This article appeared in the MG Octagon Car Club’s magazine ‘The Bulletin’ sometime back, so apologies to Octagon members who are also TTT 2 subscribers and will have seen this before. The author, Kevin Halstead asked me to publish this because he didn’t get any feedback from the ‘Bulletin’ article.
For what it is worth, my feedback is that rather than spend the money on a TD2000 I would buy another MG – but then, perhaps I have missed the point!
I am the proud owner of a 1953 MG TD who has recently purchased a TD2000. I thought you might be interested in hearing about their differences and similarities, and as I am stuck indoors due to snow I have finally got around to writing this article.
I feel both cars have their strengths and weaknesses.
You cannot get away from the fact that the MGTD is the original and therefore ‘the real thing’. Visually it looks to me just right and is probably a good investment. It is ideal for tinkering with and for going on short trips, and even long ones. The problem is practicability, sure it will get you there but it will be at a slower pace than a modern car and more likely to break down. Also the safety issue is worth considering, the brakes for example!
On the other hand the TD2000 has modern engineering and therefore is more practical, giving my wife something easy to drive with the old looks (I mean the car’s looks are old, not the wife’s!). Indeed on a recent trip to the Peak District it was easily capable of keeping up with modern traffic. However the downside is that it is not an original (but how many originals are original?). Its looks are different from the MGTD and the ride is higher.
Looks can be changed to a certain degree as I have done with my car. I have changed the indicator position so you have side lights on the wings, replaced the HORRIBLE plastic mirror with a nice chrome one and moved the rear number plate so it does not appear to be stuck on the bumper! There are other changes I would like to make if cost and getting the wife’s agreement were not an issue!
The cost factor is also worth considering: The TD2000 is £25,000-£30,000 new which I feel is a lot of money for what it is. Whereas the MG TD seems to be selling for roughly between £10,000 and £25,000, I was lucky enough to buy a second hand TD2000, 4 years old, for a lot less than £25k. The downside was that I only had the choice of one car hence that is why I have two black cars!
So there we are, I suppose it is a matter of ‘you pay your money and you take your choice’, and if you are really lucky you get to have one of each!
Could it be the TD2000 is the car MG would have built if they had carried on with production in small numbers or could nothing beat the original?
I would be very interested in hearing the views of others – please comment below.
As to the question of whether MG would have produced the TD2000 if they had carried on, I doubt it. They would have hopefully produced something akin to the Miata/Eunos. Regarding the TD2000 you are obviously having a lot of fun with it and that is what sports cars are all about. Cheers.
I agree with Paul Lester about “having … fun … with … sports cars”. You could be having fun and modern motoring with an MG F/TF which is the more modern version (which MG actually produced) of the TD; and as such is probably more acceptable by the MG fraternity than any replica. At the time, a top-notch F/TF could probably have been bought for what you paid for your TD replica, and is something to cherish. Maybe the “no comments” after the previous issue of your article was because the readers of that particular journal were just too polite.
A tale of 2 “T’s”
It does not matter to me whether or not people drive around in a T Type lookalike such as the TD in the article or any of the replica’s such as Gentry or Naylor. Please just don’t call them MG’s! As MG were starved of development money from the late 1930’s until their demise, it could well be that the MGA, MGB, etc were all we were ever going to get unfortunately. Regards, 1955 TF1500 owner.