Event Recap: Gathering of the Faithful South Mk LII

Written by Brian Collins

 “Gathering of the Faithful” (GOF) was coined in 1965 by the late Frank Churchill of the New England MG T Register as an event for MG owners to gather and meet other faithful MG owners. Typically, GOF’s are a weekend long event that feature tech seminars, driving events, and car shows. Last weekend Ceres Motorsports joined 200 MG owners to attend the Gathering of the Faithful South Mk LII at the Hilton in Altamonte Springs, FL. This year’s GOF-South was hosted by the Classic MG Club, a large and active MG club based out of Orlando, FL that began in 1963. As you can already tell, the MG roots run deep with this crowd and their event is easily one of the best in the area. We couldn't miss it!
 
This year we were invited to present a tech seminar on MG Performance alongside Hap Waldrop, owner of Acme Speed Shop. It was a huge honor to speak at the seminar and we were glad to have finally met Hap in person. If you aren’t familiar with his work, Acme Speed Shop builds top notch race and street engines for both MG’s and Triumphs. They’re also known for cylinder head porting as well as do-it-yourself engine rebuild kits. If you get a moment, check out their website at www.acmespeedshop.com.
 
Our seminar was a little over an hour long and focused on improving performance for MG street cars. We didn’t necessarily focus on extreme modifications (like our turbocharged MGB project) but instead reviewed some important performance topics for street cars- ignition, carburetors, exhaust, wheels, tires, and a few more. We were asked a lot of great questions from attendees too. It was wonderful seeing how many people wanted to keep their cars running optimally for frequent use on the open road.

There were also a few car shows held throughout the GOF-South. What I love the most about these shows is that not all the cars are show cars. There's a large mixture of project cars, modified cars, daily drivers, and race cars to go along with the typical restorations. It's a really welcoming event for all MG owners- no matter what condition their car is in. Somebody had even brought their rolling MGTF chassis to show off their recent 5-speed T9 gearbox swap. 

It's actually a little difficult to summarize this event in one article since there were so many fun things going on all weekend. Plenty of driving tours around Orlando, an awards banquet, etc. Overall, this was a very fun weekend for us. We're really looking forward to the next GOF. If you've never been to one and are interested in checking one out- do it! If we got to see you at this year's GOF-South, we look forward to seeing you again next time!