As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I missed The Vintage this year, something I’ve only done twice before since 2010 (in 2012 I had a kidney stone, and in 2023 Maire Anne had a cardiac appointment as part of the on-ramp to major surgery). This time, it was because a dear 84-year old cousin with slow-moving lung cancer told me and Maire Anne that she thought she had one more big trip left in her and wanted us to go to Spain with her, so Spain it was. I can’t say that while I was wandering the ancient narrow streets of Seville, I was thinking of dodging the trucks while driving down I-71 yet one more time, but as the photos of The Vintage began showing up in my Facebook feed, I did have pangs of wishing that I could be in two places at once.
(One quick car-related thing about Spain. As we spent most of our time in pedestrian-packed car-free old city centers of places like Seville and “the white villages” of Andalusia, it wasn’t a place to do a lot of Euro car peeking. However, this crossover EV that wore an MG badge had me ponying up 10 bucks for the global pass to Xfinity cellular so I could look it up. It’s the MG4 electric vehicle from the Chinese manufacturer SAIC (not the SAIC I used to work for detecting unexploded shells on old military training ranges). I realize that every car on the road is now a rolling computer network that also doubles as transportation, but the idea of reviving these old Lucas-wired British roadster marques as not just SUV brands but electric SUV brands strikes me as bizarre. What marketing department in their right mind thinks “What logo can we slap on this new electric SUV that connotes all-weather performance and electrical reliability? Oh, I know! MG!” But I digress.)
Wait, what?
As you may recall, last summer I sold the Bavaria—which had been to The Vintage in 2014 (the year of the legendary Paul Wegweiser feathering episode), 2015, and 2024—to my friends Jim and Susan Strickland. It did my heart good knowing that the car made it back to their home state of Alabama after the sale, and then up to The Vintage, both without a hiccup. I allowed myself to feel that my care and maintenance played a part in that. And I absolutely loved seeing the photographs of Jim showing off the multiple places where Paul’s feathers are still in the car.
The Bavaria at a scenic overlook on the way to Maggie Valley. (Susan Strickland)
Feathers still in the tool tray. (Susan Strickland)
And feathers still inside the left rear hubcap. (Susan Strickland)
Similarly, although it was tough decision selling Sharkie, my ’79 Euro 635CSi, the new owners—Grove Teates and his father Noah—are thrilled to have it, and it made it down to Virginia without event last fall (well, after the battery died in my driveway as they were leaving). Grove contacted me last week while he was performing some last-minute troubleshooting of neither the heat-and-fresh-air blower fan nor the a/c evaporator fan coming on. He’s young but apparently fearless, and texted me a pic of the temperature control panel pulled out, saying that the problem seemed to be the rotary fan-speed switch. Remote diagnosis is always tricky, as I can say things like “Well, I’ve never had to replace one of those switches, so I’d bet that the problem is elsewhere” when I’m not actually the one with his hands into things, but Grove seemed to know his way around a voltmeter. I uploaded him a folder with every photo I had from the retrofit of the a/c into the car a decade ago. About half an hour later, he messaged me saying “”Okay, I think you were right. Did some more diagnosis with the panel out of the car, and I think the issue was a relay in the fuse box, meaning I tested it wrong the first time.” Later, “Just swapped it, blows hot and cold now. Thanks again for your help, super excited to get the car back to having a/c again!”
After the trip. Grove texted me “We just made it back from The Vintage today, and the car ran perfectly all the way there and back, over 1300 miles including some trips down The Rattler. Thank you so much for your help with the a/c. It was extremely useful. And I’m so happy with how the car is running!” So Sharkie, who was at The Vintage in 2018 and 2021, can now add Vintage 2026 to his resume, and trips down The Rattler in Tennessee to boot. He’s probably thinking he won the lottery getting out from Old Rob’s warehouse in Monson and actually having fun.
Sharkie getting fueled up somewhere between Virginia and NC. (Grove Teates)
Sharkie struttin’ it at Maggie Valley. Photo by Lissa Rickman, as is the cover pic of the Bavaria.
Grove and Sharkie about to do The Rattler. (Grove Teates)
I’ve mentioned before that Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market magazine, has a wonderful philosophy about owning and selling cars that you love. There’s a familiar cycle many of us go through. You’re entranced by a model, you study and pursue it, find one and make it your own, it’s your honey for a while and you give it everything it needs, and you take it on road trips. Then the romance cools, and if you’re fortunate enough to own multiple cars, it goes into the stable with the others. It’s common for some other younger horse (oh, we’re talking horses now, are we?) to take its place, and the car gets used less and less. Keith’s view is that money, space, and indeed, our lives, are finite resources, and there’s absolutely no shame or sin about selling a car that you find you’re not using. You’ll always have the memories, and those can be as good as the car (and cheaper).
While I freely admit that I used that philosophy in deciding to let go of the Bavaria and Sharkie as part of knocking the car count down from 14 to 12 last year, that doesn’t mean it was easy. They were both wonderful cars that positively shined on road trips. But they both found their way to two great sets of owners, and I absolutely loved seeing photos of them there at The Vintage. The fact that they were there almost made it okay that I wasn’t.
Plus, now I have the space to buy that electric MG SUV :^)
—Rob Siegel
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Rob’s newly-expanded book, The Best Of The Hack Mechanic™: 40 years of hacks, kluges, and assorted automotive mayhem, is available on Amazon here. His other seven books are available here on Amazon, or you can order personally-inscribed copies from Rob’s website, www.robsiegel.com/books.