The MGTD/TF in America

Social and Economic Atmosphere

The 1950's in America saw an exciting change in its society stemming from many factors. The existence of the MG TD and TF and sports cars in general were just a contributing factor of that change. Read the text below to get a sense of American society and how it allowed the sports car craze to not only incubate but spread rapidly to other parts of the world.

Economy

During the 1950's, Americans achieved a level of prosperity they had never known before. While other parts of the world struggled to rebuild from the devastation of World War II, citizens of the United States saw their standard of living surpass what previous generations had only dreamed about.

The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s. At the end of the decade, the median American family had 30% more purchasing power than at the beginning. Inflation, which had wreaked havoc on the economy immediately after World War II, was minimal, in part because of President Eisenhower's persistent efforts to balance the federal budget. Except for a mild recession in 1954 and a more serious one in 1958, unemployment remained low, bottoming at less than 4.5% in the middle of the decade.

Many factors came together to produce the Fifties boom. The G.I. Bill, which gave military veterans affordable access to a college education, added a productive pool of highly-educated employees to the work force at a time American businesses were willing to pay handsomely for engineering and management skills. Cheap oil from domestic wells helped keep the engines of industry running. Advances in science and technology spurred productivity. At the same time, potential competitors in Europe and Asia were still recovering from effects of World War II in their countries.

In 1953 a family shows off the fruits of the new consumer wealth. One of the factors that fueled the prosperity of the Fifties was the increase in consumer spending. Americans enjoyed a standard of living that was inconceivable to the rest of the world. For example, Vice President Nixon told Nikita Khrushchev in the mid-1950s that there were 60 million cars in the United States, but the Soviet leader simply refused to believe him. When Khrushchev came to visit America, Eisenhower arranged for him to fly in a helicopter over busy roads and parking lots to witness the remarkable signs of abundance for himself.

"Gasoline War" at 3rd Avenue and Beverly in Los Angeles, Calif., 1954. For decades prior to the 1950's Americans had limited spending abilities. Either the concessions of both world wars, the depression and its after affects in the 1930's or other factors required Americans to limit their spending to the absolute necessities. When consumer goods became available again, people wanted to spend. By the 1950s, though they made up just 6% of the world's population, Americans consumed a third of all the world's goods and services. The 1950's Americans moved from a society of producing just what people needed to a consumer based society creating what people wanted. In short Americans went from a frugal society that saved and reused to one that used and threw away. Consumption became fashionable, not necessary. You bought a new car because you could and wanted to impress your friends, not because you needed one. Advertising this consumption model was as important as the products themselves. For example product promotion in the United States went from $6 billion annually to over $12 billion by the end of the decade. One reason all of this occurred is that credit was extended to a whole new level in the 1950's. For example the first national credit card, Diners Club, was launched in 1950 to be used solely for meals at exclusive restaurants. But by the end of the decade there were a number of credit cards available to consumers to purchase anything from clothing, to automobiles and even swimming pools.

Society In America

Bomb shelter in Hermosa Beach, CA 1951. Everyone was moving to the suburbs in the early 1950's On 1 November 1952, the United States set off the world's first thermonuclear explosion. It exploded with a force 500 times as great as the atom bomb that had destroyed Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Less than a year later, the Soviets exploded their own H-bomb. Both sides had long-range bombers, and both were developing missiles that would be able to rain down from the heavens upon the major cities of their enemies.

During the Fifties, Americans were rightly anxious about the threat of the Soviet Union and fearful of the dangers of nuclear war. They were told that Communists might be infiltrating their own country. The world was changing in ways they didn't understand.

If one word could describe American society during the 1950's, it would be "restless." We tend to imagine the Fifties as a tranquil decade, but in fact Americans spent the years moving and searching. They moved physically, from the Northeast to the South and West - California's population grew by 49% during the Fifties, Florida's by 79%. They moved from rural areas to cities and from cities to suburbs. By 1960, a third of the country's population lived in the 'burbs. Many people were content, but many others felt ill at ease because of the speed at which the world was changing. Searching for new ways of coping, they embraced religion and visited psychiatrists in unprecedented numbers. Diaper service trucks and mothers with babies they serviced. San Fernando 1958

From Los Angeles, Portrait of a City; Move in day in an LA Suburb, 1953 With veterans benefits, including VA loans, the 20-somethings found suitable housing in the new tracts sprawling on the outskirts of America`s cities. Documentaries on the topic indicate that the postwar suburban housing boom began in a suburban "planned community" called Levittown, in New York and Pennsylvania. In fact, large-scale, planned communities and housing tracts were being built on the outskirts of all major American cities, especially in California.

It was common that the young wives of virtually entire suburban neighborhoods were pregnant at the same time. In short order, new schools had to be built. Farm and ranch land became seas of similar-looking homes without town centers, jobs, or city amenities. Eventually, many isolated suburban tracts, numbering in thousands of homes, did become legal communities, albeit on a different model from traditional communities with a core downtown business center. Interspersed throughout those new communities were "strip malls", businesses lined up in a row along roadsides, usually in common and architecturally uninspired buildings fronted by a large parking lot with little or no greenery.

Control towers at new department stores, with electric signals directing shoppers where to park. Los Angeles 1953. Children rode bikes, played in the street, built models. Men built HeathKit electronics and toyed with sports cars. Women concentrated on fashion and homemaking. Girls played with dolls and pretended to be homemakers. Smoking was considered normal if not fashionable. Other pastimes included malt shops, community swimming pools, and clubs. Musicals and science fiction movies were popular by the 1950s. Westerns were especially popular with families, and many were created specifically for adolescents. Popular kid shows most often followed a serial format, appearing in the afternoon on Saturdays. Such shows as the Mickey Mouse Club, Lassie and Sky King were popular with families. At times, matinees played in several installments per week. Popular heros were Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger. Cartoons that were popular were Felix the Cat, Woody Woodpecker and Crusader Rabbit.

The term "teenager" was rarely used before the 1950s. During the 1950's, young people began to see themselves as a distinct group. Their attempts to forge an identity worried adults, who couldn't understand the shift. The change was connected to the nation's affluence. Earlier in American history, young people often had to work full-time jobs to help support their families' basic survival. Teenagers out cruising in 1953. By the 1950s, that was usually no longer the case. Teens instead worked part-time jobs or received allowances from their parents, giving them money to spend on fun non-essentials. In part, the phenomenon was inspired by the returning G.I.s of the late 1940s, who after surviving more than four years of World War II had a lot of wild oats to sow. Teens of the following decade imitated the defiant, rebellious, let-loose pattern of this slightly older group. But, then as now, most of these stylistically rebellious teens did not commit crimes or get in trouble with the police.

Instead, they eagerly embraced the mobile culture. They owned cars, cruised the highways, and frequented fast food outlets and drive-in movies. They bought records and adopted rock n' roll as the sound of their generation. Rock was a form of music created specifically for teenagers, performed by young people, and marked by a more open sexuality than the kids' parents were used to. Popular radio disc jockeys like Alan Freed, Murray the K, and Wolfman Jack became, in a way, unlikely authority figures for Fifties youths.

