MGB Trip Report No.1 (Bonn to Santander)

With just under 1600km I finished the first half of my trip in the MGB. And I couldn’t be happier about the decision to have taken this journey. While working out a route over the course for the last couple weeks, I went back and forth on if I should takeba fast route including motorways or maybe the shortest path possible – over many backroads.

For the first 700km to Châteauroux  I decided to avoid motorways as much as possible. Although I know many of the smaller roads in the Eifel – it only took 30km until I was on “my uncharted territory”. In Germany “Bundesstraßen” (Federal Roads) are numbered with a B prefix. Max allowed speed is 100kmh. But what is certainly more fun to drive is “L” roads. These usually have less traffic – sometimes  questionable tarmac conditions – and wind through the smallest villages and beautiful countryside.

I passed so many unbelievable nice and historic buildings and places which I never saw before – and you loose track of time and distance travelled because it is an so engaging drive. Passing to Belgium the “green border” – on a fantastic forest road –  the roads continued to be just made for a tour in a classic car. On a short stop in Bastnach(Belgium) a small group of people gathered around the MGB when I parked in front of a Café in the city centre. They took some pictures and we had a coffee together standing at the car. Two older men shared stories about their youth when they drove a Mini and MGB in a language mix between German, French and English. Experiences like this are cannot be bought for money.

After 11 hours and 700km I arrived at Châteauroux. On Friday I started on the motorway to cover some distance and the MGB performed really well. Average fuel consumption was around 9.5l per 100km – I am glad I had the Weber tuned at VGS before the trip. On long trips like this, the 60l touring fuel tank is also helpful – an upgrade I will add to the 1973 GT as well.

My hotel in Bilbao was in der city centre – and right in front of it, I hit the ground with the flange of the exhaust. I was extremely worried that this damaged the manifold I just had welded, but I ended up only having a bit of blow out at the flange. Exhaust sealant on the gasket fixed this in a few minutes.

My daughter and I toured the entire Cantabria coast line and a number of mountain roads – which are a blast to drive. Before I boarded the ferry to Plymouth today, I also checked valve clearance again (next to the daily fluid and air checks). I was concerned that this might be an issue again – but it was ok. All spark plugs have an light brown color – perfectt. The next 1600km back home shouldn’t be an issue.