Dusted off
“IT TURNS OUT THAT MY CAR, MGC 9092, WAS INDEED THE LAST ONE FINISHED”
Quiet shuffling of paper and the musky smell of old hardbacks contained in the still air of a library; that’s normally what we associate with the word history. For James Thornborough, however, history is also a snarling exhaust note and wind in the hair. Having been posted all over the world during his career in risk management, not least in Falklands hot zones, it’s perhaps no wonder that his hobby blends investigative work with a bit of hands-on drama. MGC ownership has also brought Jim, as he’s known amongst friends, into contact with a variety of experts, enthusiasts and even those who were involved in the car’s build when new. It’s how Jim came to discover that his MGC was in fact the last finished roadster, a University Motors special spec. car, and how another volume in the MGC section of MG history was bookended.
“It was 2014. I was in Cape Town and I’d never heard of the MGC, when I saw one. It was a GT in Mineral Blue that I bought there, and that was soon replaced by a Tartan Red Downton GT.” By 2016 he was back in the UK and well and truly determined to own another MGC. It was
