Profile – Larry Pittman

Vice Chairman
Larry Pittman
Phone: (810) 348-9318
Email

Hi everyone. I’m Larry Pittman, NAMGAR’s Vice Chairman. I’ve been in this position for NAMGAR since 2017 although I took a “break” while Dennis Urick was Vice Chairman. During his time in the position, I continued to fill in as needed at recent GTs since Dennis was unable to travel.

I live in Fenton, Michigan and belong to our local NAMGAR chapter, the Michigan Rowdies. I lost Mitzi, the love of my life, in 2022 due to Pulmonary Hypertension. I still haven’t gotten over that but carry on the best I can. Helping with that are my 5 children and 6 grandchildren. All our children are located in Michigan, too, except for our youngest son who’s living in the Denver, CO, area. I’m an army brat so I lived in a number of places while growing up. I was born in Ft. Warren, WY, but both of my parents were born & raised in Paoli, IN. We’d go visit there while I was growing up and we did live there for a short time. Mitzi grew up in Springville, NY, south of Buffalo. I went to school at Missouri University of Science & Technology and eventually graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Most of my working career was spent with General Motors – my first assignment was with a GM division in northeast Ohio. I was transferred to Michigan in 1984. I retired in 2008 but have plenty to keep me busy.

I purchased my first car, an MGA, for $325 when I was 21. I bought it in Paoli, IN, during one of our visits there. I didn’t manage to hang onto the car for long. At the time, I was still at Missouri S&T but took a “co-op” assignment with Xerox Corp in Rochester, NY, in the winter of ’68-’69. The winter there was far beyond what I was used to and I had lots of trouble with the ‘A’ including both getting it started in the mornings and staying warm on the way to and from work (the heater – you all understand). I finally gave up and talked my father into taking the car for the rest of the winter while he loaned me a “spare” car. Anyway, my brother ended up with the car and he managed to run it into a tree. Although my Dad did manage to bring the car back to life, I never really had the car as my daily driver again. My Dad was always one to work on his own car, so I picked up lots of the basic automotive maintenance skills from him.

And, somehow, I was still fond of that ‘A’ I’d had. I’ve always had an interest in cars and my work at GM kept that interest alive. During that time, I often had thoughts of restoring an older car. However, life and lack of excess funds held that thought at bay for most of my working years. It wasn’t until after I retired from GM and began work as a contract engineer for several years that I was able to purchase a restoration project, a 1958 MGA. At the time, I was spending a lot of time building and flying radio controlled airplanes, something I still do, but not nearly as often as I did before the MG’s came into my life. Turns out the MGA was sitting in the barn of one of my radio control club buddies. I’d never asked to take a look at the car and actually thought he had an MGB back there. But when I found out it was an MGA, it didn’t take me long to bring it home. Even with the problems I’d had with my first one, it sure fit the bill of being a restoration project. His son was a British car mechanic on the side to help with college costs – he had managed to completely disassemble it prior to his own planned restoration. As a result, it came home in boxes. They included not only MG parts, but parts from other MG’s, Triumph’s, Healey’s, and so on. Took me quite some time to figure out what parts belonged to the ‘A’ and what parts belonged to other cars. But it eventually went back together the way it should. The project took me about 3 ½ years. I even created a web site on the restoration at: http://www.larrysmga.net.

I first joined NAMGAR in 2004. We tried to drive the ‘A’ as many places as possible and have made most of the GTs since, although I now, of course, travel alone. Our first GT with the restored car was GT-33 in Seven Springs, PA. Since the completion of the MGA, I’ve purchased and restored a 1952 MG TD. That one took me 5 years to finish up. Guess I can’t help myself as I’ve now purchased a 1959 MG Magnette ZB which seems to be in decent shape except for metal rot around the entire bottom outside of the body. Not sure what the restoration timeframe will be on it as I’ve now hit the 5 year mark and it’s far from done.

As you may know, the primary role for the Vice Chairman of NAMGAR is to handle our national events including both GTs Regionals. I need all your help to fill those events. If you or your club has given some thought to hosting a GT or a Regional, then take some action. Start by giving me a call or sending an email. I and the rest of the Board can help you create and finalize “your” event.