TC3616 (LS 4593)
John Crook has fond memories of his 1946 MG TC (reg. LS 4593) which he owned between 1965 and 1970 and would love to know about it now.
He was an 18 year old Mechanical Engineering university student and this was his every day car for 5 years. He purchased it for £35! with a seized engine, which he completely overhauled. It then provided enjoyable transport for the next 40,000 miles and through his ‘courting years’. The car only let him down once when an oil pipe broke and oil pressure was lost. The MG was upgraded with 16” wheels, front telescopic dampers and sealed beam headlight conversion.
Sadly he had to sell the car to pay the deposit on a house. It was sold for £200, which was a fair price in 1970.
Last year he contacted the buyer (Richard Longdon) who paid him £200 all those years ago and he told him that he sold it to a chap in USA sometime in the 1970s.
The photo was taken in 1968 and is but one of a number in John’s collection.
TD0628 (was Danish registration EA 5772)
Franz Zammit Haber in Malta is trying to trace the history of his early TD. Franz acquired the car from The Netherlands but the seller had no history of the car. It came with a Danish registration number EA 5772, is a right hand drive car and has definitely undergone a thorough restoration some years ago.
The photo of the TD with a Spitfire Mark IX in the background was taken at the aviation museum at Ta’ Qali, limits of Rabat Malta.
GAD 518 (TC1601)
Following publication of the cutaway illustration and the comments in the editorial of Issue 32, the following has been received from Michael Capps:
“I owned this car as a penniless student in the late 60s. While working for a while at a local garage serving petrol, a regular came in weekly in an MG TD and noticed my TC and obviously we enjoyed chatting about MGs. After a few weeks he announced that he was emigrating to Australia and did I want first refusal on the TD. I thought it was a step up and agreed to purchase it for £200. I sold the TC for £190 to someone who wanted it for his daughter even though she did not appear in the least bit interested during the sale negotiation. Wish I had had funds to have kept the TC. The TD was used until family arrived and then placed in the garage for resuscitation later…..usual story! I still have the car but still off the road but bought a MGTF 1500 1955 a few years ago to enjoy MG motoring etc. Also have a MGBGT for winter use when the TF is in the garage avoiding the road salt. If the present owner of GAD 518 wishes to make contact I will be happy to recount my experiences of ownership.”
TC0928
Serge Faugeron, who lives in France, is trying to trace the history of his TC. He bought it in England in 2008 from Barry Walker with a small history file which indicated that there were three previous Swiss owners (presumably the car left England, bound for Switzerland at an earlier stage of its life) before it came back to England and was sold and went back out to Switzerland.
The first of the Swiss owners was Mr Josef Schuchter who is now a well known boat builder in Switzerland. A photo of the car when it was in his ownership is below.
The car then passed into the ownership of Mr Rudolf Werenfels who restored it in 1985/86, painting it cream with green upholstery.
Mr Urs Langen then acquired the car and afterwards it returned to England and was registered 664XUH before leaving England and being registered by Serge in France as 7030 KM 46.
TC0714
Wiel Claessen from the Netherlands is trying to trace the history of his TC. He bought the car from a Dutch trader in 1999; the trader had previously imported the car from the USA in 1998.
The TC had originally started out in life in the UK with registration mark KPE 213, a Surrey County Council number. Unfortunately, while the Kithead Trust hold some records for Surrey County Council, they cannot help with KPE 213.
Wiel found some details of a New Jersey registration from 1996 (EL334C) in the car with the owner listed as Stephen A Schwartz, 84 Candebrook Rd, Short Hills NJ07078 but he hasn’t been able to trace this former owner.
TD27454 (UK registration mark FSD 10)
Dan Shockey from Scotts Valley, California is looking for past history of his TD, a Home Market car, shipped to the US in 1979. Originally registered FSD 10, an Ayrshire County Council registration, we have drawn a blank because all the Ayrshire records have been destroyed.
MG TA registration mark GYG 878
Does anybody recognise this TA, thought to carry the registration mark GYG 878? ‘YG’ was first issued by the Yorkshire West Riding Licensing Authority in 1938. The photograph was shown to Adrian Moore of the ‘Finishing Touch Bodyshop’ in Weston-Super-Mare by an old chap who hailed from Sheffield and who said that the car was first sold through a dealership called Keenan / Sheffield.
Perhaps this is a sales negotiation taking place in a dealer’s yard?
