Good morning! Since Halloween is near, I decided to take another stab at finding some spooky cars. And where better to look than in the backyard of the master of horror himself, Stephen King? I aimed my browser at Maine and found a couple of convertibles that are bound to keep you up at night.
Yesterday’s cars weren’t all that scary, unless you fear being strangled by a robotic seat belt. I guess I’m not surprised that the Integra won; people love those things. I had a bad experience with one, but it was more to do with circumstance and a bad deal than with the car itself, but I guess I can see why they’re so popular.
Me, I’d rather have the little 323, though. I just love the BG platform, and I’ve long been a fan of Mazda’s manual shifter feel. And there’s something really appealing about that generation of 323’s slightly dumpy styling, like it’s not even trying to be cool and it doesn’t care what you think. I admire that.
Now then: I don’t know about any of you, but I feel like my pop-culture upbringing was in large part defined by horror. Forget John Hughes; I was all about John Carpenter. I grew up watching cheesy old horror movies with Son of Svengoolie on WFLD in Chicago, talking older friends and cousins into taking me to see Freddy and Jason movies, and of course, raiding my mom’s shelf of Stephen King novels.
I’ve been a gearhead for even longer than I’ve been a horror fan, and I picked up on something early on in my explorations of Stephen King’s work: there are a lot of cars in there. I mean, there’s Christine, of course, but mechanical difficulties with cars are plot points in both The Shining, and, more substantially, Cujo. A car that acts as an interdimensional portal is the basis for the underrated From A Buick 8. Not to mention short stories like “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” “Dolan’s Cadillac,” “Trucks,” “Uncle Otto’s Truck,” “The Road Virus Heads North,” and some others I’m probably forgetting. I can draw only one conclusion from this: Stephen King is a bit of a car guy. If I ever meet him, I intend to ask him if I’m right.
It’s only fitting, then, that we celebrate spooky season with a couple of scary sports cars for sale in Maine. Cover your eyes and peek through your fingers; let’s take a look.
1978 MG Midget – $3,200
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter overhead valve inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Brooks, ME
Odometer reading: 82,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
“This is the way the world ends,” wrote T.S. Eliot, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” He could have been talking about British Leyland, the massive conglomerate formed when the already bloated British Motor Holdings merged with Leyland Motors in 1968. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but by 1978 when this poor MG Midget staggered off the assembly line, half of British Leyland’s brands were dead or dying, labor strikes were the rule rather than the exception, and quality control was a lip-service idea at best.
Worse, the Midget’s original Austin A-series engine, a defining part of its character since 1961, had been replaced by a Triumph engine, the same 1493 cubic centimeter engine as the Triumph Spitfire. In Britain, that meant a bump in power and performance, but here in the US, the smog-strangled Triumph engine made all of fifty horsepower. This one may do a little better; it looks like its Zenith-Stromberg carb has been replaced with a Weber DGV, but it’s still a low-compression malaise-era lump. The good news is that it runs well.
It looks a little tired inside, but intact. If you want to freshen it up, everything you could possibly need is still available. That’s the nice thing about British sports cars, for now anyway: they have a loyal enough following to keep them going, even a generally unloved late-model Midget like this. Be warned, though; “Midget” isn’t just a clever name. This car is tiny. The seller says “If you’re tall or large this isn’t for you.” No kidding.
The paint on it isn’t great, but the top is in good shape, and it looks like it has escaped the tin worm. Several under-car photos are included in the ad, and they all look rust-free. It does have those giant rubber 5 MPH bumpers, which somehow look even worse on the Midget than they do on an MGB, and someone has added that gigantic chin spoiler to the front, which isn’t helping. The good news is that it’s far easier to de-rubber-bumper a Midget than it is an MGB, and they look pretty sharp without them.
2000 BMW Z3 – $3,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.3-liter dual overhead cam inline 6, five-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Portland, ME
Odometer reading: 171,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well, but has a check-engine light
Little convertible sports cars fell out of fashion after MG and Triumph collapsed and Fiat abandoned the US market, but they never did quite disappear completely. Alfa Romeo kept the flame alive until a new generation of roadsters appeared a decade later, including the Mazda Miata, Lotus Elan, Porsche Boxster, and this car, the BMW Z3.
