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Abington's Grand Tourer

by Graham Robson

Hello there it’s Richard here again.  Well, when the MGC was released to the public in Novemeber 1967 the progression from a racing MGB's engine of 1,800cc to the C's 3 litres seemed like a logical progression if you want to go faster on the race track.  This logic though was a little narrow minded considering the C's production constraints and the inherent handling restrictions when compared with a B.   The reins on the car's performance were well and truly held back with a muffled intake and restricted exhaust designs and the long legs of the C were firmly hobbled.

That master of pink gins Daniel Richmond and his engineering business in Salisbury, UK, easily released these restrictions as Malcolm Trewhitt experienced.  I'll let Kevin Wise tell Malcolm's story which was printed in a 1994 MG Enthusiast magazine.

The “Most raced MGC must be YWT 666G which recorded 49 wins from 100 races – surely earning it an entry in the MG book of records.

In partnership with first and long-time owner Malcolm Trewhitt, this racing roadster has a competition career that beats the Works lightweight GTS coupes combined.  A club racer that challengers the Nicholson MGB:  that's the ex-Trewitt MGC.

Bought by Trewhitt of Bedale from Kennings of Harrogate, the MGC was first registered in March 1969.  By the 26th of April its dashing owner had it entered in the Croft Sprint where they came second in class – a result repeated at Topcliffe in June.  The following year ten sprints had yeilded three firsts and three seconds, but car and driver failed to score at the Silverstone Internationals.

Time to tune the 'C' to a finer edge with a trip down south to Downton Engineering in Salisbury.  Here, with almost 20,000 racing miles on the clock, the 'C's six was stripped, lightened, balanced and flowed.  Close-ratio gears were exchanged in the gearbox and a “Sebring” competition overdrive fitted.  Joining the big-valved 649 cam triple 45 DCOE Weber-fed motor to the new gears was a lightened flywheel and competition clutch.

Finally, a 4.55 ZF Limited Slip differential took Downton's 210 bhp to the circuits, sprints and hill-climbs that during 1971 brought Malcolm seven firsts, including five in the Silverstone sprints.  Three second places and a couple of “Best MG” awards were also achieved in the year's fourteen outings.

They raced on wires in those days and biggest change to the MGC, shape wise, came for the 1972 season when wheel arches were not so much flared Sebring-style but extended outwards to accommodate fat slicks as club racing mirrored more and more the blatant specialisation that had changed the definition of the term sports car.

On its return from Downton for a pre-season checking and overhaul, three firsts and three seconds were gained that year from 11 races.  Further campaigns through out the years 1973-1978 notched up 36 wins from 57 races – the car being captured in this climax configuration (appropriately at the head of the grid at Silverstone) on the cover of the 1982 MGCC Silverstone International programme.

By this time the fighting MGC was well into an 11-year retirement in Malcolm's barn.  But its rest days were numbered for in 1989 a man was hunting a suitable MG to compete the Pirelli Classic Marathon.  He heard about the Trewhitt 'C' and persuaded Malcolm to part with the car he'd owned from new and so prolifically and successfully raced through a hectic decade.

Shaking the 'C' down to the strict FIA Historic Code meant losing the triple Webers, big valve head and the “Sebring” inlet and exhaust systems and running a tamer rally 731 camshaft with standard valves and 10.5 compression with just two SUs and a big-bore exhaust.  But with a Moto-Built handling pack, Mintex brakes and minilite wheels with 185/70 VR 15 BF Goodrich tyres, this Marathon vehicle finished nevertheless.

Says third owner, Gordon Ogilve: “Crewed by Chris Green and John Hampshire it had completed an arduous rally without mishap but was beaten by more nimble MGBs in the hands of some notable and famous drivers.”

A longtime MG enthusiast, Gordon first owned a four-seat P-Type Midget … “Goodbye to my last MG I said sadly, having just parted with the famous MGA 151 ABL … 'I've heard that one before', observed my wife who went on to forecast there would be another to continue my long life obsession with MG.”

Back to the ex-Trewhitt MGC, Gordon says: “The car and I seemed compatible; and soon my wife's prediction was confirmed.”

Times change and now Gordon is himself the vendor of this unique MGC. … Full historic documentation and photographs accompany this most-raced 'C' that still has only 25,965 miles on the clock after all these years and all those races.”

Well that was back in 1994 but now the Cs mileage is a little more as I know the car ventured to Peru in South America in about 2002 and drove along the Inca Trail.  This car is not only well raced but well travelled.

Remember ladies and gentlemen keep ‘em tuned,

Rich                      

 Malcolm Trewhitt's C might have been the first club racing C but many have followed and once sorted are a lot faster than a "b"

STUNNING LINKS!

From two MGC Owners

1001 easy steps to removing
an MG Cump
That nice young 'C' Register co-ordinator Ian, has had some interesting correspondance from that nice old Queenslander, Bruce, about removing the sump on a 'C'.  

