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The MG TC is a classic British roadster of the highest order. For top-down, weekend drives in the country, there’s really no equal.
Defiantly Antiquated
The MG TC is an archetypal car. When we talk about the “classic British roadster” it is an MG, Triumph, Lotus, or Austin Healey we have in mind. Quaintly diminutive and endearingly underpowered, these are the lightweight, often roofless little British sports cars that inspired designers and enthusiasts the world over.
The MG T-Types, of which the TC is the middle child, are distinctive among their British roadster brethren for its defiantly consistent styling. The pre-war MG TA set the mold for the next two decades of T-Types with its two-seat roadster body style, its swooping fenders and non-integrated headlights, its running boards, and unique characteristics like a rear mounted spare tire, rear hinging doors, and wire spoke wheels.
When the homogeneous driving experience of EVs have car enthusiasts feeling disconnected and the absurd horsepower numbers of today’s performance cars leave them disillusioned, the antidote is a classic, archetypal sports car, a proper British roadster like the MG TC.
MG TA & TB
The MG TA looked a bit old fashioned even in its debut in 1936. While other cars of the era, like the Morris Eight, featured cohesive, rounded body shells, steel wheels, and integrated headlamps, the MG TA retained more classical styling with its low profile, long arcing fenders, and bicycle-like wire spoke wheels. The TA was powered by a 1,292cc inline-four cylinder making 50 horsepower.
Bodies were fashioned from a steel body and an ash wood frame. In addition to the roadster, the TA was also built as a more luxurious Tickford drophead coupe. MG updated the TA to TB for 1939, swapping in the new more powerful yet smaller 1,250cc XPAG which made 54 horsepower. The TB’s run was cut short by WWII, with just 379 built (making them a prized collectors’ car today).
MG TC
Like many cars of the era, the MG T-Type did not substantially change from its pre-war design, the TA and TB, to its immediate post-war design in the TC. But unlike most manufacturers, MG was not pressing to get a new, updated design to market either, content with the success that the pre-war throwback was still enjoying in the US.
Released in 1945, the new MG TC ran the same XPAG 1,250-cc engine but added a new 12-volt electrical system and new springs to the suspension. Four inches were added to the rear portion of the body, accomplished by narrowing the running boards, to make the cabin more accommodating.
MT TD & TF
The 1950 update from the MG TC to the new MG TD marks the T-Types first major overhaul. A new chassis was borrowed from the MG Y-Type, a new four-speed manual transmission added, as well as new rack-and-pinion steering. The TD was also 5 inches wider than the TC. The racing tuned TD MkII Competition featured an 8.1:1 compression ratio that netted 57 horsepower.
The MG TD has been a favorite of Hollywood directors for decades thanks to its unique styling. The TD was featured in Monkey Business starring Cary Grant and Marilynn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn’s Two for the Road, Love Story by director Arthur Hiller, and more recently in Quinton Taratino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The final version of the T-Type, the TF, debuted in 1953. The TF is much more visually distinct from the earlier versions of the car. The grille was redesigned, and the headlamps integrated into the fenders. A new dash design further emphasized the MG hexagon motif with new hexagonal gauge bezels. For 1954, MG introduced the TF 1500, powered by a new 1,466-cc four-cylinder good for 63 horsepower.
The Virtues of Simplicity
The MG T-Types were anachronistic cars. As other cars got bigger, bulkier, and more powerful, the MG T-Type remained a light, flingable car with a small, loud, rev-happy engine. As cars gained more chrome, bigger and bigger fins, and increasingly ornate grille works, the MG T-Type kept putting on the same dapper suit it had worn since the 1930s. The MG T-Type resolutely offered the classic motoring experience of driving a slow car fast and made to apologies for it. If the Mazda Miata’s top-down joyousness is “always the answer” today, that is only because it been cribbing from the notes of British roadsters like the MG TC all this time.
