Matt and Mark in assembly with the MGB Berlinette
Matt and Mark were tasked with looking after the MGB based Jacques Coune Berlinette owned by Bob Ridgard (of Ridgard Race Seats) at this years revival meeting. The car is one of 56 Coupe bodied MGBs built by the Belgian coachbuilders in the early sixties, pre dating the B-GT by several years. Only 12 cars are believed to have survived, not all in roadworthy condition, and this is the only example to have ever been raced and as such is unique!
The car had been prepared by another company and was late arriving at Goodwood as the work ran over schedule. we were all less than impressed to then discover that several components were ‘loose’ on their mountings in the engine bay and decided to go round the whole car to make sure everything was tightened!
After Fridays practice Bob reported that the handling was much improved over it’s last outing at Silverstone earlier in the year but that the fuel starvation problem was still there despite the work that had been done. Matt and Mark checked the fuel system and carb and found a couple of problems that, if we were in the workshop, would have been easy to fix but unfortunately there was little we could do at the circuit.
The car ran better in the race but the fuel issue meant that Bob wasn’t able to exploit the improved handling as much as he’d hoped and felt that we should have finished further up the field!
Despite the slightly disappointing result the whole weekend was judged a success as the car was very well received by the Goodwood crowds, Particularly by the son of the original builder, Olivier Coune, who happened to be at the meeting as a guest of one of the sponsors.