RICHARD MIXTURE'S MGC REPORT FOR MAY 2010

Cool Option Update

Hello there it’s Richard here.  Well did you all enjoy the NatMeet.  I enjoyed the bit that I was able to get to.  I bumped into an old mate, someone I hadn't seen for for years.  We were reminiscing about the good old days, you know, some of them happened in the seventies, things like marriage, kids and divorce, when I overheard someone say “I can't believe my eyes, Richard Mixture meets Jake Harper!”.  Well who should it be but GoodOne (is that one word or two, I never did know).  A sort time later that rotund racer Captain Gostello join us and we had a right old natter, Jake told us about his boots and the Captain told us about brown rings around a gentleman's mem... oh I think that story is better left between us gentlemen.

Now last month I let that nice old Queenslander, Bruce, tell the first half of his air conditioning story, well now I'll let him tell you the second half.

“For cars without a centre console as fitted to post 72 cars you need to get the centre console [2 components], 2 dash fresh air vents, which are all now available. The vents fit into the place where the Radio normally mounts. The Radio now lives in the centre console.

In the “C” and “V8” there is either no space and/or too much heat to mount a single condenser in the engine bay. These cars do not need any more heat or obstruction to the radiator air flow. With an MGB-GT a single condenser can be fitted in front of the radiator ...

For the “C” and “V8” two condensers are used, these mount in the wings below the headlight bowl ... Slots are cut in the valence to give plenty of air to the fans and unload the fan motors at cruise.”

“Inside the cabin the Map Pocket has to be removed to allow the Evaporator to mount as it is a very nice fit between the centre trim and outside trim.” “To operate the fresh air door (behind the centre metalwork) I added a push-pull rod and a bracket next to the console so the driver can operate the fresh air door while driving the car. You have to do this otherwise you cannot operate the fresh air door as the feed tubes to the centre and right hand side block access to the operating lever.

In our “C” the compressor mounts onto the timing cover and block and takes the space where the overflow tank was, the threaded mounting holes are already in the block as are the holes in the timing cover. A Japanese pulley is mounted onto the harmonic balancer, to suit the compressor pulley, on our car the drive pulley to compressor pulley is 1.23:1 step up as the “C” idles @ about 800 RPM. “

“The compressor has a double pulley so it could be used as an idler/transfer pulley to drive the alternator from the compressor. I would look to see how to drive the compressor from the crankshaft rather than use the transfer idea. The commercially air-conditioned MGB-GT’s mounted the compressor where the alternator was and then drove the alternator, mounted above the compressor, with a separate belt from the compressor pulley.

The “C” and “V8” run at such low revs in traffic that a 43 Amps alternator was on the low side. The 65Amp unit will handle everything from idle. I changed the alternator pulley ratio from 1.875:1 to 2.1:1 at the same time, as our car will run happily @ 1,000 RPM in top and 1,100 RPM in O/D, the “V8” will be similar.  

Mounting of the Receiver/Dryer can be almost anywhere in the line from the condensers to the Evaporator, in our car it goes behind the radiator mounting panel on the left side, just in front of the compressor drive pulley. There is not much spare space in the engine bay now.“

“I insulated the firewall on the engine side as well as the inside of the tunnel (this is where most of the heat in the cabin comes from).” “Our car is now cool everywhere even the chrome ring around the gearlever stays only warm and not very hot as from the factory, the tunnel, foot-wells and floor are all comfortable even after a 300 mile day run in summer. In winter we leave the A/C on the least cool setting and add fresh air via the heater (off) door in the left foot well. The fresh air door can be opened to the 1st and 2nd positions as required. Position 3, is not possible as the A/C feed tubes will not allow this.”

“If you intend to keep your car for some years this is a most worthwhile thing to do, the difference is amazing, cool and quiet. I think that we have added about 30 to 35 kilos to the car, all down low and in the centre which in the “C’s” case is more of a benefit than a disadvantage. A/C reduces consumption by only 1 or 2 MPG overall.”

Now that was easy wasn't it – just like Lego really!

Remember ladies and gentlemen (oh! and Jake) keep ‘em tuned,

Rich

Does your GT get HOT?

Hello it’s Richard here again.  Firstly, err … initially I'd like to welcome a couple of fair ladies to our masculine ranks (err, Geraldine excepted 'cos she's pretty) – There's young Mary Thomas who has a lovely white C GT and there's younger Anne Bahnisch who's returning the gorgeous Blue C GT that here father restored.  Welcome to the fold and I hope you find us blokes highly stimulating over a cup of coffee on one of our runs.

