I purchased my TC new on September 13th, 1948. Even though I purchased it new, I was not the original owner! The West Coast MG importer, Gough Industries, was also the distributor of Philco refrigerators and TV sets. They had run a contest: "Why I prefer Philco TV" in 25 words. The young couple who won the first prize, a shiny new red TC, had no use for the car so I purchased it from them for the princely sum of $2050. Fortunately, it was exactly what I lusted after: red with a biscuit interior.

I had been reading in British magazines about rallies and trials and thought these sounded like fun. I was dismayed to learn that no such activities existed in Southern California, so I organized the first rally in that part of the state in December of 1948. The rally had 20 contestants, mostly TCs, and went from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. It was a success and from this nucleus I formed a club which remained active for several years, putting on rallies, funkhanas and tours.

From these experiences I learned that most TC owners were dissatisfied with the lack of adequate service facilities, so, being somewhat unemployed at the time, I opened a small shop specializing in "them funny ferrin cars" as well as wheel alignment, which was my speciality. I truly felt I had found my niche in life: working on wonderfully interesting cars for a neat bunch of people , many of whom became close friends. Occasionally, at the drop of a hat, I would close the shop and a few of us would take off for a mountain tour or a snack. From this evolved the infamous "Moss Motors Luncheon & Bench Racing Society" and its now-coveted badge.

Moss Motors, Ltd. actually began in 1950, when I signed on as the first Los Angeles Rootes dealer and also became the first West Coast Allard importer. This didn't last long for two reasons: I wasn't cut out for that kind of big, cutthroat business plus which I damn near killed myself in a race with my Cad-Allard (the first on the West Coast), cartwheeling it several times. That was when I found racing to be against my religion: I am an orthodox coward!

When MG began phasing out T-Series parts, I began buying up dealer and distributor stocks from all over the world, and established my own machine shop to manufacture discontinued items. I produced my first T-Series parts catalog around 1961, gave up my shop in 1963 and moved to Santa Barbara. In 1976 I sold Moss Motors and retired, to enjoy and restore cars at my home shop. I moved to Sedona, Arizona, in 1997, where I found a house with a four-car garage, a workshop and magnificent views. I think there is a kitchen somewhere as well.

Naturally, I still own and regularly drive my TC. In the seventies and eighties I made many cross-country jaunts to MG meets, usually cruising at 70+ and doing 550 mile days average. I entered the TC in quite a few historic races such as the Monterey Historics, until I restored a neat 1934 Morgan 3-wheeler which I run in two events a year, including Monterey. I am currently restoring a 1948 Morgan 4-4, which is similar to a TC. My TC has slightly over 100,000 miles on its odometer.

If anyone is interested, some of my photos can be viewed at www.photopoint.com Go there and enter RacerMoss@sedona.net and follow the directions.

My personal web site is www.racermoss.com .

Al Moss