POSTBAG DO YOU RECOGNISE THIS CAR? How many times have we seen this, and wondered what strange stories come out of the undergrowth. Try this one for size. My brother-in-law in South Africa sent me a copy of the Cape Town Crankhandle Club Magazine. He had never done that before, but had seen a “do you recognise this car” photo of an old MG, thought perhaps to be an N Type, and wondered if I would be able to identify it. I have somehow managed to acquire a reasonably good knowledge of the convoluted histories of the seven historic NEs, so when I saw the photo I recognised it as JB 4750. This did not require much specialised knowledge because the number was on the number plate! But only a few were likely to recognise it as an NE, because it didn’t look like one in its historic Tourist Trophy Trim, and neither did it look like one of the lightweight P Type Trials bodies, fitted between the 1934 and 1935 IoM TTs. The bodywork was neither of these, but a special lightweight body built by Tom Dargue in about 1947/8 because someone stripped off the TT body and had flogged it or given it away. Where that body ended up involves a long and convoluted yarn, which would take ages to repeat here. The story continued with me writing in triumph with the answer to the magazine editor, only to be told by his wife that he had very sadly dropped dead at a club natter only days before.
I was not going to be beaten, so I emailed my brother-in-law to see if he could locate the enquirer in the magazine, knowing only his name and home town about 50 miles up the coast. He found him, and we made contact. Among all the happy car chatter, it turned out that his brother, now long dead, had known the owner in Birmingham in 1955, and I was sent a good clear photo with the owner in the car. What was particularly gratifying was that the very sparse and unconfirmed one-liner in my research was confirmed and augmented, and a properly annotated photo has been added to the Club database. So, is this just another old MG identified and a bit of history added? Not at all. JB 4750 was one of seven pulled from the N Type production line and converted for racing in just a few months because the changed formula banned superchargers, and thus the very successful blown K3s. Abingdon managed to tune up an already good performance by the standard of the day from about 60 to 90 bhp per ton. The car won the IoM TT in 1934 in the hands of Charlie Dobson at a speed not much less than the K3 the previous year. It’s an historic piece of machinery, and we now know for sure where it was in 1955, and where it is now. Mike Edmondson
GEORGE PHILLIPS ARTICLES
UMG Monte Finish with Marc and co-driver Per Jonsson
I enjoyed the series of articles in which George Phillips described his motoring life with MG. I very much regret I did not have the opportunity to meet him. In the final article there was a photo of George with
14 SAFETY FAST! APRIL 2021
Gregor Grant and Gregor’s MG YB Reg UMG 662 on the quayside at Monte Carlo, having just completed the eponymous rally in 1954. The reason Gregor looks slightly glum is that they had just been disqualified
for missing (by a few minutes) the final time control. George doesn’t appear to be that concerned! I am the current owner of UMG 662. The car was the Autocar office hack and Gregor and George had also driven it as a press car on the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally. In my ownership the car has been back to the Principality three times on the Monte Carlo Classique Rally. I attach a photo of it in the same spot where Gregor and George were pictured 62 years previously. If, as George says, his final MG race in anger was in the September 1953 TT, his penultimate race must have been when he drove UMG 662 to third in class in the Daily Express Trophy Production Touring Car Race at Silverstone that May. The class was won by his old friend Dick Jacobs in another YB, UHK 111. That car, which I also own, is currently on display at the BRDC’s Silverstone Experience museum. Marc Hanson
www.mgcc.co.uk