Transportation

During the Fifties the number of cars in the United States nearly doubled from 39 million to 74 million. By 1960, 80% of American families had at least one car and 15% had two or more. Many times that second car was a sports car, often an MG. By 1960, Americans owned more cars than all the rest of the world put together.

Helms Bakeries street delivery 1950's. A new freeway system was devised, officially known as the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, it had a military as well as civilian purpose: it could be used to rapidly evacuate cities in case of a Soviet missile attack. It was a monumental undertaking to build 41,000 miles of four-lane roads. Americans were delighted with the ability to drive from place to place at high speed, with no stoplights or intersections to worry about. The automobile was their method to go anywhere easily and in style. This allowed Americans to move out of big cities where they worked into the suburbs where they thought they were going to live in idyllic settings, often en mass. Of the 12 largest cities in the United States, 11 lost population during the 1950s. (The one exception was Los Angeles, which became a kind of car-culture mecca.)

Harrington Best Western Motel, 1956 Drive-in movie theaters boomed - there were 3,000 in operation nationwide by 1956. Mobile Hotels, better known as Motels, became common, led by chains like Holiday Inn and Best Western. Shopping malls, offering new shopping convenience, began to appear everywhere. By the middle of the decade, 1,800 shopping centers had appeared in the United States. Everything was automotive. Drive in restaurants, inoculation clinics, churches, banking, and bakeries.

Much of the text for the above sections was derived from:

Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11).
Economy in The 1950s.
Retrieved January 30, 2014 from http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/economy.html

Many of the pictures in this section were derived from:

THE H.A.M.B.

The History Of Los Angeles blog.

Retrieved January 30, 2014 from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=446547

Sports Car Scene

Social Attitude about Sports Cars

When you think of the sports car scene in the early Fifties in America it was initially not what you might expect it to be, it was 'anti-social'. Most people were driving large American made sedans. They were concentrating on raising families in their newly acquired suburban homes.

In 1954 LA sports cars were rarely seen. Sports cars, like MG T's, were considered radical and not generally socially acceptable. But those who liked the cars found a camaraderie in other sports car enthusiasts they did not get from other social venues. Soon they started to congregate, most often at the local parts store. Here they found other like minded individuals who thought like they did, normal. The next logical step in this transformation was to visit each others garages to 'help' them in maintaining or improving their cars. This followed with local drives to test and validate their work and then to more formal events like road rallies. The most ardent of the group actually raced their cars at one of the hundreds of racetracks that sprung up overnight in the late 1940's and early 1950's. In Los Angeles alone it was estimated that over 50 racetracks for sports cars, stock cars and other types of race worthy vehicles existed in the early 1950's.

By 1961 sports cars were more familiar on American roads. Note the two at the intersection. These refuges offered their participants an escape from the normal fabric of the 8 to 5 workday. Often tied up all week long in fairly mundane jobs a sports car allowed them to escape, if even just for a few hours on the weekends. Many would drive them to and from work, often commuting on crowded and smoggy urban highways and freeways. They were often looked down upon (actually both literally and figuratively) by those on the roadway they were often passing. Most non sports car enthusiasts felt that these individuals were radicals, ruffians and not to be trusted. Even future presidents were caught up in the MG sports car craze during the early 1950's Then there was another set of mostly young men who were envious and longed to drive one of those cars too. Whenever they passed each other on the highway they would wave. They felt that owning a sports car in the early 1950's put them in an exclusive club or society.

It was not long before sports cars became the rage and left the stigma of radicalization. By the early 1950's there were many other options available outside of the traditional MG TC or TD. Sports cars were being imported mostly from Europe with every type of feature and price tag imaginable. Single men with barely enough money to pay their monthly car payment through to Hollywood movie stars with multiple custom made imported sports cars. Soon everyone wanted to own, or at least be seen in, a sports car. They became not only socially acceptable but chic.

Interestingly in the July 30th, 1956 Sports Illustrated they asked leading car manufacturers and importers The Question: What Is The Appeal Of The Sports Car And What Is Its Future In American Life?

From the Thursday August 13, 1953 Issue of the Torrance Press

Car Lovers Build Unusual Club House Camer-Inn will be the focal point of sport car enthusiasts if the unique vision of two young men is accurate. Cameron Cooper and William N. Branch Jr. are building a club house located at Madison and Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance-Walteria. When it is finished, they expect to cater to sport car lovers in the whole South Bay area and beyond. They want their club house to be the meeting place of all who love to talk cars, whether the individual happens to own a sports car or not.

Club House The club house will contain a restaurant with TV, a comfortable lounge, and outside seating facilities, Branch explained. Cooper has been interested in sport cars over six years. Since he was not able to buy one, he decided to put up a sign at a Hermosa bar where he worked as a bartender, reading: "Help Buy the Key to My MG."The response was such that Cooper had almost enough for a down payment and was able to get the car he had wanted to badly.

Enthusiastic Cooper speaks with unabated enthusiasm of the marvels of sport cars and their potential effects on this area. His project has received publicity on Sport Car News, Channel 7, 10:15 p.m. At the time of his grand opening he hopes to get TV and magazine coverage. Cooper and Branch can be seen working daily on the building which is located near the Torrance airport. The men began construction in June and hope to open in the middle of September.

Alternatives and Competition to the MGTD/TF

While the MG TC is credited for starting the sports car craze in America, and the MG TD is seen as establishing it, not long after this the competition started to emerge. Not only were there different price points to consider from Triumph and Healeys to Jaguars, but the Germans and Italians were actively pursuing the market as well. There were dozens of different types of sports cars being imported into the United States by the mid Fifties and the MG was actually losing ground in market share. Porches became very popular as well as Fiats and Alfa Romeos. Even the domestic auto makers Ford with the Thunderbird of 1955 and Chevy with the Corvette of 1954 tried to compete, but they really did not appeal to the true sports car enthusiast. None the less seeing the different types of sports cars in the mid 1950's on the streets and racetracks of America would indicate there was no single dominant mark.

Popular Sports Cars of the 1950's

From How it Works

AC Ace and Aceca	AC Ace-Bristol and Aceca-Bristol	Alfa Romeo 6C 2500	Alfa Romeo 1900
Alfa Romeo Disco Volante	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	Alfa Romeo 2000 & 2600	Allard J2
Allard K2	Allard K3	Allard J2X	Arnolt-Bristol
Aston Martin DB2	Aston Martin BD2/4	Aston Martin DB Mark III	Aston Martin DB4
Austin-Healey 100/4	Austin-Healey 100 Six	Austin-Healey Sprite	BMW 507
Bristol 401 and 402	Bristol 403	Bristol 404	Bristol 406
Cistalia 202 Gran Sport	Crosley Hot Shot and Super Shot	Cunningham C-3 Continental	Daimler SP250
Facel Vega and FVS	Facel Vega HK500	Facel Vega Facellia/Facel III/Facel 6	Ferrari
Fiat 1200/1500/1500s/1600s	Healey	Jaguar XK120	Jaguar XK140
Jaguar XK150	Kaiser-Darrin	Kurtis	Lotus Elite
Maserati A6G	Maserati 3500GT/GTI	Mercedes-Benz 190SL	Mercedes-Benz 300SL
MG TD	MG TF	MGA	MGA Twin Cam
Morgan Plus 4	Morgan 4/4	Nash-Healey	Triumph TR2
Triumph TR3	Triumph TR3A & TR3B

NA Exports of the MG TD for the Period 1949-1953

1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	Imported	Total	%
96	2810	5756	9901	5021	23,584	29,664	80

This includes Canada.

