|
How this
might have been done is not said.
One imagines that Mr. Davis would have noticed if a supercharger had
been added and the pump fuels of the day did not give much scope for
adventures such as raising the compression ratio. In his book "Wheelspin"
the contemporary author and triallist Austen May complained that his
J2, along with several others, did not go as weil as it should. A
top speed of 65 mph instead of 80 mph indicates a problem of a
fairly serious nature. His car was returned to the works. Af ter
treatment is was returned "now capable in full measure of giving the
anticipated high range of performance". But we are not told wh at
the problem was or what was done to put it right. One theory centres
on correct valve timing and the adjustment of valve stem length
which can take many hours to get exactly right. Other weaknesses in
the design which were exposed when the top speed was raised by over
1 0 mph and the peak rpm by some 1,500, were the brakes and the
crankshaft. Cecil Kimber cured these in 1934 with the P-type having
bigger brakes and heavier, three-bearing crankshaft. This together
with the other modifications to the body and chassis made the car
over two hundredweight heavier than the J2.
In the J-series of modeis, the J 1 was the open four-seater or
close-coupled coupe. These cars were externally identical to the
final D-types and cannot be distinguished with certainty until one
opens the bonnet. The J3 was outwardly identical to the J2 except th
at a Powerplus supercharger lived under the front apron. This fed an
engine which had beén reduced to 750 cc by means of a shorter-throw
crank, giving a useful improvement in performance and the ability to
compete in the 750 cc class in competitions. The J4 was the
sports-racer with high-pressure blower, close-ratio gearbox, outside
exhaust, bigger brakes (the twelve inch type destined later for the
P-type and many a private conversion on J2s) and a doorless body.
The J5 was actually catalogued as an un-blown J4 (presumably with
twin 1 1/4 inch semi-downdraft S.U.s?) but no car was ever delivered
as such.
The factory produced a whole
new range of publicity material to promote the new model and in the
brochure "The New M.G. Midget - The Car With The Racing Pedigree"
they listed the features including an "entirely new head design, two
carburettors, ten miles an hour faster, more commodious coachwork,
twelve volt lighting and starting, brakes better than ever, racing
type wheels on all modeis" . They said that it's modest price of t
199.10.0. for the J2 was out of all proportion to the lavish
equipment but I notice from the catalogue that the stop, tail and
reverse lamp cost you an extra £ 1
.19.0! Incidentally
for those trying to find wh at was original equipment on a J2 it is
interesting to see that for an extra twelve guineas you could have
all the deluxe equipment fitted at the factory; this included an
electric clock, an Ashby steering wheel, stone guards on headlamps,
oil thermometer, bonnet strip, snapped lever-type quick filler on
petrol tank, the aforementioned stop, tail and reverse lamp and a
radiator thermometer. AII the models now had leather upholstery and
quite a range of colours. It is interesting to see that the
catalogue lists that the chassis for the J 1 and J2 could be bought
without bodywork for £175 which means that the bodywork only cost an
extra £ 24.1 O.O. - rather less than it would cost to re-body a J2
nowadays! In the catalogue it also says th at if you were buying
just the chassis you could have a set of four wings for
£ 2.5.0.
and the same
price was charged for a bonnet. It also said that a fan could be
fitted as an extra to the J 1 and J2 models although in a later
catalogue this has been deleted.
Throughout it's production life the J2 experienced only one major
external change. In late 1933 cars were given swept mudguards and
running boards. This was one of several changes leading up to the
1933 Motor Show. Minor modifications over the production run
included the extra outrigger bali bearing at the front end of the
crankshaft, the fullyfloating gudgeon pins, a successively
stiffened windscreen frame (to be replaced by an altogether stronger
item on the P-type), domed instead of flat glasses on the
instruments (what an originality point for a concours!) and the
replacement of the S.U. Petrolift by the S.U. electric fuel pump.
