stopping few seconds on a baking hot petrol station forecourt somewhere near Baldock when I really didn’t think it was going to start. Oh, and my long drive home was entirely solo, apart from the moment when Chris’ TR7 blasted past me at Mach 2.

And yet – brief fuel percolation fright aside – it did everything I asked of it and delivered what must surely rate as one of the best long-haul cruises I’ve ever had in it.

And how did I repay it? How did I reward this sterling performance? By reversing it into the garage at home and then spending the rest of summer clucking over the misbehaving MGF like an over-protective mother hen.

It’s still in there now as I write this – I can almost feel its simmering resentment…