The Z3 debuted with a 1.9 liter four-cylinder engine, but BMW soon got wise and realized that the one thing that could distinguish it from the Miata was its legendary inline six. Sadly, this one is missing one item critical to the success of any sports car: a clutch pedal. Yep, some damn fool ordered this car with an automatic transmission, a GM-sourced five-speed gearbox. I mean, it works, but an automatic is a sin in any BMW smaller than a 7 Series, in my book. In a roadster, it’s just plain silly. It does run well, but the check-engine light is on for bad oxygen sensors. New sensors are included; not sure why the seller doesn’t just install them and be done with it. Plausible deniability in case the problem is actually more serious, I suppose.
The interior is a little rough around the edges: there’s a split seam in the passenger’s seat, and it looks like the door panels need some attention. And I do wish people would take the trouble to vacuum cars before photographing them for sale. It just makes it look so grubby with all that crud on the floor.
It does look good outside. The paint is still shiny, and there’s no sign of any rust. Best to check underneath, though; I don’t know if Maine uses salt on the roads or not, but with 171,000 miles on the clock, it’s a good bet this car has been driven in the winter at some point. And there’s no clear photo in the ad of the car with the top up, so it’s hard to say what sort of shape it’s in.
There are more frightening cars out there, of course, but either of these two will give you more to worry about than a Miata would. One is a British car from the ’70s, and the other is a turn-of-the-millennium BMW, after all. You’re in for some heartache and misery either way. But you’re also in for the wonderful sensation that is open-air motoring on a nice day. Which one is worth the trouble?
(Image credits: sellers)
Was that chin spoiler called the Hapsburg?
To me, the scariest thing about both is that they both have K&N style air “filters”, sucking their intake air straight from behind the radiator in the hot engine compartment.
It’s sort of forgivable on the MG because we didn’t know better back then, and installing a Weber there typically leaves you to find your own filter solution. But it’s the dumbest possible mod you can do on a modern car.
At least with the BMW, you could source a proper air filter and intake tract to get it back to stock. With the MG, even if you get a proper filter onto the carburetor, you’re still drawing from behind the radiator unless you make something from scratch.
In the MG, and most any other Olde Britishe Crockes like my Spitfire, it just doesn’t matter. They never had any sort of meaningful cold air intake to start with, and other than sitting stopped at idle, the airflow through the engine compartment means it’s not going to be particularly hotter than ambient air anyway (and a 50hp engine isn’t putting much heat out either). For my Spitfire (and of course, the MG has a Triumph motor), the stock air cleaner assembly is horribly restrictive and pulls air from basically the same location anyway. And then there are the availability issues – my car actually has a much earlier 1296cc dual-carb motor, the stock air filter assembly bits for which are basically $$$ polished unobtanium at this point even if I wanted to go back to stock.
On a modern car it’s largely stupid and just makes more noise. Plus oiled filters and modern engine sensors are not a good combination…
When I had Spitfires, I had a couple spare hoods and cut an intake into one of the beat up ones.
I know modern intakes draw cold air largely for economy and emissions reasons. Cool, dense air expands more in the cylinder when heated.
I didn’t notice more power or mileage, but thought it idled better, and made a difference in smoothness and predictability on the Spitfire.
Sitting at idle, when the air is largely stagnant and heating up, and the engine is barely using any, is the only situation it’s ever going to make a difference on a Spitfire. Once you are moving, it likely won’t make a bit of difference.
I have a friend who is both a *serious* autocrosser and also seriously into Saab Sonetts, to the point he is probably one of the world experts in them at this point. He has a SERIOUSLY built Sonett autocrosser with an absolutely fire breathing engine. And he is also a credentialed mechanical engineer. That beast does NOT have a cold-air intake or holes in the hood or anything else other than free-flowing filters on the carbs. He did the math and figured out that it just wouldn’t make any difference once the car is moving – the engine intake alone would replace the entire air volume in the engine compartment many times per per minute under load, never mind the effects of airflow.
Anything you redneck engineer yourself is as likely to hurt as help.
It’s an undeniable fact that cold air expands more when heated in combustion, resulting in greater volumetric efficiency. It’s why modern cars all have intakes that start near the grille and go over or to the side of the radiator. They don’t do this because it’s cheaper. Air that goes through the radiator is always warmer than air that doesn’t.
