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MG MGB Technical - Ever have a scary moment in your B?

This happened to me last Sunday driving my '73 MGB west on Hwy 401 about 9:00 pm on my way home from Wasaga Beach, Ontario.
Around Kitchener, Ontario the traffic was very heavy but moving well. A whole line of cars was turning off on an exit and I was in the right lane of 3 lanes in our direction, following them. They had to slow down a fair bit as the ramp was packed with cars, and I couldn't move over since the center lane was filled with cars passing us. No big deal, or so I thought. As we were accelerating again after the ramp lane ended, going about 55 - 60 mph, a black Ford Fusion passed us on the left and cut hard across, passing literally less than a foot in front of us. I saw it happening as he started to make his idiotic move and locked up the brakes, and if I hadn't I'm sure we would have hit his back and likely got spun around as he cut across since the MGB is so much lighter, and it would have been a disaster, possibly the end of us. Meanwhile as the idiot is cutting across he had to put his brakes on , making things worse for us, just misses a sign at the edge of the last bit of paved shoulder past the ramp, went through some gravel and gets on the ramp lane. That is the most idiotic thing I have seen in my life. He had to have seen us since he had just passed us. I laid on the horn and was flipping out. After we caught our breath my daughter, the navigator, tried to get his license no. since the ramp ran parallel to 401 for some distance, but we couldn't make it out. Too bad.
I'm from the old school. If I have missed an exit, I continue to the next exit turn around and go back, but that's just me.
I figure a couple of possibilities:
1) He missed the exit and decided to put all our lives
in danger so he wouldn't waste 10 minutes
backtracking, not only ours, but any other vehicles
that were likely to become involved if we got spun
around.
2) He is one of those aggressive nuts that shouldn't
be behind the wheel of an automobile, and was
ticked that I was in the line of slow cars in the
right lane, and didn't turn off, so he purposely
cut me off to show me a thing or two. Sadly there
are people like that, and they should be vaporized.
I always think that freeways should be safer to drive on than 2 lane roads since we are all going the same direction, and if everyone drives like a normal human being, there is no reason for there to ever be an accident. Sadly that is not the case though.
Thanks for letting me vent
Ralph
Ralph

Sorry, I should have put this in the MGB general

Ralph
Ralph

That's OK Ralph, I can quite understand the shock of the event resulting you posting somewhere other than where you intended to.

Driving today is a matter of watching what everyone else is doing, irrespective of what their indicator might be telling other road users. In the UK at least it is all about speed cameras, and as they have proliferated police patrols have decreased. I haven't seen anyone patrolling a motorway or other road for years, unless they are on their way to somewhere with the blue lights going, when all of a sudden half a dozen can appear (but be totally disinterested in driving standards).

As to scary moments, I can't say I have had any recently as I expect them. But my navigator would say different, like when I overtook two trucks and a car on a two lane road because so few poeple these days *will* overtake or leave a gap ...
Paul Hunt

Ralph,
I've had plenty of scary moments in an MG, but the one that sticks out the most in my mind was back in 1976 when I was driving my 68 B. I had just taken a hard turn into a parking garage and was in a little bit of a hurry to get out of the way of oncoming cars. As I turned I applied the brakes and they went to the floor. To make matters worse, the garage was under the street level and I continued to accelerate towards all the parked cars and the concrete walls. Fortunately, I had the sense to apply the handbrake as hard as I could and came to a stop just short of the rear of a pair of nice cars. I was so weak I almost couldn't get out of the car. I had to walk to an MG dealer, buy a master cyl kit and rebuild the M/C in the garage, in the car, with only a screwdriver, some nails and a spanner or two. To make matters worse, a nerdy guy wanted to watch me and ask questions the whole time. I finally ran him off!
Cleve

I really like MGB's, but the awful impossible things you have to occasionally do the keep them running is off-putting.
A few similiar situatins spring to mind.
peter

"the awful impossible things you have to occasionally do the keep them running is off-putting"

You jest! Have you tried maintaining a modern car? By comparison most things on an MGB are easy and the parts cheap. Reinstalling the rear crossmember, removing/replacing the heater, changing the clutch flex hose, fitting GT screen trim excluded.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 16/07/2009 and 19/07/2009

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