Its not surprising the MG TD exports to North America approached 80% as this was the market the car was designed for. Nuffield understood the United States economy very well and was savvy enough to know that this was the market they were going to be able to sell to. So the cars design pretty much catered to the US market, but built on the momentum that the MG TC started. Note that the exports dropped in 1953 for two reasons. There was a lot more variety of sports car choices being offered by 1952 and the MG TD was considered old and stale by 1953.

Sir Leonard had signed a contract with Donald Healey to produce a new Austin-based sports car that became the Austin Healey 100. Lord saw no point in the new BMC operation producing two sports cars that could easily compete with each other, so when MG requested permission to start production of the MGA it was refused, and MG was instructed to continue producing the TD even though sales were declining every week. This was a bitter first taste of Group Policy for Abingdon. Source: How British Leyland Grew Itself To Death by Geoff Wheatley

NA Exports of the MG TF for the Period 1953-1955

1953	1954 (1250)	1954 (1500)	1955	Imported	Total	%
1374	2374	1826	661	6235^	9600	65

This includes Canada

The MG TF sales continued to slide downward and you will note that the percent of production being imported into North America was decreasing, demonstrating that BMC was finding other markets for their MG's. The market for sports cars in the United States at the time was actually increasing so it was not the lack of buyers or interest that caused the sales to decline. In 1957, a total of 17,195 MGA's^ were imported into the United States and found willing buyers so the market was still very active. It just needed a car that was more appropriate for the era to compete.
^ Source: MGA with an Attitude

Car Clubs and Organizations

During the 1950's car clubs sprang up all over North America in support of the MG T series and sports cars in general. Many times they were racing focused but they could also be purely social or sporting, supporting such events as car shows and rallies. Another popular activity was organized hill climbs where members would compete with their cars to see who can climb a hill the fastest. In some of these events the cars actually climbed the hill backwards. Below are a few of the most important and influential organizations of the period. A few are still active and strong today.

California Sports Car Club

In the late 1940's, after the war, the Los Angeles film industry had a resurgence and there was a lot of money to be spent on frivolous items by the Hollywood celebrities. Roger Barlow understood that and through his company, International Motors (LA's largest foreign car dealership), found a ready market for sports cars to these affluent buyers. To promote the exotic nature of the cars he saw a means to introduce sporting events for his potential customers. Roger's background was in car racing and he joined forces with John Von Neumann and Taylor Lucas (an employee of Barlow's) to form a motor club to provide competitive events for themselves and other interested parties. In 1947 they formally created the California Sports Car Club in Southern California.

The club's first organized outing was at Palos Verdes (August 31, 1947). The first sponsored CSCC race was in Palm Springs in 1950. The CSCC held races at Palm Springs and Torrey Pines as well as other venues in the early 1950's. During the early 1950's the CSCC was bitter rivals with their east coast counterpart, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Much of the disagreement had to do with how drivers were qualified for races and their status as amateurs or professionals. The CSCC felt that there was really no distinction and that amateurs, if properly equipped and with satisfactory experience, should be able to race in any venue. By the same token professional drivers should be able to race along with amateurs.

More about the California Sports Car Club.

Four Cylinder Club of America

Founded by British immigrant, John Foster in Glendale, California, the FCCA quickly grew into the largest non-racing sports car club in the United States. Some sources place the founding of the club in 1949, while others indicate it began in 1950. Regardless, it is clear the club was incorporated as a State of California nonprofit organization on July 19, 1951. Initially, the club consisted of a single entity, anchored in Glendale. But attendance at club meetings and events grew so quickly that a single club was not big enough to accommodate the throngs of enthusiasts. So, the Club decided to form chapters. Each chapter agreed to abide by the FCCA's bylaws and to the directives issued from the National Headquarters. At one point, there were chapters in ten states spanning the distance from the west to the east coast! And, with the chapters spread over such a huge geographic area, it became necessary to divide the country up into divisions, with chapters attached to these divisions and the divisions attached to FCCA National.

The Story of Sports Car Motor Week By JOHN E. FOSTER, National Pres. FCCA

In the Fall of 1952 at one of the regular FCCA Board of Directors meetings the question was raised "What can the National HQ do to help unite all the different chapters of FCCA both socially and financially?"

Many such question and topics are brought up at Board Meetings, and some are adopted. many are shelved for lack of interest, money, or workers. However, this question was foremost in all our minds and many suggestions were mulled. The best suggestion a "'Motor Week" was put up by John MaIone of the Santa Monica Chapter, the idea grew and grew, as did the enthusiasm of all present. The wheels were put in motion and the National officers set about enquiring for this and that and searching for the inevitable band of volunteer workers. From the very beginning the Ambassador Hotel officers and staff pledged 100% support as did the splendid group of Imported Car dealers listed in this program. The Southern California Distributors of Imported cars offered their complete support and many of the south's leading accessory houses made generous donations to the cause. As the enthusiasm for the 'Week' spread the newspapers helped carry the message of "motoring for fun." and more and more people donated time and effort and money to assuring its complete success.

Now the 'Week' is upon us, here it is yours to enjoy to the full. We want you to take part in each and every event - for the sheer enjoyment that you can get out of motoring events well planned. There are beautiful dash plaques for every contestant, gorgeous trophies for the lucky winners - lucky because we know luck will play a big part in this week which is designed mainly for fun. Only you can make the week a success - by participating. If it is the success we expect - next years will be even greater and if you could peak in one of the Board Meetings - your hair would stand on end at the suggestions lined up for the 1954 "Sports Car Motor Week."

JULY 12 THROUGH 19, 1953

As a footnote, a FCCA member later wrote: Motor Sports Week, also called Motor Week, was a huge event promoted by the FCCA. It included a concours, rallies, gymkhanas, road race, and other events that were held over the course of a week. Only two Motor Sports Week events were held, one in 1953 and the other in 1954. When the idea of holding another event in 1955, club members revolted, complaining that the event took too much time and energy to carry off.

More about the Four Cylinder Club of America.

MG Car Club

In September of 1952 there were over 1,400 members of the MG Car Club in the United States.

The first club meeting took place on 12 October 1930, at the Roebuck Hotel near Stevenage, with over thirty MG cars and their owners coming together. In 1945, the club was taken in-house by the MG Car Co. at Abingdon. August 1951 saw the first Silverstone 'all-Centre' meeting, an event which still continues today. Membership continued to grow and the first overseas Centres were formed. The club was greatly strengthened by the initiation of a magazine circulated to all members, Safety Fast, compiled by F. Wilson McComb.

MG Car Club of Florida

The MG Car Club of Florida, which was formed in 1956 in Jacksonville, FL. The MG Car Club Florida is one of the oldest MG & All British Car Clubs in the State of Florida.

