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MG MGA - 1958 Earls Court Motor Show

A colleague at work has just lent me a pile of old motoring magazines he found in his late father's loft. Just starting to plough through them. First magazine I looked at was the 1958 Daily Mail Review of the Earls Court (London) Motor Show. I have attached a photo of the MGA entry into the show for that year.

150 other cars too, including the TR3, Healey, Sprite etc.

Some of the adverts for that period are truly amazing. I guess I am going to do a lot of copying over the next few weeks. Some truly amazing articles. One tip for degreasing an engine was to fill a parafin blow lamp with petrol, pressurise it and spray all over the engine. There was no mention of igniting it though!

Steve


Steve Gyles

......and the Twin Cam, new out 3 months before the 1958 show.


Steve Gyles

Steve,

Did you get my email?

Cheers
Mark.
Mark Hester

Great stuff Steve.....thanks for sharing!
GTF
G T Foster

Steve - I still have my 1960 copy of the Motor Show review - bought by myself while still at school for the princely sum of 2 shillings ( 10p) - it's the price of the MGA that is remarkable - around £940 for 1600 roadster. Sounds cheap until you realise that my father was just about on £1000 a year as a teacher - this equates to a similar teacher today on about £30k! Thanks for triggering the memories Steve. cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Cam,

Any Twin Cams featured at the 1960 Motor show newspaper you have?

Cheers
Mark.
Mark Hester

Hi Mark - no - by October 1960 I think they had decided to discontinue the twin cam - cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Mark

Even the 1959 Motor Show guide only shows the MGA 1600. Your Twin Cam seems to have its sole entry in the 1958 guide in my first post.

Steve
Steve Gyles

On a similar note to this thread here is a picture of a 1500 LHD engine bay during production. The connection is that the picture was used as can be seen on the front cover of the magazine to publicise an article inside on the Earls Court motor show.

The picure shows the body being lowered onto the chaasis.

Interesting to see how the fuel,brake pipes and speedo cable were routed prior to fitting the body. Also note that the m/cylinder is temporarily secured onto the rocker cover vent pipe!

Neil


Neil McGurk

Excellent mag cover Neil - will have to look out for a copy - cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Cam, you'll have to be quick, I think it's almost sold out by now!
Neil McGurk

You haven't seen our local village newsagent/post office - a trip back in time - still talk about Napoleon invading! - cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Cam

I guess they did not have brakes on their vehicles in those days, so you should not feel out of place!

Spotted your article in safety Fast. That's one modern copy that will go out of print very quickly. How many copies have you ordered?

Steve
Steve Gyles

Primarily for Mark's benefit, I found an A3 scanner and created a PDF document of the entire 1958 Motor Show document (approx 60 pages). It is too large (13mb) to email to Mark so I will post it on my website later today so that others can also have the opportunity to see some 150 new cars of 1958.

While scanning, I spotted a picture of the Twin Cam engine compartment. Copy attached.

Steve


Steve Gyles

Steve, Your comment about article in Safety Fast confused me until now as I've just received my copy of S F - I wrote the article 3 years ago so had forgotten about it - my son will be pleased to see his cartoon in print-cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Cam

You must be in the backwaters down there. Was your mail delivered by stagecoach? I have had my copy for about 4 days.

Steve
Steve Gyles

The 1958 Motor Show Review is now on my site: http://www.mgaroadster.co.uk/

Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click on the link.

It's a big PDF file. Apologies if you are not broadband.

The MGA appears on pages 6, 30 and in an advert on page 38.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Many Thanks Steve,
Job well done.

Still interested in purchasing it though, as it's not on ebay at the moment.

Cheers
Mark.
Mark Hester

Sorry Mark, my colleague does not want to sell any of them. They mean more to him than financial gain.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve - Stage coach got bogged down in the mud after the heavy rains - horses had to be rested - cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

No probs Steve,
Thanks for asking.

I'm sure it will pop up on ebay one day.

Cheers
Mark.
Mark Hester

This thread was discussed between 28/06/2007 and 07/07/2007

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