Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: MG at Bonneville in 1956 Continue reading the Original Blog Post
I do not approve of this message. More fun from previous MG shenanigans on the Salt: http://www.mg-td.com/mgtdsportscars.htm
MG was at Bonneville in 2003 when I made my only visit there. They raced a station wagon obtaining 225 mph. http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/news/news864.html
Really cool vintage documentary film, thanks for posting. Most Bonneville films don't examine the course layouts and explain the procedures, this one does.
O.M.G, this is the finest Bonny film ever. I love M.G's because of my early experience driving a T.D. that my Dad was given to sell for a former Miss America. She was from Grand Island Nebraska and was headed for Alaska to teach school, the T.D. was not a very Alaska friendly ride. What a thrill to drive this at 12 years old, and having Miss America right there in Dad's shop. thanx for posting this awesome film, viewing all the nostalgic equipment is a eye opener in our advancement.
Cool, Thanks for posting. I never knew that they also raced in a 10 mile circle. Thought it was only the straight course.
On multiple occasions courses have been laid out on the salt (circles and other). The Mormon Meteor, Shelby w/Daytona Coupes, and so on have all set records on road courses drawn on the salt. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've always been impressed with MG's engineering and success of this period. My dad raced his friends MGA in the early 60's, They had plenty of wins in this car. Head ported by a metallurgist collage professor friend. Here he is at Cotati in 62 or 63 putting a hurt on the Speedsters. They went on to to win this event.
Just before they went to war with each other, Goldie Gardner ran 200+ with the EX-135 on the German Autobahn while the Nazi's looked on 1939.
This MG wagon built by SO-CAL is sitting in my garage, in perfect shape. All the other ex-factory MG Bonneville cars are in the British Motor Museum. Sadly MG went bust which resulted in the car coming up for sale. A pal and I bought it and took it back to the salt four times in 2007 and 2008 with help from Peter Stevens and Kiwi Steve Davies, who built the wagon when he was at SO-CAL. We found a few more horses in the Roush motor, bumping it up from 765 to 800. The motor has a NASCAR bottom end and a Panoz LMP1 top end so pulls 9,500 rpm, backed by a Jerico 5 speed and Winters QC. The factory budget for building and running the wagon was crazy, nearly seven figures. They only ran it a few times, bagged the speed they wanted, then boxed it up and sent it on the international car show circuit. Pat Kinne drive it for MG. The build quality was incredible - we ran that wagon like a taxi, consistently clocking up 225mph run after run. At one Speed Week we made the third highest number of runs. We ran faster than the factory and pushed the C/Gas/Coupe record to 226.319. It was a great experience and we were very privileged to have some very famous friends helping us, like Sir Stirling Moss, Peter Stevens (ex-MG design director and designer of the McLaren F1 amongst others), ex-factory MG racer Anthony Reid and Andy Green (World LSR holder at 763mph). As you know, there's a long tradition of land speed record breaking in Britain and it was Sir Malcolm Campbell who was the first to go over 300 at Bonneville in Bluebird, at the invitation of the great Ab Jenkins, himself a land speed legend. As Kiwi said, "This is the beginning of the end" and it was - I've been back to the salt every year since, even in 2014 and 2015 when there was no racing. I'm tempted to take it back to the salt but have decided to sell it to help fund my '34 3W Bonneville build. Fun though it was, I preferred racing the roadster in my avatar. Regards Jon'.
I ran an MG in SCCA and local race groups before I switched to BMW's.Every kid should own one,the earlier MGA's and TD's were very easy to work on and were not as prone to breakdowns as one might think.
Always had a soft spot for British Sports cars. Still have my '69 MGB-GT that I bought in Aug 1980. Fun to drive and it's been all over the country. Just need to jiggle wires now and then to keep the lights on.
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