MG Car Club of Western New York

The MG Car Club of Western New York Centre was originated in the fall of 1957. Formally established in 1958, it became a Centre of the MG Car Club of England. Rallying was the club's main focus in the early days and they were instrumental in creating some of the more challenging courses at the time. Gradually, the emphasis shifted to racing at local tracks and nearby Watkins Glen. The WNY Centre organized and ran the MG races at Watkins Glen. Many social events were also held during this time such as an annual overnight "Tour to Lake Placid" (1957) where the WNY Centre was conceived.

MG Car Club of Northern California

Kjell Qvale, a Northern California importer and race enthusiast, was the driving factor in the formation of the Northern California chapter in 1949. The club sponsored its first race at Buchanan Field in November of 1949. By May of 1950, membership had grown to seventy-five and the second race at Buchanan Field was held with thirty entries.

In November of 1949, the Northern California MG Club organized a day of special events for their members. The Contra Costa Gazette ran a pre-race article about the event, mentioning a gymkhana along with "speed trials" for "businessmen who participate for the pure enjoyment of driving". Despite the lack of advertising, 3,000 spectators showed up at Buchanan Field in Concord, California, to watch the events unfold. The program included acceleration tests, a novelty race involving driving backward, scratch races, and a six-lap feature race. A three-mile course featuring "twists, curves, and hairpin turns designed to test the driving skill of the drivers rather than the power of the car" was laid out using the airport runways.

MG Car Club, Northwest Center

In 1957, Cliff Garlatz, a sales manager for Imported Motors, a Tacoma foreign car dealership, applied for and received a charter from the MG Car Club of Great Britain. Cliff had a list of people who had purchased MGs from the dealership and invited them to the first meeting. While technically not a MG TD/TF started organization, the club was popular with the TD/TF owners late in the decade.

More about the NW Center club can be found here.

MG Car Club of Washington, DC

In 1951, the club began with a first meeting held at Manhattan Auto, the sole MG dealer in the Washington area, then located at Seventh and R Streets, NW. At that time, the entire East Coast was represented by a single organization, centered in the New York City area. This organization was part of the original MG Car Club founded by Roy Marsh and John Thornley in 1930. This Washington area club was founded as a separate sub-centre of the Eastern United States Centre. The number of members involved in the founding is not known, but by 1954, when the sub-centre became a separate centre in its own right, there were 47 members in the club. In 1956, the club won the Nuffield Trophy from the MG Car Club organization as the most outstanding MG Car Club worldwide.

Southern California Center - Long Beach MG Club

The Long Beach MG Club was the Southern California Center of the MG Car Club of England in 1953.

Moss Motors Luncheon & Bench Racing Society

After working half a day on Saturdays, Al Moss would close the shop and enjoy lunch with a few other car enthusiasts. Eventually this Saturday lunch session became a regular happening and the Moss Motors Luncheon & Bench Racing Society was formed. One of the members, Ben Sears, designed a special badge and this badge was proudly mounted on the front of each member's car.

The Luncheon Group was very popular. Members came from all walks of life, from Hollywood movie stars to doctors and lawyers to garage mechanics. "In those days," Al reminisced, "we all drove TC's or TD's and liked each other!".

Sports Car Club of America (SCCA)

The SCCA is an active organization that was formed in Boston in 1944. At first as only an enthusiast group, the SCCA began sanctioning road racing in 1948, with the inaugural Watkins Glen Grand Prix. Cameron Argetsinger, an SCCA member and local enthusiast who would later become Director of Pro Racing and Executive Director of the SCCA, helped organize the event for the SCCA. But to become a full member in the SCCA you had to own a proper sports car. Inskip Motors sold Cameron an MG.

The seven original members of the SCCA were wealthy and their initial interest was not in racing but to preserve exotic and expensive 'sporting' automobiles. But shortly after it was inaugurated former members of the Automobile Racing Club of America, which was halted during the war, decided to join the SCCA and abandon any plans of reviving the ARCA. They changed the mission of the club to include the regulation of competitive events 'for amateur members' and the encouragement of 'safe and sportsmanlike conduct on public highways'. The SCCA was basically a gentlemen's club and the thought was that encouraging safe driving would help give auto sport a 'respectable' image in the public eye.

In 1951, the SCCA National Sports Car Championship was formed from existing marquee events around the nation, including Watkins Glen, Pebble Beach, and Elkhart Lake. Many early SCCA events were held on disused air force bases, organized with the help of Air Force General Curtis LeMay, a renowned enthusiast of sports car racing. LeMay loaned out the facilities of operational air bases managed by the Strategic Air Command for the SCCA's use. The SCCA relied heavily on these venues during the early and mid-1950s during the transition from street racing to permanent circuits.

More about the SCCA can be found at their website here.

Important Raceways, Races, Hill Climbs and Test Tracks

The MG TC launched the sports car scene in postwar America. A wave of drivers first competed on the track in these and the later TD, TF and MGA models during the 1950s, many of them eventually moving up to Porsches, Alfa Romeos, Jaguars and Ferraris. A good book to go into the depth of these drivers and the races they competed in can be found in: They Started in MGs: Profiles of Sports Car Racers of the 1950s.

The 1950's was the most prolific and dramatic decade for sports car racing in the world. The MG T's had a lot to do with the popularity of the early 1950's racing scene. In 1950, three races were on the West Coast calendar: Palm Springs, Buchanan, and Santa Ana Airport. The MG played an important role in filling the grids of these early races. In some cases, over 50% of the cars entered were MGs. For example, at the first Pebble Beach Road Races that November, 19 of the 36 entries were MG-TCs and TDs - including one supercharged car and one with a Ford V-8 capable of 120 mph! This trend continued at the 1951 Pebble Beach event, with 24 of the 48 entries being MGs, including another V-8-equipped model driven by a young Richie Ginther. An increase to 85 entries - which included 45 MGs - came in 1952.

Most of the racing activity was in Northern and Southern California as well as the north eastern states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Both the California Sports Car Club and the Sports Car Club of America dominated the racing scene in these two geographies respectively. There were however numerous other small clubs and organizations scattered around the United States ready and willing to promote racing at whatever venue they could secure. Often airports were utilized because of their hard surface and open spaces. Both formal and informal tracks and road races were set up in the early 1950's, many times on common rural roads without any formal safety barriers, road conditioning or little more than a few markers to show the course to the drivers and spectators. Often spectators wandered onto the course and more than one race or two was affected by livestock or other animals who appeared randomly. In the later 1950's this lack of safety caused many venues to cease or to move to more formal facilities and in the end provided the basis for much of the safety facets we see in racing today. Thompson Speedway was the first off road location that the SCCA utilized when they were being pressured to stop road racing in 1952. Moving to an organized venue with a paved track, security and safety features for the public was a milestone in sports car racing in the United States. From this point on most venues would be held at formal tracks or airports. Road racing in public areas began to decline rapidly.

During the 1950's speedways and racetracks popped up all over the United States. In Los Angeles alone there were reported to be over 60 different tracks at one period in the early 1950's. They varied from simple dirt tracks to more elaborate banked and paved courses, sometimes ovals and often more complex and windy routes.

