Background
PLEASE NOTE THAT AN AUCTION PREMIUM WILL BE CHARGED, ON TOP OF THE HAMMER PRICE, OF 5% (+VAT IN UK AND EUROPE). FROM 16TH JAN'23 THIS APPLIES TO ALL AUCTIONS ON THE MARKET, AND FEES ARE CAPPED AT £5,000 (+VAT)
MG’s Midget line of cars began in 1928 with the M-Type. This tiny sports car was one of the first of its kind, making exciting sporting motoring accessible to the masses – with its affordable price and low running costs, it helped create the DNA of the British sports car, perhaps more than any other car. While the M-Type was a small and spindly vehicle, with a very vintage ‘light car’ air and charm to it, the Midgets that succeeded it – the J and P-Types – evolved into more substantial cars, while retaining the same sporting virtues. 1936 saw the introduction of the T-Series cars, which would run until 1955, with the obligatory pause in production during the Second World War. From the TB onwards, these cars were powered by the excellent 1250cc XPAG engine, which, despite outwardly being a less advanced design than the little overhead-cam units in the M, J and P-Types, proved to be eminently tuneable. Sporting success came easily to the T-Types; they reigned supreme in the challenging world of trials, with the famous ‘cream cracker’ works cars boasting a formidable record. They were also frequent competitors in hillclimbs and races both pre-and-post-war, with many famous names of the motorsport world starting out in these cars.
The TC was launched in 1945, a development of the TA and TB rather than a revolutionary step. With a wider body providing somewhat more space for the driver and passenger, it also contained various small changes that gave a more polished driving experience; rubber bushes for the suspension, for example, and hydraulic lever-arm dampers. In most respects, however, including the chassis and solid axles front and rear, it was a continuation of the pre-war models. The gearbox was carried over from the TB, whose production had been curtailed at just 379 cars due to the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. This had synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd and 4th, meaning an end to the expensive noises that less-skilled drivers were prone to produce. The XPAG engine gave 55bhp, providing this light car with sprightly performance. Together with the excellent hydraulic brakes that had been a T-Type feature from the start, this made the TC a thoroughly accessible car to drive. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that the TC was the first British car to really take off in the USA – for that land of wide open roads and vast distances, where big, torquey engines were the norm, and automatic gearboxes were already starting to take hold, a tiny sports car with a non-synchro gearbox might have been a bit raw. As it was, the TC ticked the ‘exciting yet accessible’ box perfectly, and the Americans couldn’t get enough. Nearly 2000 were exported to the US, out of the total production of 10,000, and this success prompted MG to focus subsequent models squarely at the lucrative American market.
