It seems that by the mid 1950’s. MG’s sports cars were looking thoroughly “old fashioned” but the introduction of the MGA in 1955 sure changed all of that in a flash. All it all it was pointed out by die hard enthusiasts that only a few front suspension parts were carried over from the obsolete TF1500, while there was an all-new box-section chassis frame, a sleek and aerodynamic two-seater body style and to top it off the engine was a tuned version of BMC’s new B-series standard design, matched to the corporate gear box and back axle. It was something of a miracle therefore , that the MGA had so much character – it could nearly reach 100 miles per hour , was amazingly refined and comfortable, and had beautiful satisfying handling and road holding.
Right from the start MG’s John Thornley wanted to get a new car into competition and thus he did his best to encourage the development of a new high-performance twin overhead camshaft engine to make this vision possible. Two different new engines appeared at the Tourist Trophy Race of 1955, and one of them (designed by Morris Engines in Coventry themselves) was eventually developed into a production unit. Among its other competition uses was that, in a highly supercharged form, it powered MG’s mid engine record car, EX181 which achieved more than 250 mph at the Utah Salt Flats in 1959.
The MGA Twin-Cam was announced in the summer of 1958 and was available in an open Roadster or bubble-top Coupe form – the Coupe having glass wind-up windows and a small but perfect habitable, saloon car. Not only did the car have the twin-overhead-camshaft-engine, which was effectively an extensively modified version of the MGA’s normal pushrod overhead valve engine, though at the time, the basic engine was only 108 barrel horse power, but it also had four-wheel disc brakes and was fitted with unique center-lock steel disc wheel of a type fitted to D-Type Jaguars and BRM Grand Prix cars.Twin cams were always expensive, and had been known to finicky to service and maintain, but this ought to have been matched by a top speed capability of 115 mph and acceleration to match, if but only the automobiles had been reliable. The problem basically put was that in the early days the engine gained a reputation for oil-burning holes in pistons if they ran on inferior brands of petrol (cheap gas). However by the time remedial action was taken (and it was taken fortuitously) for indeed later Twin-Cam series were extremely nice and very desirable cars to own, the brand and model’s reputation had been shot to ribbons. Production which began in earnest in the autumn of 1958 was running rapidly by the end of 1959 and the last was built fully months later.
Between 1060 and 1962 , when the separate MGA family was dropped in favor of the monocoque MGB, a series of rather mysterious MGA 1600 De Luxe models were also built – which were effectively Twin-Cam chassis, with the disc brakes and the special wheel, but without the expensive and specialized twin cam engines. A grand total of 2,111 Twin-Cams and 395 De Luxes were built and the surviving cars are now highly prized collector items. The special engine was the only twin-overhead-camshaft unit ever fitted to an MG motor car, and the experiment has never been repeated.
Such goes life and the automotive industry. Yet this ground breaking car and its models have had major impacts on the automotive industry and its varied products to this day in 2011.
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