The MG Car Club Sydney TD Register

The position of registrar for The MG Car Club Sydney is currently Vacant.

MG TD 1950 to 1953

The first mock up of the car was built from scratch at Abingdon in Oxfordshire, in 10 days. This was basically achieved by cutting 5 inches off a Y type chassis and mounting a TC body on to it.

It was designed with a sharp eye for exports to the American market and it secured immediate acceptance there. The export strategy worked well for MG as out of the 30,000 built some 28,000 where destined for overseas markets, 23,500 to North America and some 900 here in Australia. Other major countries included Belgium, Switzerland, France, and South Africa. The TD was in production for four years, from late 1949 to 1953.

The TD was launched in the UK on the 1st January 1950 and infact some 100 had already been made during the latter months of 1949, some of which are here in Australia. The main innovations from its predecessor the TC, was that it had independent front suspension, rack and pinion steering, easy clean wheels bumpers and over riders. Also a glove compartment that allowed space for a radio! It has a wider body than its TC predecessor which made the car look lower and stockier. The early cars had solid steel wheels, later on in production pierced (drilled) steel wheels where fitted. Wires were never an option for the TD!

The XPAG four cylinder pushrod overhead valve engine had a capacity of 1250cc which generated 54.4 bhp at 5200rpm.The bore and stroke was 66.5 x 90mm. The gearbox was a four speed unit with synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gears. 9 inch Lockheed hydraulic breaks were also employed with 2 leading shoes on the front.

A cruising speed of around 60 to 65 mph was reported in the motoring press and a top speed of 78 mph was attained with the windscreen folded flat with only the driver.

The UK cost of the TD in 1950 was 445 pounds + purchase tax.

There where about 1700 TD MK 11’s built. These where the competition version of the TD and featured twin fuel pumps, also Andrex shock absorbers were fitted to all four wheels. A genuine Mk 11 model can be identified by its chassis number prefixed by TD/C, and on later cars from engine number 17029 (June 1952). The engine number had a prefix of XPAG/TD3. The engine on the MK 11 produced some 60 bhp and had a bore and stroke of 72x 90 mm giving some 1466cc.