This series of pictures at the end of this brief article have two stories attached to them — one complete and the other not so much.
The complete story is about the man who owned and raced the car. The man, Marshall Green, was a Canadian of many talents. He had 13 patents for production machinery, was a national champion model airplane enthusiast and an excellent race car driver. He also had a son who was gracious enough to share the information and pictures provided here.
Green started his competition career in a TC but moved to the TD pictured here some time in 1950 or 51. The one documented competition event I could find was on October 28, 1951 at Mt. Equinox, Vermont where the car was placed second in class behind Max Hoffman (yes, THAT Max Hoffman) in a Porsche 356. Losing to what he concluded was a better car and not a better driver of the car, led Green to abandon MG and switch allegiance to 356 Porsches. His life after that, while a story in itself, does not involve MGs and will not be included.
The other story, not so much complete, is about the car. Very little is known about the car in the pictures. It is an early TD (possibly a Mk II) finished in Ivory/Cream (at the time anyway) imported to Canada where it was fitted with the rather unusual hard top pictured.
Green and an Italian immigrant, Pennante, who at one point worked for Ferrari, fitted it with a non-standard instrument panel as well as the open-air scoop on the right-hand hood, short exhaust pipe on the top of the right fender, cycle fenders, the front fairing below the radiator, and a number of other modifications unseen in the pictures. The engine was rebuilt/tuned and though still 1250 cc’s in displacement had a reported top speed of 103. Its history since 1951 is a mystery and if anyone has information, please let me know.
Ed’s note: Dave can be contacted at dgaldrich(at)embarqmail.com {please substitute @ for (at)}.
Ed’s further note: Max Hoffman was an Austrian born, New York-based importer of luxury European cars to the US. He opened the Hoffman Motor Company in 1947 and became the supplier of Jaguar cars for the eastern United States. He also dealt in Alfa Romeo, Porsche and by the mid- 1950s introduced the BMW marque. In 1952 he became the first importer of Mercedes-Benz cars, which resulted in the loss of the Jaguar contract, albeit he negotiated a healthy buyout from Jaguar.
Two ‘shots’ of Green with his TC, locations unknown.
