The MG T series is an easy car to describe: There’s one at every car show, and it looks 20 years older than it actually is. Look past the old-school exterior, though, and you’ll find, well, oldschool underpinnings. The MG T series started with the MG TA in 1936, and over the next four generations a…
I had a TD. I sold it for $495, which is also what I paid for it. It needed a top and couldn't keep up with traffic on the freeways. So I bought a TR-3 which could. I always thought the TR-3s & TR-2s were much more practical to actually drive and carry a few things. And you still had the slide in windows so they were still Roadsters.
Though the early TR-2 almost always had a beat up lower passenger door. The passenger(s) would often open it against the curbing, not realizing it ran down so low. I actually liked it's looks better than any of these we're discussing.
I never liked the TR-3 as well once they changed the radiator inlet. The disc brakes were nice, but I still think the "small mouth" is much more attractive.
Never owned one, never drove or rode in one but a friends father ended up painting 2 of them. He did body work and painted cars on the side. The cars came apart quite easy. He just hung all the car body parts from the ceiling and painted them that way. Can't do that today!
jimbbski wrote: Never owned one, never drove or rode in one but a friends father ended up painting 2 of them. He did body work and painted cars on the side. The cars came apart quite easy.
Well put!
I'm restoring a TD, which is harder than that sounds. The T series cars were sheet-metal-on-a-wooden-frame construction, which means battling rot as well as rust. Parts are readily available, though, and there is a super community that supports them. However, many of those folks are dying off. Since MG hasn't been on these shores for 35 years, there aren't many that remember the marque, much less the T cars.
In reply to Basil Exposition: Good for you! Even though it couldn't keep up with traffic, I really loved my TD! I just couldn't afford to own two cars at that time.
I worry that T-cars and Lotus (Loti?)models from when Chapman was still alive, are getting way too scarce. And like everything else out there, the old British rides are now often showing up with a SBC or a SBF. That's truly sad.
I don't think scarcity is really a problem with the T series. Quite the opposite, actually. As time goes on there will be more nice examples out there than there will be people interested in owning them.
There were about 10k TC's made, 30k TD's, and 10k TF's. A lot have disintegrated into nothingness or parts cars, but every year several more are restored. The price of nicely restored examples in the collector car world has been pretty stagnant for a long time, despite huge increases for other cars.
I don't know about Loti, in general, but it seems that cars like the Europa don't have much of a following or much value. I've seen a few project cars for relatively little money not get any interest at all. And the nice ones don't seem to attract a lot of money, either.
It sounds like the T-cars are multiplying like Cobras, Shelbys, & Model As!
If as many were actually built as now claimed, they'd all still be in production!
Loti are another issue. The T-Car brought sports cars to North America. IMO, the Loti taught us what the next step in sports cars was.
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