I’ll trust all of Detroit, Japan and Europe’s engineers over one “redneck” autocrossing a Sonett no matter how qualified or skilled. Especially if it’s something that autocrosser didn’t actually implement and carefully test.
It’s like people who insist that a K&N sitting on the exhaust manifold is better than a stock filter sucking from the bumper because there’s “less restriction”. It’s not something properly tested and documented. There’s plenty of air going through, but it’s not the cool clean air your engine does best with.
The best long term solution in a Spitfire isn’t even cutting a hole in the hood, because there are baffles that guide airflow into the radiator where you can run a partial bypass to an intake tube. You can get cold intake and keep the body panels entirely stock. But I had a trashed hood, and at the time, I liked the look of gaudy external hood scoops as long as they were functional.
In a modern car, where everything is designed and engineered and optimized to the nth degree, I agree with you. On these cars it just doesn’t matter enough to bother with. They didn’t have cold air intakes to start with, which seems to be what is completely and utterly escaping you. <shrug>
At last, an SBSD where voting for the BMW is the rational option, at least for Autopians above six feet tall.
We’ll take the Z3, because while getting into the Midget might not be scary, getting OUT would require a team of four and an elaborate system of pulleys and wires.
At last, an SBSD where voting for the BMW is the rational option, at least for Utopians above six feet tall.
We’ll take the Z3, because while getting into the Midget might not be scary, getting OUT would require a team of four and an elaborate system of pulleys and wires.
I don’t want either, but I at least fit in the Z3 whereas I don’t in the MG. Slushbox Z3 it is.
MG. When it breaks, at least it’ll be easy to fix.
FYI, that Weber DGV is the wrong choice, albeit the cheap one, mostly because the downdraft manifold is dreadful.. The side-draft Weber is the one you want. Or a pair of SUs.
Yeah, people who know what they’re doing rarely replace the SU carburetors in the first place. They’re a brilliant design, but take a quite a while to learn how to troubleshoot and adjust.
Throw in the fact that they were usually installed in pairs or threes that also needed to be balanced, and you get a recipe for replacement with Webers out of sheer frustration.
Agree. I had a 71 Triumph TR-6 with dual Strombergs. After rebuilding them, it took half the day to tweak them and get them in sync. Once that was done, I never had to fuss with them again.
It did annoy the hell out of one of the neighbors. Pulled up in his Caddy, “What are you doing revving that thing over and over?”
Never understood why people flip out over balancing a pair of SUs or Strombergs. It’s super easy. If they won’t sync up easily, there’s something else wrong that you need to fix first.
Probably because they don’t know about the balancing tool.
The only tool you need is your ear and a piece of heater hose. BTDT.
The balancing tool is a lot easier which is why it exists.
And yes, I’ve done both, however I didn’t find out about the tool till I had learned to use a hose.
This did not have an SU originally in the states. It had a horrible Stromberg that never worked properly from new, and wore out *quickly* due to having a steel throttle spindle turning in pot metal. But I certainly agree that the *correct* upgrade is one or two SUs.
And then send them to my buddy Tom Bryant in Maine, who will machine the carb bodies for delrin throttle spindle bushings that will last *forever*. Did that to my Spitfire’s dual SUs 20-odd years ago.
I’m pretty sure I used Tom’s services years ago, or else someone doing the same job. It made a huge difference. I hadn’t thought about that in years.
The Midget – hailing from the Desperation that was British Leyland – is relatively simple to work on and It packs a lot of fun per mile into a compact package, though unless it’s well sorted, your idyllic spin through Joyland is likely to turn into The Long Walk. The Shining exterior of the Z3 hides future Misery as these are often Needful Things that turn into The Bazaar of Bad Dreams and will strand you sooner rather than Later. The BMW is best left on the bargain back row of Salem’s Lot with the other Nightmares and Dreamscapes.
The bigger issue with the Z3, especially the four-cylinder ones, is that they are just plain boring and not at all special to drive. They just drive like a 3-series. Which is fine and all, but hardly a sports car. Might as well just get a 3-series convertible and enjoy a lot more room.
And an *automatic* Z3? <shudder>
As a previous MG owner I refuse to play this game. If you need me I’ll be upstairs hiding behind a stash of chainsaws.
