An Outing in Aptos

April 16, 2011

Vol13 No1

Over the years we MG drivers have gotten to meet Ed Browder. Ed lives in Aptos and is a wonderful MG restoration expert. He lives in a place east of Aptos up in the hills. His wife loves horses and Ed loves cars. He loves cars so much that he built a fantastic series of "car barns" to hold his treasures.

Five couples headed out on April 16th to drive up to Ed’s place and take a look at his barn full of treasures. It was about an hour drive. We were a little ways out of town when Bob Strand started to have some hic-ups so he decided to head for home. As it turned out he reported his fuel filter was pretty clogged so he felt comfortable getting back to home base.

So the rest of us, Obbink’, Martine, Spangenberg, Gibfried and Gould headed on to Aptos and up the steep and narrow road to the Browder home. It was a beautiful ride, spring green with cattle grazing along the road way. Ed and his wife had prepared a wonderful table of juice and bubbly, breakfast rolls and fresh strawberries

After everyone did meet and greet, Ed began a tour of the facility. The main garage had a work shop and a storage area. The storage area had 4 twin cam MGAs, a TC that was to be restored and two beautiful 1957 Corvettes. The walls were covered with car signs and the top of the wall was lined with old steering wheels.

Upstairs were shelves of ready to go parts all the way from fenders and bodies to brakes and wood pieces. Everything was placed in order and easy to locate.

In another part of the workshop was a work area with a beautiful MGA twin cam in the process of restoration. The shop was pristine clean with not a drop of grease or clutter anywhere. Parts bins carefully identified, towel rolls in three different locations, and the car, well we can tell you, it was something to behold.

In another garage on the property there were 3 more MGA twin cams and a beautiful Lincoln Continental. This Lincoln was one of the first ones built and it, like all other cars was in perfect shape. It was one of the early built twelve cylinder cars.

After the interesting tour, the group spent about and hour sitting in a circle and talking about cars. Don Martine was on this trip and he lent a lot of information regarding his racing experience.

As we were leaving here came a group of French MG enthusiasts so we had some conversations with them.

About noon time we headed down the hill to Aptos and the “Best British Pub In The Area” the Britannia Arms. They were all set up for us with reserved parking spots and a nice table for the group.

The weather for this ride was outstanding and the further north we went the warmer it got. Good day for a MG trip