{"id":52101,"date":"2025-08-11T22:34:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/?p=52101"},"modified":"2025-08-11T22:34:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:34:28","slug":"back-roads-july-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/back-roads-july-august-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Back Roads July\/August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Back Roads<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Dean Hickenlooper, Vice Chairman<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Summer is finally here and the driving season has begun.  I\u2019d like to be able to say that all my winter projects are done, but alas I can\u2019t.  The good news is that I have at least one MG ready to go and with the GT-50 coming up so soon and I\u2019m glad it\u2019s an MGA.<\/p>\n<p>Can\u2019t wait to make the drive up to Traverse City, Michigan.  Looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.  Although in my new position as vice chairman I\u2019m not sure how much free time I\u2019ll have to drive around to see the sites due to my new responsibilities.  I suppose time will tell, but either way it\u2019s going to be awesome!<\/p>\n<p>This time my wife Kerry and I will be driving The Red Racer, a 1960 MGA with an 1800 B engine and T9 5-speed.  The engine has a mild build up and I lowered the suspension a bit.  It has the original paint faded with a lot of patina.  When I first drove it after lowering the suspension it was terrible \u2013 rode like there was no suspension at all.  Then upon further inspection I noticed that I had only about an inch of travel before hitting the bump stops.  Well, after reducing the bump stops front and back, the ride improved greatly!  This will be the first long drive (around 330 miles one way) for the Red Racer and it should be a good break-in for the rebuilt engine.  I just hope all goes well. <\/p>\n<p>On another note, I took my freshly restored 1960 MGA Coupe out for its maiden voyate to the Chicagoland MG Club\u2019s spring tune up.  Things were going great, oil pressure up, temperature down and shifting smooth.  Arrived on time in good shape.  Received several compliments and helped other club members with their cars.  Then on the way home disaster hit and hit hard!  Next thing I knew the rear axle locked up and came to a screeching halt in the middle of a four-lane road.  Luckily, I was able to jam it into first and limp into a parking lot.  The next thing I knew I was surrounded by three or four MGs offering assistance.  After jacking up the rear wheel and removing the wheel and brake drum, I discovered that indeed the axle was stuck.  So, I got a ride with my good friend tom and then borrowed his truck and trailer (AGAIN) to go back and collect the Coupe.  Got it back home, dropped it in the driveway and will re-evaluate it after the GT-50. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s all for now.  Hope to see you at The GT-50.  <\/p>\n<p>Your Humble Servant,<br \/>\nDean Hickenlooper     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back Roads Dean Hickenlooper, Vice Chairman Summer is finally here and the driving season has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vice-chairman-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52102,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52101\/revisions\/52102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namgar.com\/NAMGARMAIN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}