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Simon Johnston
United Kingdom
6119 Posts |
 Posted - 01/06/2013 : 19:33:29
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From time to time there's chat here about how to encourage the next generation to take an interest in, and use, our MMM cars. So I'm pleased as punch that my younger daughter has now got the bug and accepted an invitation to be a Course Car Lady in the J2 today at the Northern Ireland Thoroughbred Sports Car Club's Cultra Hill Climb, just outside Belfast. The only other lady to rise to the challenge arrived in a Bentley. Talk about Little and Large!
http://www.tsccni.info/2013/05/20/cultra-june-1st-latest-update/
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Edited by - Simon Johnston on 01/06/2013 19:38:15 |
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Christian H
Germany
58 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2013 : 16:53:18
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Hi Simon,
Now you have posted a nice picture with probably two of the most important things of your life and you get not a single response!
Olli showed me a few pictures of your car last year and I saw it in the article in Safety Fast! a few months ago. It looks absolutely right and I particularly enjoyed the 3/4 rear view. I send a message to Olli that if I wouldnīt already have J 2330 he would have to build something very similar to your car.
I have always wanted a J2 since an early age, long before having a driving licence. And with the quite young age of 25 I took a deep breath and purchased J 2330. Now, 9 years on, I think it was the nicest and most enjoyable purchase of my live (so far!!) and I enjoy it very much, even more since Olli has done it "right". Albeit I have to confess that there were times when I couldnīt celebrate ownership...;;
Is your daughter getting the hang of driving it and enjoying it?
One has to forget most things related with modern cars or what we have got used to with modern cars. And thatīs very unusual for a girl - they are normally happy to get from A to B with their modern bubble car and simply following the little arrow on the sat nav not to get lost, even on the way home..;) And then the J2 - back to the hard roots of motoring...
I hope the lady in the Bentley would still be able to enter the M.G. - you know, the bigger the cars, the bigger the people. Itīs a good idea to keep it light - cars and otherwise...;;))
Best wishes,
Christian Höptner
Christian Hoeptner |
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Simon Johnston
United Kingdom
6119 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2013 : 18:30:14
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Hi Christian,
What a nice reply - thank you. Indeed Emily has really got the hang of driving the J2 and is enjoying it greatly. She only drove it a couple of times before taking on the Course Car role so it was pretty brave of her to have a go on her own as I wasn't around to cheer her on. In the event, the little car misbehaved and oiled its plugs, to which my response was that she clearly wasn't driving it hard enough!
Before she had her first go behind the wheel I had explained to her the black art of double declutching. And since her own car is an automatic Alfa 159, she had to practice in the van her company provides her with for site visits. But come the day of her first attempt in the J2 she got the gear changing right straightaway. I have to say I was impressed. Now she's got the bug and is planning to enter the next Ulster Vintage Car Club driving tests, and is booked to be one of the course cars at the 100th anniversary of Craigantlet Hill Climb in August. If I'm not careful I'm going to have to ask her if I can borrow it occasionally!
And you're absolutely correct - Olli got the car just "right" and I guess this is the photo you are referring to? I'd have to say it's a particular favourite of mine as well.
Insert Image: 
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Christian H
Germany
58 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2013 : 20:02:46
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Hi Simon,
Yes, thatīs the picture - wonderful! It shows the perfect proportions of a correctly adjusted J2 so well.
When being a "newcomer" or "beginner" with our cars, I think just a few basic rules of driving should be followed:
- Keep a fair distance to the car in front
- If not, leave yourself a bit of space right or left, just in case!
- More importantly, get familiar with the brakes and practice hard braking. This sounds silly, but one has get used to the strength required as we the now excellent brakes on modern cars so easy to operate, they "pamper" us.
I have kept the car original(on Olliīs advice for which I am thankful) with the 8 inch system, albeit with new drums.
The whole braking system works excellent - I can even lock wheels, but that takes 1. some strength and 2. quite some while until it happens. I practised it on a few evenings at the empty and huge car parks of our local football / fair centre. Ikea car parks or Tescoīs are also ideal for these things - when empty. Apart from a disbelieving ADAC (equivalent to RAC) man who spent his break there and left quickly in the manner "if he should break down, I will not help him..."
