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It is not often I start an article with such enthusiasm as for our car today, whether it was built during what is known as the Golden Era of motoring or not, it is one to try and get your hands on.
Strangely though just over 8000 were built in a 5 year period there are some splendid examples to be had, naturally they are not being given away but equally the model of your choice is not going to suddenly disappear after a short while, even for English or Irish cars rust does not seem to be a problem, just to make sure you are reading it right, rust is not a problem.
Spares apparently are not difficult to come by but body panels are, a lack of donor vehicles perhaps. Before you jump out of the chair waving your cheque book around, perhaps and shouting let me get one it might be a good idea to tell you the car, “The MG Y saloon”.
Yes it is a product of the pre-war era in as much as it was conceived during 1937 and intended to be shown at the 1940 motor show, however as we know it was not to be, so the little car was put away until the end of hostilities as Abingdon and Cowley were busy building planes and things.
The design was the work of two men one being Gerald Palmer and the other Jack Daniels, hold on, not the one from Tennessee just in case. Alec Issigonis and Syd Enever worked on the Y
Based primarily on the Morris 8 series 4the Y was endowed with a 1.250 litre engine, not exactly making speed earth shattering, but there again this super little car was not built as a trail blazing edition to the range, but what it became was a very typical English gentleman’s carriage, endowed with leather faced seats, steel sunroof and a front opening windscreen, though we had the later on our little flying Standard, Burr Walnut wood facings were built in, it was described as a small Jaguar, you even got a telescopic steering column and Smiths Jackall 4 wheel hydraulic jacking system.
A little controversial rear window blind, I say that because some say it was there for privacy and other’s that it stopped the glare from following headlights.
As a teenager depending where it was parked I would have gone for privacy, I am sure we had one in the “Jag”, more of that another time.
Though from certain angles the “Y” did have a certain similarity to the post war Jaguars and to some extent Rovers.
Technically you had Rack and Pinion steering, the engine was a 4 cylinder 1250cc motor designated XPAG, valves overhead pushrod with a compression ratio of 7:2:1 giving 46 bhp, coupled to this was a single SU IW carb.
7 Inch Borg and Beck dry clutch, single plate, a 4 speed gearbox with syncro on 2, 3 and 4th gears, no mention of overdrive availability, the suspension at the front, independent coil with wishbone and at the rear end Half elliptic springs, shock absorbers Girling Luvax piston type and to stop Lockheed 9 inch drums back and front.
This baby is no light weight so the 0-60 time of 29. Something is reasonable with somewhere around 27 miles per gallon.
I will throw it in for what it is worth, I actually nearly had one of these, the purchase was all set up and then the guy changed his mind at the last minute, that change of mind could have changed my whole motoring life, any way Bill’s Y carried the familiar MG number plate UMG and it was black with brown leather.
The chassis was sort of unique a welded box section and underslung at the rear with leaf springing. The chassis was used in future models.
There is a very active MG Owners Club, though not in the same league as KMC they have useful contacts for hard to find parts, one intriguing section is the lost and found, were members are looking for past cars or have documentation regarding a often much loved vehicle, one of the problems with exported cars like to Ireland the trail stops, so if you have an MG it might be in your interest to look the site up, or perhaps to forge links we could send a list of UK registrations to the site.
Well you must admit it is a very happy Ted delighted we have at least one very special car.
Ted Lay tedlay@gmail.com
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