Send Me your Auto-Biography! What Cars Have Been Important in Your Life, and Why?

Hi Folks -- in my history of the American automobile classes I usually start out by asking students to write me an "Auto-Biography." Put simply, that is an essay on the cars that have been the most memorable in your life, and precisely why they are so significant as you look back in time. So I am going to start with my own Auto-Biography, at least the first installment. You can get a sense of what I am thinking here by reading the "Epilogue" in my book, The Automobile and American Life, available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. If you send me your Auto-Biography at john.heitmann@notes.udayton.edu I will publish it on this blog.



My first car, purchased for $625 in 1966 while a senior in high school, was a 1959 MGA roadster. It was a car that was restored by a couple, the man doing the engine and body work, the woman the interior, and it was black with a red interior. It looked great, and ran fairly well, but it did burn some oil, especially noticeable on start up and after the car 's engine got hot, indicating bearing wear. But there was nothing like driving it with the top down on warm summer nights that first summer after high school graduation. It established me once and for all as a top down guy. It certainly needed more maintenance than I was capable of at the time, and the side curtains needed replacing after a few months, but it was a car that never let me down, except once, and only after I had tried to change the points and neglected to put back every little washer that was supposed to be in the distributor. it was then that my father had to tow the shiny MGA with his 1962 brown Chevy Nova.

I had some good times with driving around with girls, but remained a rather shy and reserved young man, more comfortable with books than with girls. It certainly did not transform me in terms of being a social animal, but it did set a course that took me to the writing of my auto history book. Every time I see an MGA I think back to that summer of 1966, before I encountered the trials and tribulations of life. My trials were in terms of still living at home, getting enough money for gas, getting to work on my summer job in Niagara Falls, and overcoming a lack of confidence when around those of the opposite sex.

When I went to Davidson College I sold that MGA to a former high school friend, and the last I saw of it was on a village road with what looked like a broken rear spring. Undoubtedly it rusted to pieces, but perhaps some of those pieces are keeping another MG running today.

The MGA was in production between 1955 and 1962, replacing the traditionally designed MG-T cars, the most famous of which was the MG-TC. It was introduced at the at the 1955 Frankfurt Auto Show, and by the time production ended in July 1962 some 101,081 units were assembled. Most MGAs were exported, with only 5869 cars sold in Great Britain. It was thus a great success for BMC, and for a national economy still reeling after World War II.

In 1952 when MG designer Syd Enever created a streamlined body for George Philips' MG TD, slated to run at Lemans. Initially the design featured a high driver seating because of the use of the TD chassis. Consequently, a new chassis was designed with the side members further apart and the floor attached to the bottom rather than the top of the frame sections. The prototype based on this design was shown to the BMC chairman Leonard Lord, who initially rejected the new car, since he had just signed a deal to produce the Austin Healy. Falling sales of the MG-TD and the MG-TF 1500 models, however, caused Lord to change his mind about the radically redesigned sports car, and indeed the MGA was initially advertised as the "first of a new line." With its BMC B engine, a lower hood line was now possible. Featuring independent suspension, and rack and pinion steering, the MGA, came with either wire or steel wheels. In a 1955 road test the MGA had a top speed of 97.8 mph (157.4 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 16.0 seconds.

MGA and Car Culture:

• “Blue Hawaii” (1961, Elvis Presley & Angela Lansbury) Elvis sings from his open red 1960 MGA 1600 Mk I roadster. The car made numerous appearances in the first half of the picture, often with camera work that seemed suspiciously marketing-like, panning back to the car or putting the car under complimentary soundstage lighting. Elvis so liked the car he bought it for himself, and after changing hands once or twice, he re-acquired the vehicle, which is now at Graceland.

  

• Music Video – “Right Now” (2009). A black MGA appears alongside Akon in his video for the hip hop hit single "Right Now."

  

• Music Video – “Radar” (2009). A MGA appears in the opening sequence for the Britany Spears music video entitled " Radar.