The Jl was discontinued in mid-l 933 as, in effect, were the J3 and
J4 models - Cecil Kimber was al ready looking forward to the 1934
season. The last J2 left Abingdon on lOth January 1934, only seven
cars being built that year, and the decks were cleared ready for the
production of the P-type. Thus, for some time, the J2 was the only 'small-cam'
model in production, surrounded by K and L-types. No wonder Cecil
Kimber wanted to give it a face-lift for the Motor Show.
The exploits of the cars in
international competition are weil documented. The most successful
J4 driver of 1933
was Hugh Hamilton. His ding-dong
battie with the great Nuvolari in the 1933 R.A.C. Tourist Trophy is
one of the most famous of motor racing stories. His class win at the
Avusrennen and other races where he mixed it with full grand prix
cars are a prime part of J4 lore. Bobby Kohlrausch campaigned the
same car in Germany in 1934 with much success at Nationallevel.
Maillard-Brune's car won the 1934 Bol d'Or 24-hour race, Rex
King-Clark's car was first equal in the only ever tied race at
Brooklands, and Mayer's car set Hungarian speed records at Tat.
Beside all this the J3 seems very low key. Eyston, Wisdom and Denly
set International Class "H" speed records up to 24 hours at
Montlhery, W. E. Belgrave's car won its class in the Alpine Trial
but other attempts in the top echelon of motor sport at venues such
as Le Mans and Monte Carlo did not bring success. One car was fitted
with a salonette body (no good looking for it, it now wears
something more conventional), and the last car to be built was
fitted with the newfangled swept mudguards.
Hood and side curtain arrangemant
on the prototype J2 |
1933 swept-wing J-Type These wings
affording better weather protection were fitted from chassis
J3438 |
Meanwhile
the J2 took to club competition like a duck to
water. Sheer weight of numbers ensured a measure of success. No less
than seventeen won awards in the 1934 Abingdon Trial and ten of them
aimed higher to enter that year's R.A.C. National Rally. J2s
remained an active part of the club scene after the Second World War
- Ken Rawlings example winning major trials as late as 1947. Today,
Dudley Sterry's rather special car still gains a steady stream of
awards in the toughest of trials and gives the moderns a run for
their money. Seldom is it alone in the field. In races, J2s were
overshadowed by their supercharged counterparts but Charles Druck's
car finished two 24-hour Bol d'Or races. This leads us to the fact
th at the 1934 Bol d'Or had among its starters a swept mudguard J2
driven by M. Balestre. Is th is the same as he who presided over the
activities of the F.I.A recently? If so, one wonders what memories
stirred when, fifty-five years later, he signed and sealed the F.I.A.
Certificate for the first International Class speed records to be
set by M.G. for over thirty years...... in, of all things, a J2.
Today very few J1 tourers and salonettes
survive. Those that do have mostly been rebodied as J2s which is a
pity as an original J 1 salonette or tourer is an attractive looking
car and would create quite a considerable amount of interest.
As a car to own today the J2 has a lot to
recommend it. It is fairly simple compared with some of the other
mode Is and as they are reasonably plentiful they still can be
purchased at not too inflated prices. The bodywork and fittings are
not too elaborate to work 'on and the cycle wings of the earlier
models relatively inexpensive to obtain and easy to fit. As with all
of the overhead cam cars the engines need to be worked fairly hard
to obtain reasonable performance but with such a free revving unit,
and such a good gearbox, this is no hardship. You also have the
knowledge that you are driving a car which is a good piece of
motoring history. In its day it was a trend setter, a very
successful car in club competition and one which gained some success
in National and International events. If it was the M-type which set
Cecil Kimber on the raad to successful quantity praduction of small
sports cars, th en it was the J2 which set the seal on th at success.
Production period 1932/34
Numbers build: J 1 open
262
J 1 Salonette 117
J 2 2061
J 3 22
J 4 9
chassis 23
This information is taken from the
book "MG Road Cars" Four cilinder O.H.C. 1926-1936
|
|
