Beschreibung
'It is not surprising that with the makers' knowledge of racing... it should be capable of giving as high a speed as 80mph. What comes as a revelation is the ease with which on Brooklands that speed is reached and held. The rev needle hovering between the 5, 000 and 5, 500 marks, the whole mechanism feeling as one, and with no sense of adventure attached to such speeds.' – 'The Autocar' on the N-type Magnette.
Small-capacity six-cylinder cars were much in vogue in the early 1930s and MG had duly climbed aboard the bandwagon in 1931 with launch of the Magna 'F'. An extensively revised and improved version of this 'KD' engine, was carried over to the 'NA' Magnette of 1934. The chassis too had come in for revision, being lighter than hitherto. These advancements gave the N-type improved handling and stability for these race-ready sports cars. The ND featured the N-type chassis with the lightweight MG K2 body- a potent combination.
Shortly after the introduction of the N-Type, MG was sold to Morris Motors in 1935; this sale had tremendous effects on MG, most notably on their motorsports efforts. The N-Type was the last of these race-ready customer sports cars and the ND was the last of the last.
'US 7795' is one of only 24 ND Magnettes, most of which appear to have some sort of competition history, since it is thought the model was only supplied to owners favoured by the MG Works. Records held by the MG Car Club's Triple M Register show that 'US 7795’ was no exception being sold new to Mr Charles Grant MD of Grant, Melrose and Tennant Glasgow MG Distributors, who is believed to have first used the car in competition on the Scottish Car Club Anniversary Trial in October of that year. At some point shortly after this the car acquired by Keith Elliot an experienced and successful rally and trials driver, who clearly bought the car knowing its rallying potential. In a letter on file Elliot described ‘US’ as “specially built by MG for their Glasgow Distributor with 2-seater body, with high compression engine, reputedly TT Replica”. The cars potent nature was highlighted by his first event The Autumn Half Day Trial where Elliot cleaned up winning the award for first car under 1500cc and a First Class Award and being a member of the Winning Team to boot. This was followed up by Awards in the Anniversary Trial and MG Combined Clubs Trial, where the car was described by ‘The Light Car’ as having a “genuine TT engine” again suggesting works assistance was given to this ND. ‘US’ continued to compete in 1936 G. Murray Frame driving the car on the Scottish Rally, at some point the car passed to W. Thorne who continued the cars successes in rallys and trials winning a Second class Award on the Half-Day Trial, at this point the car was noted as being two-tone green, with twin-spares, twin 1 3/ 8 SU, bonnet bulge and TT engine.
Following known owners of the car are- Lawson Ramsay 1937, Squadron Leader Mahler, George Horne 1941 (see correspondence and images on file concerning his ownership), Cyril Taplin 1945, Paul Martienssen 1957, 1958 W. G. McCalls, M. G. Pankhurst 1959, G. V. Kell 1959, B. J Dix 1960, J. H Large 1962, Terence Edwards, Ken Abrahams who purchased the car from a Christies auction in 1996 (where it was incorrectly listed as an NA). Ken Abraham had quite a lot of work done on the car particularly on the engine, before selling the car to the current deceased owner in 2007.
An MG campaigner of many years standing he purchased ‘US’ wanting a really good 6- cylinder MG for rallying and VSCC trials and acquired ‘US’ after a long and diligent search, as the very best MG available for this purpose. Having purchased the car a thorough programme of mechanical work was undertaken, as shown by invoices on file for substantial work on the engine, back axle, rebuilt front axle, brakes, rebuilt gearbox, body and paintwork, rebuilt steering box, fuel tank, new windscreen, rebuilt carburettors and much other work besides, by specialists such as Paul Myatt and Roger Thomas.
Sadly at the time of his death in 2011 this work had not quite been completed and the car has been in store since then. In preparation for sale ‘US 7795’ has been re-commissioned by Ian Harris Engineering and is now running and driving.
Representing arguably the ultimate road/ rally 6-cylinder MG and authenticated as an ultra-rare ND by the Triple M Register (Number 3462), ‘US 7795’ would be ideally suited to pre-War rally events such as the Flying Scotsman, with the potential as in period to punch well above its weight.
