FINAL FLOURISH

Conjuring images of moustachioed fighter pilots with headscarf-clad girlfriends, MG’s T-series is about as quintessentially British as cars get. No village green or country pub looks quite as it should without one parked alongside, yet the reality is that most were actually exported. Even with repatriation, numbers have remained small enough to ensure more demand than supply, so prices have stayed up, meaning survivors have mostly been well looked after.

We’re focusing on the related TD and TF versions here, which differed significantly from earlier incarnations. Once the TC had secured MG’s future by being a toy that Americans wanted to play with, thoughts turned to building its successor, a task for which there was no budget available. Still, it was a time of make do and mend, so the design team chopped five inches out of a Y-Type saloon chassis and modified a TC body to fit it.

As well as being much stiffer, the Y-Type chassis came with independent front suspension and a steering rack. Smaller diameter but wider wheels allowed more flowing, lower-profile wings. The TD was much wider too, especially in the seat area, which didn’t hurt its US sales potential. The engine, though slightly different to the TC’s, was still a 1250cc XPAG