Welcome to Issue 67, August 2021.
I’m starting to write this editorial on 29th June. We’ve just passed our longest day in the UK (21st June) which gave us 16 hours and 38 minutes of daylight.
I was really looking forward to Pre- War Prescott on 17/18 July, but it is not to be. The latest strain (variant, mutation, or what have you) of Covid has put paid to that. The event has now been postponed to 11/12 September. I commiserate with Ian Grace who runs this event from the US. The same thing happened last year, but in postponing the event from July 2020 to September 2020, even the latter date had to be cancelled. To quote from a recent message put out by Ian “This year, unless Armageddon falls upon us, the September date WILL hold, even if all of the current restrictions remain. I am not prepared to postpone Pre-War Prescott for two years in a row.”
Derry Dickson has sold ‘Miranda’ (TC5405), thereby bringing to a close just over 70 years of T-Type motoring. Derry will understandably miss his TC, but this nonagenarian will certainly not miss crawling about underneath the car to do the servicing!
The market for our cars is pretty dire at present and has been for some time, but as Paul Martin, a presenter on Antiques Roadshow – one of my favourite TV programmes – often says …… “Quality always sells”.
This was amply demonstrated back in April when a 1953 TD sold for £40,250 via the Car & Classic auction listing. It was truly exceptional and a discerning buyer was obviously prepared to spend his money on it.
This 1949 TC is currently being advertised on the ttypes.org website for £32,250 by John Hill in Redhill, Surrey. Some folk may baulk at the price, but I’m told everything has been done on this car.
This leads me on to the subject of “barn finds” and the cost of restoring them. It’s fine if you can do much of the work yourself, but even then, a full restoration could well cost more than the car will be worth. If you have to get somebody else to do the work for you, then the cost multiplies.
“It’s not about money!”, I hear you say, and I would be the first to agree. I bought my J2 in 1965 for £35; add a few noughts on the end (I hope Mrs James doesn’t read this!) and it probably won’t be worth what I’ve spent on it. However, I don’t really care! I’ve learnt a lot over the years, I’ve made mistakes, I’ve had a few laughs, a few disappointments…. but above all, I’ve learnt that when you have to rely on others to do work for you, patience is a virtue. ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and neither was my J2!
There is agreement among the UK M.G. clubs that 1923 is the year which saw the production of the first M.G.s. Perhaps the new editor of MG Enthusiast will care to take note of this as I am told that he has recently published copy which refers to 1924. It would also be helpful if someone would advise the owners of the M.G brand that 1923 is the year and if they are planning any centenary marketing activities for 1924, they will be a year too late!
A number of meetings have been held between The MG Owners Club, The MG Octagon Car Club, The Early M.G. Society and the MG ‘T’ Society to plan a major event in 2023 to celebrate the centenary. The broad outline of an event has been agreed and it will shortly be time to enter into detailed planning. Time is not on our side and there is much to be done to bring it to fruition.
The ‘scammers’ have been unusually quiet of late. Michael Crawford, took the trouble to write to say that phishing e-mails can be forwarded to [email protected] This e-mail sends it to The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