Now back in the February issue of MG Motoring I told you a few pearls of wisdom about air conditioning history.  Well, during the summer that nice old Queenslander wrote a wonderful piece commenting on his approach to “Air Conditioning your B-GT, C-GT or B-GT V8”.  He is much more articulate than me so I'll let him explain;

“As we are all getting older and drive our normal cars with very efficient air-conditioning it becomes ever less pleasant, particularly during summer, to drive an English Hot Box where even fresh air inlets used to be optional in early cars, (The under dash fresh air door). In the 1972 year model the centre console and centre dash fresh air vents were standard.

Two years ago I completed the A/C of my C-GT [June 06] this totally transformed an excessively hot and noisy car into a proper GT car. We can use the audio system and go anywhere in great comfort any time of year, whatever the outside temperature is, hot or cold, and indeed use the A/C all year round as with the low sun angle during winter the car still gets warm to hot. Window tinting is essential because of the low Winter Sun angle ...

There are several items to be installed, Evaporator [the unit in the cabin], Condensers 2 for the “C” & “V8”, 1 for the “B”, Compressor, Receiver/Dryer, Relays, Fuses, Much Bigger Alternator, and for completeness throttle compensation and a way to not allow the system to run until the engine is running …

Now the nasty part: COST, with insulation which is essential in both the “B” & “C” if the A/C is not to fight the engine and exhaust heat ... With all components, brackets and fittings the whole bloody shooting match will cost about $4,000 ...

The actual A/C is the easy part, what is tedious and very time consuming is installing the insulation and this will depend to what extent you want to go to achieve quietness & coolness, as in a current A/C car. I took about 7 months total, a mixture of full time and part time work, with days of up to 6 hours with the insulation.”   “A different type of insulation could cut the time by months if only heat insulation is required. I went for a Thermal and Acoustic approach.

All the components are from the “JAY AIR Automotive Air Conditioning Catalogue”. Don’t bother to even think of parts from the wreckers as it is a total false economy. A/C parts have to be new and clean with no corrosion, moisture or wear to get long term reliable service.

Now that you have the list of parts go out and buy them so that next issue I'll, I mean Bruce, can tell you how all the parts fit together. 

Now remember our Autumn Run ladies and gentlemen  It's the 25th April 2010 so meet at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, at 1.30pm and we'll go and see Ron, err, see ya 'ron.

Remember gentlemen and Geraldine and Anne and Mary keep ‘em tuned,

Rich

The very first MGC

Hello again, it's Richard here.  Now, first things first … mmm … come to think of it first things are always first otherwise they would be second things or third things and first things always precede second things because second things always follow the first things … mmm … may be I should just stick with MGs.  Well the first MG... no, no, no lets just call it the prototype MGC.  Look, just read on and you'll find out all about the firs... I mean the prototype.

Nearly thirteen years ago Andrew Roberts visited the Abingdon works at the same time as the prototype MGC.  He wrote a nice little story about the car in MG Enthusiast magazine, he starts the story as follows (I guess that means it's the second thing ...):

“Sometimes in the MG World, it is possible to turn the clock back and inevitably any such exercise centres on Abingdon.  For, despite the famous factory having closed way back in 1981, much of it still exists.

While some of the old premises remain empty and virtually derelict, at least one portion remains in the best of condition and has returned to its original function of engineering manufacture.

The premises of Abingdon Engineering now occupy what was formally the MG Development Shop and it was here some 32 years ago that the first prototype MGC to be built off-tools, Chassis Number GCN/100, first saw the light of day.

Fast forward to 1997 and that same MGC is back outside the very same building, thanks to the enthusiastic co-operation of Abingdon Engineering.  A photograph that would have seemed impossible in the dark days of the early 1980s is set up and another MG circle is completed.

The fact that MGC prototypes were built as early as 1965 may seem surprising, but thoughts were already being given to a successor to the Austin Healey 3000, or big Healey as it was generally known, as early as 1964.

This project carried the number ADO 51 for an Austin Healey and ADO 52 for an MG, the car being based around the MGB.  Significantly, neither John Thornley at MG or Donald Healey considered this was the correct approach, but neither was able to influence BMC planning.

Originally, the thinking about the power unit for the cars was that it would be an Australian built Light Six, with a capacity of 2433cc.  Essentially this was the B Series engine, of 1622cc capacity with two cylinders added.  To fit the engine into an MGB body shell, the starting point of the design study, a tubular cross member had to be fabricated to make the engine fit, although its height did not prove to be a problem with the existing MGB bonnet line.

Another necessary change was torsion bar suspension.  A prototype was built with an Austin Healey front end treatment, but this was not sanctioned by Donald Healey and so the ADO 51 project was laid to rest in 1966.  ADO 52 would proceed however and this would become the MGC.

It would not be unfair to describe the engine choice forced upon the MGC as its achilles heel, not for its performance, but for its weight.  Whereas the Light Six might have proved to be the right choice – the fact that it was not built in the UK effectively ended its chances – the compromise of a six cylinder three-litre engine designed for a new big Austin Saloon being built at Longbridge, was assuredly not.

