An Olde English Auto Review: I saw this article and knew It should be shared. Tommy's 1952 MG TD in Car Talk nothing more to say .. ! Funny .. the latest Hemmings mag has a long...

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

I saw this article and knew It should be shared.

Tommy's 1952 MG TD in Car Talk

nothing more to say .. !
Funny .. the latest Hemmings mag has a long article on a 1951 rebuild.
It doesn’t touch on the drive experience that article does.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Tom and Ray had it exactly correct.

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

I had a buddy with one he used to race. There was a strap that ran from the driver's door to the passenger door. This was to keep the suicide doors closed during turns. The gas gauge was a dip stick. When raining, the roof leaked around the windshield and the side curtains just leaked.

PaulW128 Loc: Long Island, NY

BBurns wrote:

I saw this article and knew It should be shared.

Tommy's 1952 MG TD in Car Talk

nothing more to say .. !
Funny .. the latest Hemmings mag has a long article on a 1951 rebuild.
It doesn’t touch on the drive experience that article does.

That was hilarious! A long time ago I owned a 1970 MGB-GT and this article reminded me of some of the problems I had back then!!

Thanks for posting
Paul

One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID

Friend of mine had one, starter never worked, always started it with the crank. A neat feature I thought at the time. Most everything in the article is true, but fun to drive anyway. Another friend put a chev. 327 in one, had trouble keeping it in a straight line, scary. Have an MGB roadster now. Things you do in your youth.

Amielee Loc: Eastern Washington State

Funny; I owned two TDs and 1951 and a 1953. The 51 was red and the 53 was a bronze color. They were fun to drive and if you folded the windshield down a half case of beer would fit on it. You could throw the empties over your head and out of the car. Yes I was young and stupid. They were the only 4 cylinder cars that I knew of that would start and run on one cylinder. They would only go about 15 mph on one cylinder. However the Lucas electrics were something else. If I remember correctly they only had 3 fuses in the electric system. But they did have a crank to start it if needed. Wish I still had them or at least one of them.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

I had a '62 MGA in '63. Everything said in the link is true for the A too. Being young and foolish I drove it from Ft. Campbell KY, to Quincy, CA. When ever it rained the ignition shorted out. I hit a thunder storm on Route 66 just outside of Kingman AZ. The engine died of course and I barely got the clutch in and costed onto the shoulder. As I sat there I learned that the top and the side curtains leaked even when you were not moving. Then out of the almost zero visibility I saw headlights. It turned out to be a guy in a Porsche 365 Speedster, with the top down, wearing what we called a Sports Car hat, a white silk scarf. He was soaking wet and the cockpit must have been half full of water. He stopped and asked me if he could help! I said "No" and he waved and drove off into the storm.

canonuser25 Loc: Cardiff (Wales NOT England)

The TD was a ladies car! It had coil springs on the front whereas my 1946 TC had a beam axle front and back with cart springs. There may have been room only for people with narrow shoulders but you needed a lot of heft to turn that large sprung steering wheel and the vaguely attached 19inch wire wheels with 43/4 tyres. Rack and pinion steering? phooey. Try the TCs bishop cam and follower steering box. Adjustment was by shims under the lid which the follower rubbed against. Oil leaks easily cured with non-setting hermetite and STP oil treatment. Did 1200 mile round trips in the old girl to the rugged Isle of Skye. Drove there for 2 weeks no problems but bags of fun. (mind you she was only 20 at the time.)

llamb Loc: Northeast Ohio

My '52 TD was a chick magnet in '66. It was a "squirrelly" car to drive. Many sportscars later, I still fondly think of it.

~Lee

Stephan G

BBurns wrote:

I saw this article and knew It should be shared.

Tommy's 1952 MG TD in Car Talk

nothing more to say .. !
Funny .. the latest Hemmings mag has a long article on a 1951 rebuild.
It doesn’t touch on the drive experience that article does.

Back in 1970, I had several options in which vehicle to get. The '52 MG TD was one. I settled for a '59 TR3. It was, and still is, the top car I ever owned. "It takes two spanners and a long screwdriver to take it apart down to its chassis." And it lived up to that. Even now, I remember its sprightly attitude on the roads.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

Truly hysterical! I owned a 1973 Lotus Europa John Player Special which had its own set of British issues. Most notably was the Lucas electric system. You never knew what would happen when you flipped a switch. For example the light switch often turned the windshield wipers on.

canonuser25 Loc: Cardiff (Wales NOT England)

Lotus - Lots of Trouble Usually Serious (in days of yore)

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

mr spock wrote:

…You never knew what would happen when you flipped a switch. For example the light switch often turned the windshield wipers on.

Or smoke poured from under the dash. Why do the British wear driving gloves? So they can pull the burning wiring harness from under the dash (ask me how I know). But despite their reliability issues, Lotuses were very cool automobiles. RIP Colin Chapman.

FL Streetrodder

M1911 wrote:

I had a buddy with one he used to race. There was a strap that ran from the driver's door to the passenger door. This was to keep the suicide doors closed during turns. The gas gauge was a dip stick. When raining, the roof leaked around the windshield and the side curtains just leaked.

The only early MG that ever interested me was one built by a farmer who lived in the country outside of Troy, NY. He named it the U.S. Mule and ran it at several dragstrips in the NY-New England area

bamfordr Loc: Campbell CA

PaulW128 wrote:

That was hilarious! A long time ago I owned a 1970 MGB-GT and this article reminded me of some of the problems I had back then!!

Thanks for posting
Paul

66 B-GT here. Great car to drive - superb handling (really) and extremely well balanced - barely needed snow tires in upstate NY. The heater and defroster were a different story. And I did need to deal occasionally with the throttle linkage, which tended to ice up and freeze open. Exciting the first time it happened.

A few quirks that stuck with me. The Brits at MG never figured out two speed wiper motors, so a downpour was challenging. In fact the solution in later years was to add a third wiper. I had the snagged-tooth hood emblem - attached to the hood. The badge fell off (fortunately in the drive way), but was easy to glue back on. In later years, MG moved the badge to the grill, but they left the raised (and now unused) attachment point on the hood. Save money.

And I never did need the fuel pump I carried in the boot.