Maine does in fact salt the roads. Uses a whole lotta salt. So not only is the air full of salt from the sea, but the ground is coated in it six months of year. It’s why we’re all so salty. Our blood is just 1/10th sodium.
Anyways both of these cars pictures feature snow. It hasn’t actually snowed here, unless they happen to live atop Sugarloaf. So both have likely been sitting for awhile.
The Z3 has a current inspection sticker. So either the guy knows a guy, or structurally it’s fine. Interestingly, the photos have the old inspection sticker, so it’s probably been up for about 9ish months. 3k would usually move a Z3 around, even with a slushbox. So, if I had to guess there’s probably a serious issue causing that CEL. Also should not have received a sticker with a CEL in Cumberland County, so he might know a pay-n-peel.
That MG looks like it’s in better shape minus whatever is going on with that bumper. And no one lives in Brooks under the age of like 62. So, got to imagine it’s owned by some old dude who isn’t hooning the thing around Waldo County. If the plate is current and you wanted a MG, seems like a decent deal.
So, enjoy your new Emotional Support MG.
Or the CEL has lit since the last inspection – most likely easiest explanation. And either they don’t want to deal with it, or got the codes read and it’s something expensive they don’t want to deal with.
At this point, any MG that still exists in Maine is unlikely to be FROM Maine, or has rarely to never been driven in winter. My Spitfire was sold new at the dealer in Portland in 1974, but it has never once turned a wheel in snow in it’s 50 years, and is all but completely rust free bar surface rust from leaking brake fluid on the firewall.
I agree that the MG is the way to go here. Though I would spend the money to get a MUCH better example than this one. You can’t make this one nice for what a nice one goes for. But still a lot of fun on the cheap if you can turn a wrench. Don’t even think about it if you have to pay someone to fix it. I also have two BMWs, but this one is just sad.
I’ve had more than my fair share of LBCs. Some I love, some I don’t. A rubber bumper MG is in the second category.
Shipwright’s disease is real, and every MG Midget ever built is a non-stop case.
The worst part of it is that even when a rubber bumper Midget is fixed up properly and running perfectly it’s not really that much fun compared to the work involved. Especially in modern traffic. They’re so weak and ugly.
They’re the greatest cars in the world if you like to wrench on cars and weld rust patch panels everywhere. If I’m going to all that trouble, I’m working on something better than a rubber bumper Midget from the peak of the malaise era.
If the Midget was a MkI, MkII or MkIII from 63-74 in similar condition, it would likely be the better choice. Of these two, the Z3 is the far better choice.
The act of putting a manual in that BMW is sure to be more fun than the entire ownership of the MG. Even without a manual, a Z3 is a pretty fun car.
Neither wasn’t an option, so I chose the one with the manual at least.
For educational purposes, Maine does use significant amounts of salt. Cars come from other states to Maine to die. They do have a fairly rigorous state inspection that will fail a car for any holes through any metal (bumpers, sheetmetal, floors, etc.) but some shops will pass if you just do a nice job duct taping over it so it’s a good 20 footer. Ask me how I know…
Also, most consider the “downeast” region starting further east then even Brooks. Most commonly it’s the region east of Penobscot Bay, primarily Hancock and Washington Counties. Brooks is in Waldo, and Portland is way south west in Cumberland.
All the Mainers get in here, it’s time to debate where the Midcoast ends and Downeast begins. Personally, I find Downeast starts wherever I happen to be standing, and goes east from there.
Define “northern” Maine while you are at it. When I was living in Lewiston, I felt the section between Portland and Augusta was solidly central Maine, but somewhere around Waterville you transitioned into the more northern territories, the way of life just changed in that region. Friends from the county though considered even Bangor southern Maine though…
If your power is out for 10 business days in calendar year and you have personal grievance against the Irving family. You’re officially a resident of Northern Maine.
Laughing my ass off on your description of central Maine. Maybe something having to do with Dead River too?
As someone who grew up in suburban Boston of deep Acadian descent, whenever we talked about down east it was usually about a trip through Maine and not a specific place. If you asked my family I think they would say it starts in Kittery or maybe Brunswick – anyplace with rocky coastlines and lots of coves and islands. Definitely any coast past Bar Harbor.
