My first acquaintance with MG was rather sad. When I was
still at school, I envied a friend who had been given a 1947 TC for his
birthday, but before I had chance to drive it or have a ride in it he had
crashed it, driving at night into the wreckage of an accident and adding to the
debris. The lights simply weren’t good enough, he explained later. He wasn’t
hurt, but it didn’t do the car much good. The other disaster came soon after my
arrival in London to start working on The Auto car. Another friend had
purchased a 1932 MG Midget on hire purchase but defaulted on the payments.
Having moved from Knightsbridge to Bays water he hoped that the hire purchase
company wouldn’t be able to trace him, but one evening we were greeted with:
“Mr Dixon, the police have been.” The next night the bailiffs arrived to take
it away.
Auto Show MG 1962
September 1955 saw the arrival of the new Model MGA, derived
from the EX182 which had raced successfully at Le Mans. It had a 1.5 litre
engine and I, like many others, loved the shape of it with the radiator sloping
back towards the bonnet, but disappointments were the untidy hood arrangement
with clip on side screens. Performance was reasonable for the time when it was
launched, with a top speed only just short of 100mph and acceleration to 60mph
in 15.6 sec.
In July that year we had been able to test one of the
surprisingly standard looking Le Mans racers, now with a proper windscreen in
place of the single Perspex one which had been used for the race. I was still
struggling for a place on the Road Test team, and was glad to be told to get
EX182 weighed at the local weighbridge an exciting adventure and I don’t think
I took the most direct route either there or back!
B Sting
Seven years later I was very excited when the new MGB was
announced. It was just in time for my honeymoon, but the request for a long
loan was rejected. “You want it for how long? Every motoring writer is
screaming to get their hands on it. But we could let you have an Austin Healey 3000.”
One of the first jobs I had to do on return from my three week honeymoon trip to
Portugal was the Road Test of the new MGB, published in the October 1962 Motor
Show issue. I remember being tremendously impressed at the way, in spite of
having a live rear axle, it swallowed up the rotten surface of one of my
favourite test routes, the Fosse Way. The new MG had graduated to a larger
engine, still with pushrod valve gear, but capacity of 1798cc and power
increased to 95bhp gave it a top speed of 103mph, and the acceleration time to
60mph came down to12.2 sec.
MG-TF Cool Blue
Side View
I thought its appearance was so much better than the MGA,
now with a curved windscreen and wind up side windows, and in 1963 I tried
again for a long loan. “Where to this time?” I was asked, and they didn’t fl
inch when I said “Greece.” A big advantage was the introduction of Lay cock
overdrive working on third and top gears, accounting for economy much improved,
often giving up to 32mpg.
MG Detailing
Engine
MG had kindly fitted a luggage rack to the top of the boot,
which I used to carry the spare wheel with our tent on top of it. This gave
much more room in the boot for all our equipment for a three week camping
holiday and it was to great credit of the B that the only problem suffered with
the car was fracture of the exhaust mounting brackets in exactly the same way
as had happened with the Healey in Portugal the previous year! The rubber
supports had torn through, so wire nicked from various fences had to be used to
hold the exhaust up. We drove out through what was then Yugoslavia and back by
ferry to Brindisi and through Rome, where some possessions were stolen from the
car, and France. Total mileage was just over 4000, and overall fuel consumption
was a good 28.8mpg.
Only four years later I had the pleasure of driving to
Abingdon the first time I had been to the MG works there and was given a
thorough briefing on the new MG to be called the MGC, with six cylinder 3 litre
engine, by MG enthusiast and historian F. Wilson McComb. The engine was derived
from the unit which powered the Austin Healey 3000, but was smoother, having a
seven main bearing crankshaft. Power was still 150bhp, but it was never a sporty
engine and the extra weight on the front wheels made it a much more nose heavy
car. A power bulge at the front of the bonnet allowed clearance for the larger
engine, a useful recognition point, and Borg Warner automatic transmission
became optional.
