I bought my car from a deceased estate in 2001 after she was stored in a shed for about 15 years. No history was available but she's been quite extensively modified, probably some time in the 50's. Starting at the front, she has a strengthened and boxed chassis, telescopic dampers, panhard rod, radius arms, cycle guards, 15" front and 14" rear wheels, finned brake drums, rack & pinion steering (Morris?), steel body frame (no wood) with seam welded panels, reinforcing hoop under the dash (from a TD?), bucket seats, modified instrument panel and transmission tunnel, and a Holden diff. I've probably missed some details but I think nothing significant.
We think she was built as a hillclimb car due to the small diameter rear wheels, but nobody in the local MG car club or historic racing scene recognises her. This is despite the fact she's been registered locally since 1950.

I've recently found out more history on my car, thanks to a chap in the local MG club with a very long and accurate memory. He recognised it as the car built by a young engineer called Tony Penington in the early '60's. Tony built it up from a bare chassis, making the body and almost everything else by hand - that's why it's a bit odd in quite a few of the details. It was built as a bit of a hot-rod with a very warm Holden (GM) 6 cylinder engine bored out to about 190 ci. It ran the usual stuff like triple SU's, hot cam, extractors, etc and by all accounts was rather quick (for a TC) - top speed around 130mph and quarter miles in under 13 seconds. Tony ran it in a few club events at the time but his first love was power boat racing and he never kept records or photos of his racing. I've managed to get some photos from a later owner with the car just as it was built, and it looks rather neat with 3 carbies sticking out of the wrong side of the bonnet and twin exhausts exiting in front of the passengers side wheel arch.

The good news is that Tony is still around and I 've shown him the car. It's very much as he built it except it now has a (relatively) standard XPAG and the rear end setup he built (telescopic dampers, panhard rod, tramp rods) has been replaced with a standard setup. Nevertheless, it was very exciting to meet him and talk about the car and I'm now in the process of applying for a Historic racing log book to run as it was in the '60's. I've found a motor to use and it should be a pretty good project for our winter coming up. Now, if only had used a V8 instead all those years ago......... :)

Andrew Clayton