I’m sorry to inform you, but your family was ill informed. If we’re being real, Downeast is Ellsworth town line and east. Maybe, big maybe, I could see The Narrows Bridge and up. But they’r wrong. Midcoast is Brunswick/maybe Freeport to Ellsworth. Not Searsport though, all my homies hate Searsport. Yarmouth to Inn by the Sea is Portland. OOB to Kittery is Northern Massachusetts, ya’ll can come take back York County anytime, we won’t stop you.
Regional identity is very much a thing here. Dividing ourselves in small regional meaningless tribes is like our thing. I’m looking at you people of both the Oxford Hills and The Lakes Region. This has been a PSA in the geography of Vacationland.
I don’t see the hate on Searsport, it’s just a town you drive through. What did it ever do to hurt them?? And they better not bash Belfast, my favorite brewery is there and it’s a pretty nice little coastal town!
My wifes family is from Deer Isle, and while they likely don’t care about anyones views on Searsport, they’d likely fight you if they were excluded from “Down East”.
Searsport is the red headed step child of the Midcoast. Looks like Midcoast, smells like Midcoast. But cultural different. Little more lifted truck then Phish fans like the rest of Midcoast. I mean, they don’t even have a Co-op-what gives!
Agree with your distinctions. You forgot western Maine, which is just eastern New Hampshire. There be dragons once you stray too far from the coast…
And all of us hate “People From Away”, even though we will grudgingly take their filthy tourist money. Tim Sample said it best ” sure they should have widened the Maine Turnpike, to five lanes southbound, one lane northbound”.
And as my Great Grandmother (whose family founded what became the town of Yarmouth a few hundred years ago) once said about people from away moving to Maine and having kids – “a cat can have kittens in the oven, but that doesn’t make them biscuits”. 🙂
Though after 46 years of Maine winters, I finally smartened up, bought place in Florida, and became a “summah complaint” myself a decade ago. Lovely, lovely place, for about three months a year.
Damn, you’re like the king of Yarmouth, you could call any man, women and child “from away”. It was the Maine Dream, to be the oldest pine in forest. And you moved to Florida. Should be up at the Cumbies on route 1, talking about the town changed after the Spanish American War.
Lighten up, Francis.
I was trying to be a little bit funny – and I think I agree with Ellsworth being about the line. I do find that coastal Maine is a much different place than when I was a kid, much different than even 20 years ago – and god help you driving along the coast on a sunny summer day – traffic has gotten rather ridiculous.
Maine may have had too much success with their “Vacationland” messaging – holy crap are there a lot of tourists in Summer. Everyone I know who has been anywhere near Mt Desert Island in the summer has reported back humongous crowds – even with the now required reservations. I guess without consistent daily crossing into Nova Scotia, everyone stops at Bar Harbor – Nova Scotia seems to have very few tourists now – at least compared to what it was when the ferries ran every day 20+ years ago.
The hassle at the border has killed casual crossings. I have clients in Calais today – when I was in school in Machias 30-odd years ago Calais was a bustling place with all kinds of shopping due to the Canadians coming across. Today it is verging on a ghost town.
There are simply a lot more people today than there were 30+ years ago. The population of my hometown has well more than doubled since I was a kid, and so have all the towns around it (most of what was open fields when I was a kid are now housing developments). So the baseline of traffic is MUCH higher, and then add all the “summah complaints” on top of that. Not like the roads have expanded along with the population, Maine Turnpike widening excepted. They BADLY need to widen 295 up to Brunswick – that road is awful at rush hours and weekends now.
Heck, here at my winter digs in FL the population of the county has grown by nearly 30K in the less than a decade I have lived here. ONE housing development of houses, condos, and apartments near me has 8000 units and they are expanding it with several thousand more in a Phase II.
Being from Yarmouth originally, “northern Maine” is everything north of Freeport…
I went to college at the University of Maine at Machias – “Downeast” starts east of Ellsworth, IMHO.
I think Down East is starting from Ellsworth going NE along Route 1. I say from experience of living is Milbridge for years. When he said Down East and then it said Portland my inner benign grievances grew as Portland is a metropolis compared to anything in the “Down East”. The real Down East is a whole nother breed, case in point, please observe a relay race involving fire suits, water hoses, and slowly disintegrated cod fish:
https://youtu.be/X6qhaIA63IQ?si=i90vDSxYFxT2VORr
The BMW is definitely the spookiest, what with the higher mileage and check engine light. So I’ll go with the MG, it’ll fit in perfectly with my air-cooled Beetle. Small and underpowered.
