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MG MGA - Bonneville A

Is the Bonneville A still around? - see attached.

Perusing a 1999 edition of Safety Fast I came across an article about it. In 1998 it was owned by Bob Waddill when it was taken to Bonneville where it set up a class World Land Speed flying mile record of 243.970mph.

Based on a 1957 MGA, the car was fitted with blown fuel injected Chevy V6.

Steve

P.S. I wonder whether it had cooling problems?


Steve Gyles

The August 1999 article on the Bonneville MGA is here:
http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgcc/sf/990801.htm

It may have set some class record for whatever class it would represent, but even with 900+ HP it is not the fastest MG. EX181 ran the Flats at 245.64 mph in 1957, and 254.91 mph in 1959 (with about 1/3 the power of the 1998 record car). Those records for 1500cc and 1600cc supercharged engine still stand today, more than 50 years on. See:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/variants/vt104_ex181.htm

Barney Gaylord

EX181 was a wonderful purpose-built land speed record car, of course. MG has a great history at Bonneville. Does anyone have any more recent news on the production-based MGF that ran Bonneville at 217.40 in 1997?

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/news/news272.html

Ken
k v morton

Looking at those pictures I swear I saw that car before-here's the pictures I took in 1993 at the University Motors picnic. It has to be the same one,this one also had a blown chevy v6




gary starr

here is another-




gary starr

I really like the land speed look. This one isn't an MG, but it's another cool salt flats car. A pretty accurate recreation of the car Healey ran in the '50s, it was at the Portland All British Field Meet last year.

http://www.bonnevillehealeyclub.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/bonneville_newsletter_015.pdf

Ken


k v morton

The car is still owned by Bob Waddill of Michigan, son of Bill Waddill who built the car and originally raced it at Bonneville. The E/BFMS record of 243.97 set in 1998 still stands. The Waddill team has not returned to the salt flats since setting the record but Bob Waddill has indicated he will go again if his record is broken. You can't really directly compare EX181 to the Waddill car. EX 181 was specifically designed for minimal frontal area where the Waddills utilized a production MGA. Cooling is not a problem due to the relatively short durations of the runs and the large airflow while under way. Gary's photos are indeed of the Waddill MGA at Twists Summer Party. Kathy Waddill Ridley, daughter of Bill and sister of Bob, published a very interesting and entertaining book, "The Original Hot Rodder", last year about her father's hot rod, sports car and Bonneville exploits and how her brother continued them in his memory after Bill passed away in 1989. The last I heard of the EX-F that MG Rover ran in 1997 was that it was in the Heritage Museum. Don't know what has become of the ZT-T that MG Rover and SoCal ran more recently.
Kim Tonry

Thanks Kim. Most interesting.

Steve
Steve Gyles

This thread was discussed between 28/10/2010 and 29/10/2010

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