NEWS AND VIEWS

Heard mixed reports about MG Era day at Brooklands back in early April, I never got there but seems the newer MGs had a good turnout whilst pre-war cars not so much in evidence? I suspect no Ds there as I didn’t hear of any?

Drive it Day this year fell exactly on St. George’s day – April 23rd, unfortunately haven’t had any D pictures from anyone but must admit I didn’t help as I went out in the MGA! The next big event for us all is MG Live on 17/18th June. Again, Triple M’ers will gather round the cars at midday, 12.00, both Saturday and Sunday and I look forward to meeting many D owners!

Another event where we need a lot of D owners – and their cars! – is Pre-war Prescott on July 22nd, full details and entry forms on the website just search on prewarprescott.com . Last year we had no less than 8 D’s so would be good to at least to match that but good to see some new faces as well?! If you need any help or information do get in touch. If you are thinking of going it would be worth getting an entry off now, but spectators are also very welcome on the day.

There is also a Pre War Shuttleworth, in Bedfordshire, this year on July 29/30 and details can also be found on the prewarprescott website. If you’ve never been to the Shuttleworth Collection on a flying day this is not to be missed.

Welcome recent visitor to editorial HQ was Gerry Annetts in D0489 which sounded very good!

BITS & PIECES

Thanks to Peter Frost and Gerry Annetts a new part, at least to me, has come to light. These are the filling pieces, left and right, to fill the gap between the front undertray and the inside of the chassis rail. The originals came from Peter’s J1 and are pictured here.

The cut outs/slots are for the brake cables and wiring loom.
They are not listed on the early D parts list but are very similar to the 4 (front and back each side) which go with the rear undertray. These are described as ‘angle plates’ under part numbers 1434 and 1435 for the early Ds and 1436 and 1437 for the later ‘longer’ Ds. It would be worth checking your inside chassis dimensions before making them, relatively easily done from solid aluminium; also check the diameter of the mounting holes which should already be in the chassis in the right place. The attached drawing shows a ¼ BSF threaded hole is needed whereas some (all Ds?) only have a 3/16 mounting hole in the chassis.

There is another drawing on the Triple M Group site, www.mgmmm.com, look under ‘drawings’ then ‘chassis’ and see item 20. It is shown as for the J2 but these ‘fillers’ were on all models – only larger on the K types.

D TYPES IN COMPETITION

Thanks to Colin Butchers we had another historic picture for our archive in the form of D0331 during a London to Land’s End trial in 1932 shown here. (and this was put on our Facebook page)
It is believed to be being driven by its first owner a Mr George Bond. Unfortunately the car has not survived.

I’m always a bit hesitant about mentioning D’s in competition; the D was never intended to be a competition car as such; obviously in pre-war days ‘trials’ were the rage, or the norm, and the D could at least hold its own to some extent as power and pure speed weren’t the main requirements.

The late Mike Hawke in his J type archive searches found several D Types mentioned in pre-war competitions and wrote an article listing these in ‘Safety Fast’ for June 1998 (reproduced in my 2004 booklet about D Types) and are listed below with a couple of notes added from me:

In his article, Mike went on to say that the service records do not show that these cars were greatly modified. Some had lower 8/43 crown wheel and pinions fitted, most had four-speed gearboxes but that is about all. Any further competition history, pre or post war, not already mentioned in Dispatches would be most welcome!

OIL GAUGES AGAIN

We mentioned the ‘Shutter’ oil gauge in the last issue, original equipment in Ds, J1s and F1s, many were discarded over the years in favour of a standard gauge which showed the actual pressure. The consequence being that originals are now very rare to say the least!

Pictured in the last issue was a Smiths version of the Jaeger one, which I hadn’t seen before. Well pictured here is another unusual one.
It is the standard size and is a horizontal barrel which turns white from red when oil pressure is up. I used this in D0311 when I first completed its restoration some years ago now before acquiring a proper Jaeger shutter one. It worked well although I had no idea of the actual oil pressure and interesting it is headed ‘oil indicator’!

I’ve heard a rumour that a small batch of original Jaeger ‘Shutter’ gauges could be made; let me know if you would be interested.