And:
- Use the gears freely, it is not a TDI or V6!
Itīs so good that IL 2151 is being used by two generations and therefore the interest is being kept up. There are so many wonderful cars being hidden away and just static exhibits - I donīt like that - from time to time they should be used and enjoyed.
Best wishes, also to Emily,
Christian Hoeptner |
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Cathelijne
Netherlands
744 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2013 : 22:45:08
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Good thing I try to go through life not easily offended, otherwise you'd have a problem, Chrissie ... 
Cheers,
Cat(hy)
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Simon Johnston
United Kingdom
6119 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2013 : 03:18:58
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Christian, it's actually three generations who've driven the car as my father was its original owner and took this photo of it shortly after taking delivery of it.
Insert Image: 
And one of the reasons, I believe, for the attractive proportions in many contemporary photos of our cars is that they were taken with Box Brownies with the camera held at waist level. This gives a very different perspective compared to a picture taken at eye level. I used a Sony NEX (which has a flip up rear viewing screen) at waist level when replicating my father's photo. Worked well, didn't it?
And Cat, I think in fairness Christian is broadly right. I don't think a single one of Emily's girl friends would have any interest whatsoever in driving an old car. She's very much the exception but she has received great support and encouragement from the 'oldies' in the vintage world at home who are delighted to see her interest. |
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JMH
United Kingdom
911 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2013 : 08:20:01
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Trumped by 4 generations!
Any advance ?
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Christian H
Germany
58 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2013 : 12:36:14
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Simon,
Your remark about the perspective on pictures, taken at waist level, is interesting.
I have found out the lower you are crawling around the car ( I am sure you know those things..;;), the better the proportions seem to be. If you look down on it, out of the window in 1st floor for example, it seems to be only a "handful of car".
As with many other things in live, it is just a question of perspective..;;))
It is interesting to compare the camera angle on your historic picture with the recent picture - it is almost identical - the exhaust pipe and left rear tyre are cut in the same line.
When driving our old cars, they do give so much enjoyment because the response is instantly. You feel everything how it works (or sometimes not!), nothing is "filtered" away. It is just proper, mechanical motoring. I think it is important to pass this interest in proper motoring on to the next generation or at least to get them interested in and keeping the "old-car-movement" alive.
Sometimes I would like to know what those men who constructed and built our cars would have thought if they would have known that we are still on the road with their cars 80 years later????
Christian Hoeptner |
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Simon Johnston
United Kingdom
6119 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2013 : 13:23:24
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Christian,
The trick with the perspective is to replicate not just the waist level position but also try and match the equivalent focal length of the Box Brownie lens. I actually bought one on fleaBay for just that purpose and ran a film through it and compared the results with my Sony NEX zoom lens. I found that the Brownie had a focal length approximately equivalent to 55mm on a 35mm full frame camera.
And I'm sure the guys who built our cars would be astonished at the lengths we go to for 'originality'! |
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spitfire
United Kingdom
371 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2013 : 14:34:41
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Some interesting topics raised. The car is looking as chipper as ever.
Always worth squatting down to see how perspective changes through the camera lens. Photographing children is fun if you get right down to their eye level. It seems to document their view on the world.
Fitting that your car was captured with a Bentley. Two old adversaries from the 1930s race tracks. These cars outlive us all. My daughter is twelve and has driven mine. I pick the younger boy up from school quite often, as he loves it.
Strange how the children there enthuse over a 1930s car but the parents, generally, don't know what to say.
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briang
United Kingdom
218 Posts |
Posted - 23/06/2013 : 21:19:19
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All three of my children have driven my good old J2338, but my daughter couldn't do that on May 25th, cos she was getting married... This is her, with me as chauffeur, arriving safely. I spent the next ages taking groups of squeaking kids around the field in the J, about six at a time. They loved it.
Kids like MMM cars because they have passed through the stage of being old bangers, and are now thought to be "Retro" and therefore "cool".
Brian |
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Ross Kelly
Australia
227 Posts |
Posted - 24/06/2013 : 03:25:47
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Hi All,
Photos of my future son in law Duncan in NA0860 competing in the Motorkhana at this years Australian MG National Meeting. Skye and Duncan with K0411 as their wedding car in country Victoria a short time later.
cheers
ross kelly
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