British-made cars to ring courthouse square Saturday

A 1970 MGB owned by Rob Blubaugh will lead the pack into town on Saturday.

The British are coming! The British are coming!

If Paul Revere were to ride through the countryside to warn that the British were coming to Greencastle this Saturday, he'd doubtless be doing it from behind the wheel of a Ford or Chevy.

For the British that are coming are British-made cars -- MGs, MGBs, Midgets and possibly even a Jaguar or two.

Their 2011 Fall Colors Tours will take some 30 to 40 British automobiles on an excursion that will begin in Brazil about 10:30 a.m. and continue through Parke County (Bridgeton, Mansfield, Rocky Fork, Fallen Rock) on to Greencastle and back south and west to Reelsville, Poland and Cunot.

Hoosier MG Club spokesman Rob Blubaugh, who resides at Rensselaer and teaches at Rensselaer High School, will be leading the pack into Greencastle in his own British racing green 1970 MGB.

The most distinctive feature of the little car is its 72-spoke chrome wire wheels, "which are worth about as much as the car's worth," Blubaugh told the Banner Graphic Thursday.

The British cars will stop at the courthouse square for a 15-minute pitstop about 12:45-1 p.m. Saturday. The public is invited to check out the cars during the stop.

The car enthusiasts will then assemble under the V-1 Buzz Bomb for a typical Kodak moment.

Blubaugh, whose mother was a British war bride, said she often told stories about living in England during World War II and the terror the V-1 rockets created.

"She always said the terror came when the buzzing stopped," he said. "That meant the buzz bomb was out of fuel and would be crashing soon."

Following a stop at the Buzz Bomb, the group will head a short distance north on U.S. 231 to eat lunch at The Fairway restaurant.

The unique car caravan will also visit several local covered bridges, including Dunbar, Edna Collings, Dick Huffman and Houck bridges.

Blubaugh looks forward to a stop at Fallen Rock, long known as a hideout for the John Dillinger gang in the early 1930s, and at The Inn at DePauw in order to check out the telltale signs of the old Interurban tracks as "parallel cracks" in the asphalt in front of the hotel.

"You can see where the cracks in the asphalt make a turn as if it was coming right through the front door," Blubaugh said.