Its weight of 567 lbs was some 209 lbs heavier than the B Series engine used in the MGB and no successful weight reduction was ever achieved.  Clearly there was to be a tough development programme ahead for Abingdon to turn ADO 52 into a marketable project.”
Tough indeed – with the many changes occurring within the BMC management at the time and the mixed messages being sent to the media who were already some what off side.  To convince them that an MGB with a bulge in the bonnet was a good thing was probably as hard as convincing a Laplander that a fire hose by the front door of his igloo was a good thing!  But of course we know better – owning a C and driving a C, we are the lucky ones.

Now autumn is approaching so we should go for a nice little run.  Last year that nice young man Ron said we could visit his garage so I'll ask our nice young register co-ordinator to organise it.  So put 25th April 2010 in you diary and we can meet at Beaumont Road, Adelaide, at 1.30pm.

Remember gentlemen and Geraldine and now Anne as well

Keep 'em tuned

Rich

January / February 2010

MGC NEWS
MGC mutterings from Richard Mixture

Cool Options & Hot Options

Hello it’s Richard here again muttering into another year.  Hasn’t the summer weather been wonderful lately 40˚ outside of the old GT and 50˚ inside!  I guess most sensible people leave their MGs in the shed in such weather and only drive those 1.8 litre mobile air-conditioners that are made in Japan or Korea.  Yes, I know that nice old Queenslander, Bruce, would be driving his air-conditioned C but does it ever get to 40˚ in Brisbane?

When John Thornley read the thermometer at the factory and considers that the maximum temperatures around Abingdon doesn’t get much over 22˚ in summer and in winter it might sit around 7˚ for a while, no wonder air-conditioning was not standard on a C - but how many cars did have air-conditioning as standard in 1967?  Well, I can tell you that it wasn’t even an option on early Roman chariots but according to some sources the first car to have a refrigeration system was a 1939 Packard.  The system took up the whole of the boot space, had no thermostat, cost about $4,500 in today’s money and was discontinued in 1941!  By the mid sixties air-conditioning was becoming more common place in luxury vehicles and you could even buy a system in one of those after market speed shops.  But it wasn’t until around 1980 that they were considered as a more serious inclusion in everyday cars.  Thank goodness for that!

I remember walking to my car on a hot day in the early eighties when an acquaintance pulled over and offered me a lift in his newly acquired company car.  He had the fan on high and pointing to the AC button on the dash said ‘it was great having air-conditioning’.  I asked him ‘if you have air-conditioning then why is the air coming out of the vents so hot?’  He muttered something about it taking a while for the air-conditioning to warm up …  Some say ignorance is bliss but I’m not sure.

Anyway back at Abingdon in 1967 when Gregg Howard’s MGC roadster came of the line air-conditioning wasn’t an option.  What was an option was a Downton Conversion and that was added to his car in 1974.

So, 19 years ago MG Enthusiast magazine printed a short “Owner’s View”.  It went like this …

“Fish and chip shop owner Gregg Howard certainly cuts a dash when he turns up at the ‘chippy’ in his company car.  For his Downton MGC is used everyday, often with the top down and the car’s rewarded him with four years trouble-free motoring – well almost.

The petrol pump was playing up on our photo session held at Chatsworth House and there was that time when he rang around MGC friends because he was stuck for an oil pump but such occasions merely blurr into the memory compared to enjoying an open top MGC all year round.

‘That’s beauty of the MGC’ he says, ‘they’re such charismatic cars.  So many nice people own them.  I can phone from Cornwall to Scotland and call in for a cuppa if I’m passing because we all stick together. That’s how I found an oil pump when I needed one.  A fellow owner rang me from Sheffield to say he knew of one in a Workshop, went to pick it up and posted it on down to me.’

Gregg has owned his car for four years having bought it for £3,000.  Before the Downton ‘C he previously ran a Midget and then an MGB but both pale in comparison to the pleasure he derives from driving his MGC.  ‘The car has a marvellous character.  People often ask me whether it’s a V8, a straight six or an 1800, or want to know what the funny bulges on the bonnet are all about.  Even some new to running a ‘C are perplexed by the twin tail pipes and the Downton badges.  The car is a real wolf in sheep’s clothing.  It’s nice to have something tastefully different and I never want to envisage the day when I may have to part with it.’”

Well, “so many nice people own them” I can vouch for that – not only in Adelaide but interstate as well.  But if you look at it the other way around why would a horrible person want to own any MG?  I guess it’s all a matter of an individual’s perception.

Remember gentlemen and Geraldine keep ‘em tuned,

Rich

Bruce’s compressor viewed from the front through the radiator and grill space

The Spring MGC Run
From ...Ian Hobbs