Initially most of these venues were the populace of hobbyists and enthusiasts. There were no professional drivers. Eventually that gave way to more formal events and participation, often sponsored by distributors, importers and car companies. The drivers and mechanics, who previously performed both roles and were just hobbyists, started to become specialized with full sponsorships, careers and even reaching celebrity status not only locally but internationally as well. These types of events made the aura of the sports car even greater and that had a direct effect on the commercialization and adoption of MG's and other sports cars into the fabric of North American society.

By 1953 the MG was becoming less competitive due to the influx of bigger, faster American Specials and an increasing presence of purpose-built, foreign race cars such as Jaguars, Porsches, and Ferraris. At this point MG's we generally driven by enthusiasts and hobbyists. The professionals had moved on to highly modified MG's or to more elaborate and expensive, often custom made, racing and sports cars. But even up to the 1960's you could find MG TD and TF's in the racing logs of amateur races.

An excellent source of information about the race tracks and detailed information about the venues and who participated can be found at the Racing and Sports Cars website.

A map of many of the lost Los Angeles area racetracks is located here and of course above.

Military Bases Used as Racetracks in the 1950's

As pointed out above, initially sports car racing was done on rural country roads with little or no thought to safety for the drivers or the public. After many accidents and deaths, to both drivers and spectators, local laws and regulations were put in place to prohibit or severely curtail road racing. The next logical place was to use airports which had more control to access and less hazards such as trees and cliffs to injure drivers. During the period from October 1952 until early November 1954, a number of United States military bases were used for motor car races. Much of these events were because of the sponsorships of Strategic Air Command (SAC) commanding general, General Curtis E. Le May. During this time the SAC was underfunded and not enlisting personnel at the rate they needed. General Le May thought that promoting car races on the bases would generate some needed revenue as well as help bring in potential new personnel.

The following is a table of military bases used for auto races from October 1952 until early November 1954 (see map above):

Paine AFB, Everett, WA 1953	Stout Field NGB, Indianapolis, IN 1953
Stead AFB, Reno, NV 1953	Atterbury AFB, Columbus, IN 1953-1954
Moffett Field NAS, San Francisco, CA 1953	Lockbourne AFB, Columbus, OH 1953-1954
Luke AFB, Glendale, AZ 1953	Westover AFB, Chicopee, MA 1954
March AFB, Riverside, CA 1953-1954	Floyd Bennet Field NAS, New York, NY 1953
Reeve Field, NAVSTA, Terminal Island, CA 1953	Suffolk ADC, Westhampton, NY 1954
Offutt AFB, Omaha, NE 1953-1954	Andrews AFB, near Washington, MD 1954
Fort Worth NGB, Newark, TX 1953-1954	Hunter AFB, Savannah, GA 1953-1953
Bergstrom AFB, Austin, TX 1953-1954	Turner AFB, Albany, GA 1952-1953
Chanute AFB, Rantoul, Il 1953-1954	MacDill AFB, Tampa, FL 1953-1954

More on this subject can be found in the book:
Runways and Racers; by Terry O'Neil

1950's California Raceways

A listing of circuits used in the California Galaxy from the 1950's as Dean Batchelor listed them in Vintage Motorsport, January/February 1992, and modified by me.

Name	Location	Type	Sponsor	Comment
Paradise Mesa	east of National City	course built on and around a drag strip	SDSCC	Sweetwater Airfield used during World War II for aircraft landing practice
Torrey Pines	near San Diego	built on roads in abandoned military base	CSCC	1st race December 1951
Hour Glass Field	San Diego	airport course	SCCA
Palm Springs	Palm Springs	course built on military base roads and airport	CSCC	first race in April 1950
Chino Airport	Chino	airport course using runways and taxi strips	FSCC
Pomona	Pomona	course laid out on the Pomona Fairgrounds parking lot	CSCC
Santa Ana Blimp Base	Irvine	airport course using runways and taxi strips	CSCC	one race only -- May 1950
March Field	Riverside	airport course on SAC base	SCCA	two races -- 1953 and 1954
Riverside Raceway	near Riverside	artificial course	SCCA
Terminal Island	Long Beach	airport course	CSCC	one race in 1953
Grand Central	Glendale	airport course on former Grand Central Airport	CSCC
Dodger Stadium	Los Angeles	parking lot course	CSCC	one race in November 1955
Hansen Dam	Los Angeles	built on roads in abandoned Basilone Homes veterans' housing project		one race in 1955
Paramount Ranch	near Los Angeles	artificial course on former Paramount movie studios ranch	CSCC
Willow Springs	Mojave Desert near Rosamond	artificial course		still used as racing venue, drivers' school and test facility
Santa Barbara	Goleta	airport course on Goleta Field	CSCC
Bakersfield	Bakersfield	airport course on Minter Field	CSCC
Madera	Madera	airport course on former military base
Pebble Beach	Monterey	private roads		seven annual races, 1950 thru 1956
Salinas	Salinas	airport road course
Laguna Seca	Monterey/near Salinas	artificial road course on Fort Ord property	SCCA	first event 1957 -- still in use
Stockton	Stockton	airport course on former military base
Moffett Field	San Jose/Palo Alto	airport course on former Navy dirigible base
Golden Gate Park	San Francisco	on public roads		three races -- 1952 thru 1954
Buchanan Filed	San Francisco	airport road course	SCCA	first organized event by SF Region of SCCA, 1950
Cotati	near San Francisco	airport course (naval field)
Vacaville	Near SF/Sacramento	airport road course
Sacramento	Sacramento	fairgrounds	SCCA	Used for the 1955 & 1956 National Sports Car Championships

Note the list is primarily sorted from South to North.

Berlin Raceway

In 1950 Chester Mysliwiec and family started the Berlin Raceway. The Berlin Raceway is a 0.4375 mile long paved oval race track in Marne, Michigan, near Grand Rapids. The Berlin Raceway still exists today.

Bonneville Speedway

MG TD making a night run at Bonneville, Goldie Gardner

The Bonneville Salt Flats is a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. The area is a remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and is the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake. The property is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the "Bonneville Speedway". Historically, the speedway was marked out by the Utah Department of Transportation at the start of each summer. Originally, two tracks were prepared; a 10 mile long straightaway for speed trials and an oval or circular track for distance runs, which was typically between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) long depending on the condition of the salt surface.

In 1951 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, Goldie Gardner, with his supercharged MG streamliner EX-135 car he obtained 6 international and 10 American records in the 1,100cc to 1,500cc engine class. In 1952 he returned to Bonneville with the MG EX-135 car and set 21 speed records in the same engine class as the previous year. In 1959 MG would set additional land speed records with a modified MGA named the EX181 driven by Phil Hill.

Video of MG Speed Trials at Bonneville Salt Flats 1956.

