Description
MGC Roadster YWT 666G Known as The Beast.
Purchased for £1650 and first registered 25th July 1969 by Malcolm Trewhitt and first raced 2 weeks later. Malcolm competed with the car in standard trim to keep its warranty for the first year and then took the car to Downton Engineering with £1500 of parts from John Chatham and had to pay Downton £1500 for the fitting. The car returned to Downton a year later and a “full race” package was specified.
When Downton closed the car was looked after by Rally Equipe in Bolton more known for their Mini preparation. Its reported the car won 49 of its 100 starts in the ownership of Malcolm and was awarded the MGCC Banana Trophy. By this time the car had gained weight over its standard weight so in 1977 Malcom stripped for a weight loss package but the car then sat for 10 years in a barn on the farm.
The second owner was Chris Green, a garage owner, who converted the car for FIA rallying so the car lost lots of its race parts and wide wings and JA Pearce wheels. Chris ran the car in the 1989 Pirelli Marathon finishing 67th overall with 27 hours and 15 minutes of penalties after a push rod popped out from under a tappet and would not go back in. All of the above information is mostly in MGB-The racing History by John Baggott and through my conversations with Malcolm and Chris.
The car was then purchased by Gordon Ogilvie around 1990 and still had a genuine 25965 miles on the clock. The Beast made its first magazine appearance in the Nov 1994 issue of MG Enthusiast magazine.
At some point the car changed hands and ended up with Mike Knox and Rita Shelley. They competed in the 97 LeJog trail and Targa Rusticanna as a shake down for the more demanding London to Cape Town event. The car was sent to Trevor Taylor in Mitcham to prep the car and at the end of the rally driver Rita and navigator Mike got engaged. The car was the sent to Brown and Gammons for extensive works prior to the next rally in South America. The Inca Trail in 2001 started on 5th October in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and took in 6 countries, 25, 000 kms and 55 days of stages averaging at 450 kms every day and some stages being over 800 kms. The car led the event after 4 days and finished again in Rio with a Red Riband award and Rita and Mike got married at the end of the event. Another detailed article appeared in the April 2002 MGOC magazine and also I have the Inca Trail book that was made up after the event.
The car may have changed hands again and there is paperwork from Brown and Gammons for more work and a few years of storage at their facility.
In 2006 the car was traded in for a Jaguar E type, the last V12 ever assembled, and 666 disappeared for a while. It turns out a friend of mine had taken it to France to use at his house while he stayed there. The car was used in the International Rally of Charente in 2009 and also at some point the Angouleme Circuit De Ramparts. It was sometimes used by a France based car hire company.
I acquired the car in 2017 and have owned and run the car since then. It appeared in the dining room at Chateau Impney for MGC 50 and in 2019 made another appearance in May 2019s issue of MG Enthusiast. I have done minor work to the car. I changed the steering arms for a set of Andy Young’s billet alloy units, fitted a 123 distributor and parabolic rear springs.
The car drives superbly. It can be driven quite normally but if you press the go pedal the car leaps into life. The engine is now running triple SU’s, a full maniflow exhaust, still has a manual overdrive gearbox that was a rebuilt unit in 2017 and runs a MGB rear axle with V8 crown wheel and pinion.
A chance to own a little piece of MGC racing and rallying history.
