1959 MGA Twin Cam


Details

MG is one of the world’s most iconic motoring brands. Founded in 1924 by Cecil Kimber, MG (which are the initials for Morris Garages) produced some fabulous cars pre-war and enjoyed much success in motoring racing. A milestone for the company occurred in 1933 when an MG Magnette K3 became the first non-Italian car to win its class at the Mile Miglia.

Today when someone mentions MG you immediately think of ‘the affordable, everyman’s sports car’, and particularly the MGB. It was, however, post-World War II that MG really brought the sports car to the people with the MG TC. The MG TA (built from 1936 – 1939) and MG TB (built from 1939 – 1940) were well regarded sports cars, but sold only in relatively small numbers. Introduced in 1945 the MG TC was in fact a very similar car to the MG TB, both visually and also mechanically sharing the same 1250 cc engine but with a slightly higher compression ratio.  Whilst only built as right hand drive America fell in love with the MG TC and many cars were sold to American servicemen serving in the UK and Europe at the end of the war. In fact everyone loved the TC and cars were sold to all points of the globe! Over six years of production MG sold 10,000 MG TC’s.

The MG TC was succeeded by the MG TD in 1945 and circa 30,000 cars were built before being replaced by the MG TF in 1953. Just under 10,000 TF’s were built of which one third had the 1500 cc engine. The T Series MG’s were replaced by the MGA in 1955.

The MGA was introduced to compete with the new and very fresh Austin Healey. This model was a completely new design which proved to be another great success story for BMC. In total, just over 100,000 MGA’s were built from 1955 through until 1962. When introduced the MGA was powered by a 1489cc four cylinder engine and the first MGA’s were often referred to as MGA 1500. The MGA power plant went through a number of improvements through the models life, including an increase to 1588cc in 1959 (MGA 1600) and then to 1622cc in 1961 (MGA Mark II). MG also introduced a high performance version of the MGA, the MGA Twin Cam in 1958.

The MGA Twin Cam was built in limited numbers and only 2,111 examples left the Abingdon factory before production ceased in mid-1959. The breakdown of the 2,111 cars is 1,788 were roadsters (1,331 left hand drive & 457 right hand drive) and only 323 were coupes (125 left hand drive & 198 right hand drive).

Oldtimer Australia is delighted to confirm the sale of a factory right hand drive ‘home market’ MGA Twin Cam Coupe. The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust certificate on file confirms this ‘matching numbers’ car was built 27-31 August 1959 with a date of despatch of 31 August 1959.


Specification

  • -
  • MGA Twin Cam
  • 1959
  • Coupe
  • Manual
  • 96,788 miles
  • 1588cc

SOLD

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