MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - Why change? Old car or new car

This site and many others are full of people fitting disc brakes, hydraulic clutches, power steering etc etc. and worrying whether a minor item is correct. Why?

Our cars are old and the experience of driving them is naturally old and typical of its time. Why else have them. I have a car nearly 100 years and I wonder what these advocates of up dating would suggest I do?

Why not fit an automatic transmission, pneumatic suspension and an automated hood to your T type?

If you don't like old car characteristics why have one and why try and make it like todays boring cars.

Performance In my humble experience a 1250 XPAG with the right cam, well tuned fitted with the car fitted with higher ratio rear end can keep up with traffic. In our TF, my wife and I covered 500 miles across France in 11 hours and we didn't race; just cruised at 60/65 mph. What's wrong with that?

Braking - if the brakes are set up correctly it is surprising how well a properly shod TD/TF will stop. You can even scare BMWs by your ability to stop in a short distance.

So what if the doors don't fit precisely - they never did; who worries about the ingress of water - you sure know that it is raining. Cold drafts around the doors? Put a rug across your legs.

Haven't got the correct screw for a given spot. It was not unknown that the foreman would send the apprentice to the local agricultural engineers to see what he could get because the line had run out of them. No doubt the buying office bought items according to price and did not bother what was the "correct item".

So just put the cars together, tune them and get onto the open road blast down the highway avoiding the fuzz and cruise at 3500/4000 rpm. FUN

Bob Marshall


R J Marshall

I am going to go get some popcorn and come back here in a bit. :-)
Christopher Couper

Wow!, Bob. Chill dude, go have an OSH, get a Covid vaccine shot and enjoy life. You like your car the way it is and I like mine the way it is with some of the "improvements" you are lambasting.

Chris, this should be interesting.

Safety Fast,
Jim
James Neel

Here here! :) It comes down to personal taste really, but I'm also in the camp of driving old cars because they are old cars. I have no interest in modernizing them, but I will admit that I'm a fan of period correct modifications sometimes. However I have no interest in engine swaps, digital instruments, power brakes, etc. If I want modern performance, I'll just get a modern car. When I get into any of my old cars, I want to feel the time period it came from.

But not everyone is into these things for the same reasons I am. Some just like the look of an old car but don't want to deal with the "old car thing". Some want the old car thing but are unwilling (or too old) to deal with the reality of driving an old car in modern traffic. Some people actually prefer working on their car to driving it (shudder!). And in many cases, people get used to modern cars and start to feel unsafe in an old rattle bucket like a T-Type so they make modifications to modernize the feel (like stronger brakes). If that's what it takes to get people behind the wheel and keep these cars on the road then so be it.

I don't own a modern car. My daily driver is a '67 MGB GT. Points ignition, generator, etc. I do have a supercharger on it, poly bushings, etc but mostly stock. My typical commute is 60-80 miles round trip and I just rolled the odometer over again. I'm the only guy sitting in city traffic with a smile on my face. I love it, but I don't expect everyone else to. There's room for all types.
Steve Simmons

I'm in Bob Marshall's camp with a stock MGTD, two 37 horsepower Morris Minors (stock) and one Austin 1300 (stock).
John Quilter (TD8986)

As Jay Leno (or somebody?) said: "It's a lot more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow." I love my stock '53 TD and my stock '62 MGA and just by looking at them I can tell them from other cars of the period. Modern cars (which all have to travel through the same air so that explains it) all look the same to me. I drive steep, twisty, mountain roads and I've never had the car behind me flash his lights.

Jud




J K Chapin

While I love owning my TD, I get my real enjoyment in working on it. I am in the camp of trying as much as possible to have an original car. It was fine to drive for 48 years. Have I made changes? Yes, I changed the rear differential gearing to be able to drive it at the current freeway speeds.

I also enjoy seeing what others are doing to their TD's

There are enough of these cars out there that no matter what you do to it, you are not going to significantly impact the availability of fairly original cars.

As for the factory and parts issue. I think a lot of that is an urban legend. Did it occur that if a part or a type of paint was not available, they sourced a local replacement? I would assume it did, but there was a standard part listed, and I don't believe it would be long before the supplier had the part back in the shop.

Everyone owns these cars for a lot of different reasons. I am all for the different camps of owners there are out there.
Bruce Cunha

I don’t understand the mods either… but it will give future owners the opportunity to cuss out the previous guy who modified a perfectly good car..and, in the mean time create a supply of original parts for me to use as spares.

We will probably not have a ready source for fuel for these lovely cars in a few years anyway.

Your car, enjoy as you see fit. Just because I don’t understand why someone wants to turn a 75 year old car into a Miata doesn’t make it wrong.

Regards, Tom
tm peterson

After nearly 60 years of T type ownership of various models I suspect I like most looked at one originally and thought "I'd like one of those". Over the years I've owned different models but as a result all with the same basic thought, I've for some probably emotional reason continued with MGs. I have had others but always come back to these cars. However as an extension to owning old cars "tinkering" became an extension with the occasional foray into a partial or full restoration. On these occasions in hindsight I think I took on the subliminal emotion of feeling like those earlier car pioneers who produced so many different models whether the symbolic black Model T or the car with the RR on it's radiator. As a result of this mind set inevitably I made modifications from changing "rexine" with leather to radials instead of crossply. Perhaps that's why we do what we do?
JK Mazgaj

Well, 100 proof whiskey will probably be around longer than petrol/gasoline, so all we will have to do is make our cars run on it! LOL! PJ
PJ Jennings

This thread was discussed between 06/08/2021 and 07/08/2021

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG TD TF 1500 BBS now