In a change to our regular lunchtime activity of attempting to fix whatever we drove to work so that it can make it home again, four of us piled into James Page’s comfortable modern the other day and drove to Moss Europe to pick up some much needed parts for Clements’ MGB instead.
While he collected a bag of brake bits and Elliott took a couple of double-filament bulbs he needed for the Triumph, Page and I perused the store and inadvertently came up with a natty little game to pass the time.
You see, we noticed that the next three customers that came into the shop after us were all sporting facial growth. Beards to be precise. And while that may not be unusual in these times when a bit of hair is de rigueur for the fashion conscious, we decided to draw upon our extensive experience of classic car owners and try and match the beard to the car.
We decided unanimously that the first chap was without doubt an MGB owner. Of course, with Moss being a prime venue for parts for classic British cars we had a head start because the chances of him rocking up in a Porsche 356 or Alfa Romeo were fairly limited, yet there was something about his white whiskers that shouted MG.
It wasn’t particularly long but it was more than stubble; it had obviously been trimmed, but not with sharp, sartorial elegance – more trimmed in the way that you would your hedge: remove the obvious straggly growth and just keep the rest in check.
