MGC GT (1968/70)
In July 2018 these two beautiful MGCs' made the 500 mile round trip from West Yorkshire to Fawley Hill to feature in MGC Day 51. But their journey began much earlier than that ... read the full story below...
(article originally featured in Safety Fast! January 2019 edition)
A Tale Of Two MGCs
On the first of August 1968 18 year old John Denton went with his father, Lewis, to Scar Lane Motors, MG dealers of Milnsbridge, Huddersfield, to collect a brand new MGC GT that his father had ordered a couple of months earlier. It was finished in Mineral Blue and registered as OVH 527G.
To say that John was wildly excited about his dad's new car was an understatement, as he had been an avid MG fan since 1957 when his dad had bought a new ZB Magnette and had spoken in almost reverential tones about its 68hp twin carburettor B series engine, so the C, with 145hp was sure to be lightning. So it felt to John when his ever-indulgent dad let him drive the C almost every night and weekend for the year they owned it, only selling it because it was no longer possible to squeeze Johns' 12-year-old sister, Julie, into the miniscule GT "rear seat".
John was left with a burning ambition to own a C of his own, just like his dads. After much saving, he fulfilled his ambition three years later in October 1972 when he was racing his Villiers engine go-kart at the last ever race at the Crystal Palace circuit, near London.
He had spotted a J registered MGC GT like his dads' advertised nearby, one of the batch bought by London dealer University Motors direct from the factory when production ceased in 1969.
This car, FGN 335J, was a nice low-mileage example so a deal was done, the car was bought, John finished 4th in the race and then, highly elated, drove his C back home to Huddersfield.
At the time, John was working in the engine development department at David Brown Tractors, and felt sure that with the skills and techniques that his mentors in the department shared with him, he could improve the performance of his C, so over the winter of 72-73 he stripped out the engine, polished, ported, balanced, skimmed the head, balanced combustion chambers, knife edged and mirror finished valves and seats, and assembled very carefully.
He finally got the engine back in the car and running in the early hours of Saturday April 15 1973 and then, after a couple of hours sleep, ran the engine in on the drive up to RAF Topcliffe, near Thirsk, where he had entered an MG Car Club sprint in the 'up to 3 litre' class.
The competition consisted mainly of Healey 3000s and John felt that some of their owners were looking down their noses at his C with its reputation for 'evil-handling' and 'sluggish performance' as reported by most of the motoring press at the time of the C's launch in 1968. John thought they might have taken a different view later that day when, after some very determined driving, John and his C took 1st place, causing some raised eyebrows among the Healey men. Good job done.
The Arab-Israeli war later in 1973 and the resultant 'massive' increase in the price of petrol from 24 pence to 35 pence a gallon meant that John could no longer afford to run his C, as he saved up a deposit for a house, to start his own car sales and repair business, and get married. His C slept till 2005 when John recommissioned it, having still only covered 14,000 miles right up to the present.
During John's 40-odd years in the retail motor trade he would often "HPI" his dad's car, OVH 527G, so he knew it still existed, but even with the help of MGC Registrar Ginny Cartmel, he could never identify its owner or location, apart from learning that the car had failed an MOT in 2008 and then, nothing.
That's how things stood until June 2017 when John opened his copy of Safety Fast! and saw staring out at him the ad for MG Mecca in Cambridge OVH 527G - his dad's car.
A visit was arranged without revealing the historic connection and John was delighted to find that Russell Storrer and his excellent team at MG Mecca had carried out a full body restoration and engine overhaul in 2009, after which the car had not been run. A deal was done, the car was bought, at which point John was delighted to reveal that the car had been his dad's when new.
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First job on the upon its return to John's home near Halifax was to restore it to its correct wire wheel tyre configuration, as it had acquired alloy wheel at some time in the past, and sort out the myriad of faults that a car this age can suffer from to pass its MOT.
The car is now back on the road and attended the 2018 MGC gathering at Fawley Hill, along with FGN 335J driven by John's daughter Lorna and her partner, Jonathan.
When John has completed the rebuild of his 1932 MG J2 he intends to completely strip his dad's car and restore all components to the same standard of condition and appearance that won him "best car in show 1946 - 1968" at the prestigious Isle of Man "classic TT" in September 2017 with his 1954 MG TF.
The restoration will, John feels, be a tribute to his dad for buying the car in the first place, but also to the brilliant team of engineers at Abingdon who produced the C under very difficult circumstances and were in Johns' view unfairly criticised, largely because the C was not a B, but it is now increasingly recognised as a relaxed, long legged grand tourer, which is exactly what John proposes to use his two Cs for, going forward.
As it is no longer possible to contact previous owners via the DVLA V888 process, John would be delighted to hear from anyone with news of his dads car from 1969 to 2001 (contact via the button below or johndentonquarry@gmail.com)
Grateful thanks to Safety Fast! for reuniting John with his dads car.
Photo Gallery - MGCs at Fawley Hill
Click to view larger image
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