Bridgehampton

Bridgehampton race circuit 1949-1953 The first road races in Bridgehampton were held on public roads around the hamlet of Bridgehampton from 1915 until 1921. The course ran counterclockwise on an approximately 3-mile (4.8-km) rectangle, beginning on Montauk Highway, then turning left onto Halsey Lane, left onto Pauls Lane, left onto Ocean Boulevard, and left back onto Montauk Highway. The races were revived in 1949, utilizing a 4-mile (6.4-km) circuit adjacent to the pre-war circuit in Bridgehampton and Sagaponack. It ran clockwise beginning on Ocean Road, turning right onto Sagaponack Road, right onto Sagaponack Main Street, right onto Bridge Lane, and right back onto Ocean Road. The races proved successful, and joined the SCCA National Sports Car Championship when it was created in 1951. The road races came to an end in 1953, after a driver was killed in practice and three spectators were injured during the race. These events, combined with a spectator death in a crash at Watkins Glen in 1952, led the State of New York to ban racing on public roads.

Bridgehampton Race Circuit was a race track located near Sag Harbor, New York, United States. The circuit opened in 1957, following a series of road races held from 1949 until 1953. It was one of the first permanent road racing venues in the United States, opening after Thompson Speedway, two years after Road America, the year after Watkins Glen International, and the same year as Lime Rock Park and Laguna Seca Raceway.

Local racing enthusiasts formed the Bridgehampton Road Races Corporation in 1953 to finance the construction of a permanent race circuit in the area. The corporation purchased a 550-acre (2.2 km2) parcel known as Noyack Hills in 1956, and constructed a 2.85-mile (4.59 km), 13-turn road course. Although construction was not completed, the first races were held in 1957. The headline event, the Bridgehampton Sports Car Races, were a part of the SCCA National Championship; Regional races would be added in 1958.

The above information from Wikipedia.

Buchannan Field

Near Concord Calif. The first sports car race in the West Coast after World War II was in Northern California at Buchanan Field in Concord on November 20, 1949. It was organized, not by the SCCA, but by the Northern California MG Club, headed up by Kjell Qvale. The main event was six laps around a three-mile course laid out on the airfield's runways. Kjell's brother, Bjarne (Barney), won, in an MG TC. By May of 1950, membership in the club had grown to seventy-five and the second race at Buchanan Field was held with thirty entries. Brochure property of Racing and Sports Cars website

Carrell Speedway

The lineup for the start of the October 15, 1950 race at Carrell Speedway - Al Moss Collection

Tom Malloy's father, Emmett J. Malloy, (no known relation to Marion Mallory - inventor of ignition products) owned Sprint and Indy race cars, and built his own racetrack in Gardena, California called Carrell Speedway in 1940. The land was owned by Judge Frank R. Carrell, a longtime justice of the peace and community leader in Gardena, hence the name. Carrell Speedway was part of a whole circuit of local automobile raceways scattered around the Los Angeles area in the first half of the 20th century. Carrell Speedway quickly became a hotbed of West Coast racing, hosting all kinds of events, from open-wheel racing to stock cars, sprint cars, motorcycles and foreign cars. It remained a dirt track until October 1948, when it was paved. Its close proximity to a local drive-in theatre created obvious challenges at night. When it rained it became very muddy for both contestants and participants. It was very near Ascot Park. The track’s closure was announced in April 1954, when W.L. Bolstad of the California Department of Public Works told track lease holders (and brothers) Bob, Ken and Dee Durr that the state had purchased the right of way going through the speedway site for construction related to the Harbor Freeway. You can see a narrated video by Al Moss of the 1951 Carrell Speedway Foreign Car Races where he flipped his Allard here.

Carrell Speedway, Gardena, California. The road in the bottom right corner is Vermont Avenue. It runs roughly north and south, north to right. When Artesia Boulevard was put in, it cut through east-west just north (right) of the S/F line.

Climb To The Clouds

The Climb to the Clouds, also known as the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race, is a timed hillclimb auto race up the Mount Washington Auto Road to the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The very first motorized ascent of Mt. Washington was completed by Freelan O. Stanley of Stanley Steamer fame, in 1899. There were more steam-powered ascents during the next three years, and then in 1902, the first two gasoline-powered cars reached the summit.

The Climb to the Clouds was first run in 1904, seven years before the first 500-mile race at the Brickyard in Indianapolis and 12 years prior to the inaugural Pikes Peak Hillclimb in Colorado. Run sporadically throughout the years, many famous race car drivers and automobile manufacturers have competed in the event through its' colorful history.

You can read more of the history of the Climb to the Clouds Hillclimb here.

Cloudbank Hill Climb

Brewster Standard, October 25th, 1956 The Cloudbank Hill Climb was held in Garrison, New York on the 2, 3, 4 of November, 1956 and then again on 29, 30 of May in 1957. The 1956 event was sponsored by the Westchester Sports Car Club and the Garrison Volunteer Fire Department. The race course was basically the driveway of the Gilbert Family home (now Cloudbank Road). The course was a bit over 1 mile long and contained twenty-one turns. The road was unpaved and narrow.

The 1957 event was held mid week during the Memorial Day holiday. In addition to the sports car club and fire department they picked up two local sports car dealers. The events were really inspired and driven by the desire of Tip Gilbert, whose family lived on the road. It appears at first it was going to just be a few friends up for a race and then blossomed into a more formal event. The events only lasted for these two years as Tip went into the Army National Guard later in 1957 and unfortunately was killed in an automobile accident in 1958.

More about the Cloudbank Hill Climb can be found here.

Duryea Hillclimb

Named for the obscure automobile maker and following the same route that Charles Duryea used to test his cars, this is a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) hill located in a city park in downtown Reading. With a history dating back to 1951. Possibly the most diverse and challenging hill in the Northeast, Duryea boasts 13 turns (most of which are negotiated in the first half of the course) coupled with some high speeds at the top.

The Pagoda Hillclimb in June and the Duryea Hillclimb in August make up the two annual events that are commonly called the Reading Hill climbs. These events are run by the Blue Mountain Region of the Sports Car Clubs of America. Located above Reading, these two hill climbs use the same course. Duryea uses the full course, Pagoda starts at turn 2 and finishes at turn 9. Duryea is 2.3 miles long, rises through 800 feet, and has been used since 1951. Pagoda is 1 mile long, and rises through 450 feet.

More about the Duryea/Pagoda Hill climbs can be found here.

Elkhart Lake

In the early 1950's, sports car races were being run on the streets in and around Elkhart Lake. The open road sports car races held in 1950 through 1952 were conceived and operated by the members of the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America. Jim Kimberly is acknowledged as the person who selected Elkhart Lake and was the driving force behind organizing the races along with Fred Wacker, Karl Brocken and C. Bayard Sheldon.

At the time, Elkhart Lake was at a low point in its economic history and Jim Johnson, President of the Elkhart Lake Bank, felt that the races would bring a new energy to the area. Joined by Fire Chief Ray Kramer and Resort owner Ollie Siebken Moeller, a strong community effort was mounted that resulted in dozens of volunteers coming forward to help organize the races. Governor Walter Kohler, who had a summer home on Elkhart Lake, helped pave the way.

The 1950 races, held on the 3.35-mile circuit north of the lake, had the flavor of a typical club event. All the drivers and cars came out of the Chicago Region and most cars were driven to the event, raced and then driven home. The event took place on Sunday, July 23rd and five races were held with cars divided into two classes: under 1500cc and over 1500cc. Two 30-mile races for novice drivers were held, one in each class. A novice driver was defined as one who had never finished higher than fifth in any open road race. The novice races were followed by a 15-mile ladies race that combined both classes. The day was concluded with two 60-mile races for experienced drivers, one in each class. The event was very successful with an estimated 5,000 spectators in attendance.