Funny story about King’s car stories. My mom used to do this weird, intensive Bible study for years, that took a lot of her time. She stopped doing it this year to spend more time with her aging parents, but wanted to have books to read since she wouldn’t be doing the Bible study. I had her read King’s “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” and she loved it. So now instead of hours of Bible study, shes working her way through the (less gruesome) King short stories.
That sounds right. Many Bible stories are just as gruesome.
If the Z3 had a manual this would be a no-brainer. Also, the last time I sat in a Midget I fit no problem. I was a also six at the time, but let’s not get bogged down with such details.
Midget please.
Normally my motto is “just say no to rubber bumper MGs”, but I’d rather the ugly manual than the sleek slushbox.
I’m going with the Z3 this time. Why? because I know I won’t fit in the Midget. I barely fit in the MGB I just bought LOL. I also like the Z3’s body lines.
MG for me. Simple, parts generally available and don’t necessarily cost an arm and a leg, and I’m short so there’s no question I’ll fit.
And that ridiculous chin spoiler is coming off right away.
Something tells me the MG will be much cheaper to maintain.
My aunt had one of these (possibly a ’77, but the same color as this one) that I got to take to college for a couple of weeks while she was trying to sell it. From the driver’s seat, I could reach over with my right hand and without leaning over, put my palm on the top of the passenger side door. It’s probably bigger than a Kei car, but not by much – it is tiny.
The college crowd wasn’t into it, either, so she ended up keeping it. Years later I inquired about buying it only to learn it had spun a bearing in the engine and they had sold it off for a couple hundred bucks. Sad day – it would have made a great first project car.
In search of my long lost youth, of course I voted for the MG.
Despite being a very tall person I’m going with the MG. I figure there are guides out there somewhere that will explain how to fit in them with some modifications. Based on people I know with various British roadsters they aren’t too hard to work on and the parts availability is great and easy. Replace the bumpers and ditch that giant chin thing and be on your way.
I’d take the Z3. An automatic is a must with any car that size. Just have to know that it’s not “just the O2 sensors”. Because that’s never all it is.
They’re both too scary. I won’t fit in the MG, I’d look like Edd China.
And what good is a 2-seat convertible sports car with an automatic transmission?
Rich Koz is a civic treasure, when he’s gone he’ll be remembered along with Ray Rayner, Frasier Thomas, Roy Brown, and Bob Bell.
I voted for the MG.
However…
Here’s a slightly cheaper, slightly more interesting (to me, at least) metal bumper MG.
https://www.facebook.com/share/gTfMd1RYXmB1R44Y/
Pass the pipe, you’ve got the good shit. (I kid)
Ominous check engine light (sellers always say it’s an easy fix, if it is so easy, fix it and charge more), no shots of underneath, didn’t bother to Vaccum before taking pictures, run away from this car.
Neither. As a certified tall person I can’t drive either without at least major inconvenience and cringetastic awkwardness ensuing.
The BMW at least I’d be able to operate, although I wouldn’t be able to drive it with the top up without pulling a neck muscle (I know that for a fact).
As an uncertified tall guy (only when I’m sitting down), I had some hope for the BMW. That windshield seems pretty tall – or is it only a styling quirk? A Miata’s windshield header sits at my eye level.
I’m 6’2″. With only a 29″ inseam – and 300lbs on a good day, I am built like a gorilla. I fit just fine in Z3s, even with the top up. I fit a LOT better in a Spitfire than a Z3 or a Midget (good thing since I have owned one for 28 years).
I find the theory of the Z3, especially the four cylinder ones, better than the actuality. Despite a deep love of the Blue and White, I find them very, very boring to drive. They just drive like a 3-series, no sense of occasion. Boring is never an adjective I would associate with any LBC.
FWIW the Z4 sorted out the tall people problem (at least up to my height)
Voted for the Z3. My wife loves those things, and she won’t mind the autotragic. Besides, we’ve already had a MGB, and it was small enough thanks very much.
You have a nose for dilemmas.