Welcome to Issue 53 – April 2019.
MG Era Day at Brooklands is being held on 14th April. According to a friend of mine, it was originally billed as celebrating 95 years of the MG Marque. However, this was until the organisers were politely informed that the 95th Anniversary was last year as in fact, the first Raworth bodied MGs were built and sold in 1923!
In response, the organisers said that they would change their marketing material to Celebrating 95 years of MG Production, from “Old Number One” to the present day, with displays of cars through the 10 decades of MG production.”
However, “Old Number One”, FC 7900, was originally registered as a Morris Cowley Sports on 27/3/1925 with Cecil Kimber as the registered owner, i.e. it was Kimber’s own car. Therefore, if one were to celebrate 95 years of MG production from “Old Number One”, the celebration would need to take place next year.
Whichever way one looks at it, 2019 has no significance as a 95th anniversary.
MG Era day is now being billed as celebrating 10 decades of MG Production.
Why does this matter? Well, it matters for the sake of historical accuracy, particularly as the Centenary celebration in 2023 will be upon us sooner than we think. Please remember that it should be 2023, not 2023/2024 or 2024!
This year sees the 50th anniversary of the founding of the MG Octagon Car Club and the 80th anniversary of the introduction of the TB. The Octagon will be holding a celebration dinner on Saturday evening 27th April at the Arden Hotel and Leisure Club, Coventry Road, Bickenhill, SOLIHULL B92 0EH. This venue is very close to the NEC and the M6/M42 motorways. If you are a MGOCC member (lots of readers of this publication are) and would like further details, including preferential rates for an overnight stay, please send an e-mail to the office at [email protected]
The Octagon follows up with its Founder’s Weekend in May, which is based at the Oxford Spires Hotel, Abingdon Road, Oxford. The dates are 10th to 13th May and Brian Rainbow can give you all the details. Please contact Brian at brian(at)brianjrainbow.free-online.co.uk {please substitute @ for (at)}.
At the time of composing this editorial there were only a handful of rooms left at the Oxford Spires, so it would be as well to check availability.
An update on the arrangements for TB 80, which is running alongside the Founder’s weekend can be found later in this issue.
In August, the TTT 2 Tour of Mid-Wales is being held, based at the Metropole Hotel & Spa in Llandrindod Wells.
The dates are 23/24/25 August 2019 with an optional stay on the 26th. 50 rooms have been reserved of which 25 have already been booked. The booking reference is ‘Octagon Car Club’ and a £20 non-refundable deposit per person is payable on booking (Telephone number 01597 823700). The rate for guests staying for 3 nights is £80 per person per night with a 50% reduction for those staying the extra night. There is no single room supplement – up to a minimum of 6 available.
Brian Rainbow has helpfully produced the following outline guide to the routes we are likely to take:
The Saturday run of approximately 75 miles will be based around the beautiful Elan Valley. We will visit the Elan Valley Visitor Centre just outside of Rhayader, before going over the mountains, past the reservoir to a coffee stop at Devils Bridge. From there we will have a choice of various optional tours, such as a walking tour of Devils Bridge, a trip on the Vale of Rheidol railway to Aberystwyth and back, maybe a visit to the Red Kite Centre at Bwlch Nant yr Arian Forest or a trip into Aberystwyth for a stroll along the promenade, taking in the sea air! We will return to the Metropole via a visit to the old drover’s town of Tregaron and an excursion over the Abergwesyn Mountain road via the Devils Staircase. This will set you up nicely for the Saturday evening celebration dinner.
The Sunday route will be a bit longer at around 80 miles, along some lovely lanes past Abbey-Cwm-Hir Hall and on to Bwlch-y-sarnau, then via Red Lion Hill to Newtown. We then head north past Dolforwyn Castle and on to Berriew to the gorgeous Powis Castle and gardens. This lovely National Trust location has featured quite a few times recently on the BBC antiques programme Flog it and looks absolutely fabulous. We will return to the Metropole via Montgomery, skirting around Clun Forest to Felindre and back to Llandrindod Wells.
It should be a fabulous weekend of T-Type motoring in Mid-Wales.
DISCLAIMER BY THE EDITOR
Totally T-Type 2 is produced totally on a voluntary basis and is available on the website www.ttypes.org on a totally FREE basis. Its primary purpose is to help T-Type owners through articles of a technical nature and point them in the direction of recommended service and spares suppliers.
Articles are published in good faith but I cannot accept responsibility or legal liability and in respect of contents, liability is expressly disclaimed.