The 1951 and 1952 races were held on a new 6.5-mile circuit that circumvented the lake and had a much different flavor. The Chicago Region of the SCCA planned, promoted and orchestrated the races and nationwide promotion attracted celebrities and professional race teams from across the country.

When the state legislature banned racing on public roads, a man named Cliff Tufte organized a group of influential local citizens and leaders of the of the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). This group developed plans and sold stock to build a permanent racecourse. The overall vision of Road America grew out of the dreams of Tufte, a highway engineer, who chose 525 acres of Wisconsin farmland outside the Village of Elkhart Lake for the track.

Tufte's dream became a reality in April 1955, the natural topography of the glacial Kettle Moraine area was utilized for the track, sweeping around rolling hills and plunging through ravines. By September 10, 1955, the track's first SCCA national race weekend was held. At 4.048 miles in length, with 14 turns, the track is virtually the same today as it was when it was first laid out and is revered the world over as one of the world's finest and most challenging road courses.

From A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPEN ROAD RACING IN ELKHART LAKE.

From the history of Elkhart Lake and the Road America raceway.

More information on Elkhart Lake can be found here. A copy of the 1951 Official Program can be found here.

Giants Despair Hill Climb

The Giants Despair Hillclimb is a hillclimb established in 1906 just outside Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in Laurel Run, Pennsylvania, United States. The contest was first run in conjunction with Wilkes-Barre's centennial celebration. It is the oldest continuing motorsport event in Pennsylvania. Race drivers from across the nation gather annually on East Northampton Street, the name of the road that winds its way through a 1 mile (1.6 km) section of Pennsylvania's steep mountains. Rising 650 feet (200 m), the course reaches grades up to 20% and has six turns - including the 110 degree "Devil's Elbow" - in the race to the top.

More information from the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association.

You can see video of the 1952 Giants Despair Hill Climb here.

Golden Gate Park

While Pebble Beach was a great success, it was the races in Golden Gate Park that brought sports car racing to the average person and created more local and national publicity than any other sports car race during this period. Over 250,000 spectators attended the races during its run from 1952-54, exposing sports car racing to many who had never seen a race before. The races were promoted by Bill Breeze and Kjell Qvale and were made reality by the Guardsmen, a San Francisco charity that sought donations - $1 a head was the going race rate - to send underprivileged children to summer camp.

Over the period of the three meets, each in 1952, 1953, and 1954, the organizers presented Cooper, Ferrari, Jaguar, OSCA, MG, Porsche, Aston-Martin, Allard, Simca, Singer, Crosley, Jupiter, and even US powered specials with Chrysler, Cadillac, Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln engines. Also, MG TC's and TD's filled many race positions. For instance, in 1952, there were about 20 MG's and 25 other UK cars in the entry list of 100.

"The only crowd control effort, besides course marshals saying, 'Stay back,' was snow fencing," said Gary Horstkorta, co-author, with Art Evans, of "Golden Gate Remembered," a book on the park races. "It was thin wooden slats held together by wires. Lucky they didn't have any accidents."

After a couple of years however, complaints from neighbors and the Society for the Preservation of Golden Gate Park prevailed. The last race held was in 1954.

Grand Central Airport, Glendale

Located at the Grand Central Airport in Glendale California. Glendale was a 2-mile airport course on the abandoned runways of Grand Central Air Terminal used once in 1955. The site is now covered by commercial and industrial development and Disney owns much of the property including the old control tower. The 1955 SCCA National Sports Car Championship's were held here. A total of 9 MGTFs and 6 MGTDs participated and a MGTF won their class. Racing Sports Cars data for the event.

Marlboro Raceway

Built in 1952 by Eugene Chaney and located on Rt. 301 just south of Rt. 4. The first track was a 1/3 mile dirt oval which opened on 7-21-52. The dirt surface remained throughout 1953 and was then paved for the 1954 season. Also added that season was a road course which utilized part of the oval. After 1954 with the addition of the road course, Marlboro Motor Raceway started to gain national attention with its sports car events.

Marlboro Motor Raceway (MMR) is a now-defunct motorsports park located in Prince George's County, just outside Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

 

 

Mount Equinox

1953 Mt. Equinox Race Winners The Mount Equinox Hill Climb, also known as the "Race to the Clouds", is located in Arlington, Vermont just outside of Manchester. Mount Equinox is the hill climb with the longest road, that has been continuously run, in the world. The length of the road is 5.2 miles and the elevation change is 3,100 feet. It contains more than 40 turns and cars have been clocked at breaking 100 MPH on the long straight ending at "The Saddle". Started in 1950 as an official SCCA event, it continues uninterrupted, as a vintage car race. The races continued into 1953.

Currently being run by the The Vintage Sports Car Club of America.

 

Laguna Seca

The Monterey Peninsula's connection with world-class motorsports traces its beginnings to the running of the Pebble Beach Road Races in 1950. These sports car events quickly outgrew the public roads of the Del Monte Forest and a new road racing facility was born on November 9, 1957.

The track was built in 1957 at a cost of $1.5 million raised from local businesses and individuals on part of the US Army’s Fort Ord (a maneuver area and field artillery target range) after the nearby Pebble Beach Road Races were abandoned for being too dangerous. In 1974, the property was deeded over to the Monterey County Parks Department and continues to be part of the park system to this day.

 

 

Long Beach (Reeves Field) Road Race

Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor. A sports car road race at Reeves Field, Terminal Island in Long Beach, California. This was the only race held at this venue. The Long Beach MG Club was the sponsoring organization for the Reeves Field Road Races. The weekend of racing marked two firsts in Southern California road racing history; the first race to be held within the corporate city limits of Los Angeles, and the first race to benefit a charitable organization - Navy Relief. From the Independent Press Telegram of Long Beach: Several thousand sports car fans spread themselves around an irregular 2.7-mile course at Reeves Field, Terminal Island, to watch the opening of the two day first annual Long Beach Road Races. A strong turnout is expected for today's races by the sponsoring organizations, the Long Beach MG Club and the Long Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce... More than 150 competing autos, most of foreign manufacture, churned around the track during the day's six races.

March 10th, 1953 Race Participants

Long Beach Sports Car Road Race (Race 4 - Stock Sports Cars, Classes F & G), Reeves Field, Terminal Island.

Toggle showing entrants table by clicking here.

Palm Beach Shores

The original race, set for downtown West Palm Beach, almost fizzled when city officials abruptly canceled it. That competition was to have run in the streets of West Palm Beach - much the same as the Monte Carlo rally. But a rival promotor who conducted speedway and stock car races on a half-mile track near there reportedly created agitation amongst the city fathers prior to event, telling them there would be "blood in the streets" if the cars were allowed to race there. The effort was rescued by R.O. Edwards, who was developing Singer Island and welcomed the publicity. At the time, A.O. Edwards, who had promoted races in South Africa, was looking to draw attention to Palm Beach Shores, a Singer Island hamlet he had just paved and dotted with five cottages.

