Proud Owner in 1949

This is a true story. I bought my 1947 TC from a dealer in 1979 and like most TABC owners, I would wonder in an idle moment about the previous owners. The car came with a replacement logbook started in 1954. As time went by I became jealous of the owners who had original copies of the brown book, I needed my cash for spares and general living and could not afford to buy one. As time went by a few bits of paperwork came my way but it all seemed so pointless. I was also aware that the car originally came with a tool kit and that replacements could be obtained, at a price. I even bought a copy tool roll in blue canvas at Silverstone one year to hold my decidedly modern tools.

Two things have made me understand that there is such a thing as luck and that it can seek you out. The first started at Silverstone around 1990. I returned to my car to find a note under the wipers saying Hello MG 7305, I own MG 7306 and I know the owner of your car in the '60s and '70s. To cut a longish story short I took the car to see him, we went for a drive and he gave me the original windscreen glass, some photos and the Castrol lubrication chart and envelope he obtained in the '60s. He also gave me some MGTC Register newsletters from '64, '65 and '66. He was able to tell me some of the history of the car in his ownership.

The second time the world went wobbly started with a surprise telephone call from Roger Furneaux in 1998. The first owner of my car had contacted the MG Car Club to ask if MG 7305 still existed as he had some paperwork and tools left over from when he sold the car in 1957. Once again, we met up and this time he was insured to drive the car. I fear that after so many years of modern machinery a TC was something of a rude shock! However he gave me the full documentation for the car, starting with the letter and brochure he got from M.G. in 1946. Then the receipt for the deposit from University Motors and so on through the full set of pamphlets sent to the first owner by M.G. and then some insurance certificates and tax discs from the '40s and '50s. I have petrol coupons for the car from both post war and Suez rationing and if they had not gone out of business, University Motors owes me a first 500-mile free service! He gave me some 85% of the tool kit that came with the car all wrapped in the original canvas tool roll. I can assure everybody that TC3382 built in Aug 1947 and sold a fortnight later did not have a blue tool roll but a beige canvas one and that many of the original tools are not as those sold by the dealers. So now I have everything that I dreamed of for all those years and a lot more besides. Indeed there are booklets I have never seen elsewhere and I can prove the colour scheme for the car is as original.

I sought out neither of the 2 owners that I have been lucky enough to meet. With my time as owner we represent 50 of the 55 years the car has existed and now the car looks better than any of the 3 of us. The joke is that neither of the 2 gentlemen had moved from the houses they lived in as recorded in the logbook. The first owner had not moved since 1950! I could have contacted them at any time I felt like it!

The same gentleman with the same car in 1998.

. . . and here is the story of TC3382

Julian Evers