MOTOR SPORT FLASHBACK

Hulme’s breakthrough

Mid May 2020 and Dash was ready for a final shakedown. Around lunchtime on a crisp autumn day, Ray called to say the MG had sailed through its WOF and was ready to get back on the open road. There’d been a scary moment when Ray first took the car for a test drive, as he’d heard an unusual noise coming from the engine bay under braking. Luckily, this turned out to be the fan catching slightly on part of the radiator housing. The addition of a spacer plate soon had that sorted.

At the time of writing, I have had the car on the road for just over a week and done a few hundred kilometres in shakedown testing. The car starts easily with full choke and warms to operating temperature quickly.

You may forgive me for thinking there’s simply nothing better than the sound of the SUS breathing deeply as you blip the throttle and change down. The handling is surprisingly taut and balanced and very predictable. I’m delighted to find it’s perfectly suited to New Zealand main roads and keeps up easily with the modern traffic. With overdrive engaged in top gear, the car will cruise all day at motorway speeds with the motor burbling at 2000–2500rpm.

I suspect that, in common with many other classic car restorations, this project is nearly finished, but not quite. I’m still adding to the list of jobs to do as time allows. These items include work on the bonnet and tailgate panel gaps, a possible LED headlamp upgrade, and the addition of rallying spotlights.

So, putting that aside, does Dash live up to his name? Caeden still thinks so — two years on from when he christened it. Not only is the car a practical and useable everyday classic with the benefit of refinements such as extra sound deadening; central locking; better cooling; and hands-free iphone connectivity; but, crucially, when you flick the overdrive switch, the B-series engine spurts into life and smacks down some definitely awesome super horsepower.