On the big day, driving rain almost canceled the Sports Car Club of America race. But the men behind it were determined. The event went forward before about 36,000 roaring fans. The race happened again in 1951 but it was so popular that Edwards sold all of his property and there were too many houses to continue the race after that.

The 1950 and 1951 races were around a 2.1-mile course in Palm Beach Shores on Singer Island. No course map can be found to date.

Pos.	Driver/Nationality	Car	Entrant
4	Ed Barker (USA)	MG TD	Ed Barker
5	J. P. Swarthout (USA)	MG TD	J. P. Swarthout
7	Skip Swartley (USA)	MG TD	Kitty Burton
13	V. C. Andersen (USA)	MG TC	V. C. Andersen
15	Jim Carroll (USA)	MG TD	Jim Carroll
16	Bill Johns (USA)	MG TD	John Pares
17	Jack Watson (USA)	MG TD	Lee Carpenter
19	John Arnold (USA)	MG TD	John Arnold
27	Sanford Sinclair (USA)	MG TD	Sandy Sinclair
29	Walt Stone (USA)	MG TD	Walt Stone
31	Michael Smith (USA)	MG TC	Michael Smith
37	Robert Reynolds (USA)	MG TD	Robert Reynolds
41	Don Speer (USA)	MG TD	Don Speer
43	Bob McKeon (USA)	MG TD	Bob McKeon
45	Bill Barbour (USA)	MG TD	Bill Barbour
48	Gene James (USA)	MG TD	Gene James
49	Hayward	MG TD	R. E. Hayward
51	M. O. Miles (USA)	MG TD	Ken Miles
53	Dennis Peet (USA)	MG TD	Dennis Peet
54	Irving Bostwick (USA)	MG TD	Irving Bostwick
58	F. E. Parker (USA)	MG TD	F. E. Parker
59	Gustave Salmont (USA)	MG TC	Gus. H. Salmont
61	Bill Thomas (USA)	MG	Bill Thomas
62	Lewis W. Twohey (USA)	MG	Lewis W. Twohey
63	Frank Valdez (USA)	MG	Frank Valdez
68	Robert Snow (USA)	MG TD	R. B. Snow
69	Mary Davis (USA)	MG TD	Bob Drake
74	Bob Trennert (USA)	MG TD	Bob Trennert
75	Bob Oker (USA)	MG TD	Robert Oker
77	Jim Ahrens (USA)	MG TC	Jim Ahrens
79	Eleanor Mahon (USA)	MG TC	Eleanor Mahon
80	Charles Marshall (USA)	MG TD	Chuck Marshall
85	Margie Parker (USA)	MG TD	Curt Parker
87	W. A. Bowles (USA)	MG TD	W. A. Bowles
89	Charles Ducker (USA)	MG TD	Herb Jeffries
91	H. Johnson (USA)	MG TD	H. Johnson
93	Jerry Huff (USA)	MG TD	Jerry Huff
94	Robt. Byrom (USA)	MG	Lt. Robt. Byrom
97	William Scott (USA)	MG TD	Bill Scott
98	Bradley	MG TD	J. M. Bradley
99	Lars Peter Jacobsen (USA)	MG NA	L. P. Jacobsen
102	Pat Hart (USA)	MG TD	Patrick Hart
103	V. Kovacevich (USA)	MG TD	V. Kovacevich
105	John Hart (USA)	MG TD	John Hart
106	Harlan Hall (USA)	MG TC	Harlan Hall
108	Kenneth Deeter (USA)	MG TD	Ken Deeter
109	H. B. Graham (USA)	MG TD	H. B. Graham
119	Hal Dolden (USA)	MG TC	Hal Dolden
120	Helen DeOlivera (USA)	MG TD	Henry DeOlivera
121	Dick Cesmat (USA)	MG TC	Dick Cesmat
122	Clay Robbins (USA)	MG TC	Clay Robbins
123	John Collins (USA)	MG TD	John W. Collins
125	Elaine Brownlee (USA)	MG TD	Elaine Brownlee
126	Robert Brigham (USA)	MG TD	Robert Brigham
127	Clive Boyer (USA)	MG TD	Clive Boyer
129	Fred Anderson (USA)	MG TD	Fred Anderson
131	Bill Bowering (USA)	MG TD	Bill Bowering
133	A. S. Long (USA)	MG TC	A. S. Long
135	Angus Wright (USA)	MG TD	Angus Wright
136	Stan Brisbin (USA)	MG TD	Stan Brisbin
138	Jack Wilder (USA)	MG TD	Jack Wilder
143	Cy Yedor (USA)	MG TC	Cy Yedor
144	Robert Eckley (USA)	MG TD	R. Eckley
146	Harry Hanford (USA)	MG TD	Harry C. Hanford
147	Ernest Massey (USA)	MG TD	Ernest Massey
148	Joseph Pichette (USA)	MG TD	Joseph Pichette
149	George Sandberg (USA)	MG TD	George Sandberg
150	Bert Anakin (USA)	MG TD	Bert Anakin
151	Bill Leyden (USA)	MG TC	Gene White

Palm Springs Road Races

The first Palm Springs Road Races were held on hay-bale-lined runways at the Palm Springs Airport from 1950 to 1958. Palm Springs was an airport course run at the Palm Springs Municipal Airport in Palm Springs, California. A number of variations were used over the years. A 2.9 mile course was used from April 16th, 1950 through 1952. A 2 mile course was used on March 21st, 1953. A 2.6 mile course was used on March 22nd, 1953 through 1955. A 2.2 mile course was used from December 3rd, 1956 through late January of 1960.

Paramount Ranch Road Races

Paramount Ranch was located off of the Ventura Freeway (101) at the north end of Los Angeles. It was owned by Paramount Studios and many films were shot there since the 1920's. For several years in the mid-1950's there were sports car races and even a USAC stock car race on its road course. Most of the course was made up from existing roads that were part of the movie lot. There were three fatalities during a sports car race and it might have been another factor in the track no longer holding races. The first Paramount Road Race was held in 1956. The location in the Santa Monica Mountains ensured that Hollywood stars and starlets made appearances both mixing it up on the course and spectating track side. Paramount Ranch Road Races - August 1956

Pebble Beach Road Races

Bill Breeze and the SCCA San Francisco Region Board organized the first race held at Pebble Beach on November 5, 1950.The "Del Monte Trophy" was held on the twisty, leafy, and very narrow town roads in Pebble Beach, California from 1950 through 1956. The races were managed under the auspices of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), as were most races from that day to this. The route was originally 1.8 miles (2.9 km) long, but was lengthened from 1951 onwards to 2.1 miles (3.4 km). Kjell Qvale was the organizer and race chairman from 1950 to 1956.

The 1950 Pebble Beach course was laid out entirely within the confines of the Property and, because the land is all private including the roads, any laws that might prohibit racing didn't apply. The first course was 1.8 miles in length and was in an irregular rectangle. The Start/Finish was on Portola Road. All of the turns were right-handers. Proceeding in a clock-wise direction, the course turned right on Sombria Lane, right on Drake Road, made a sweeping right onto Stevenson Drive and then a sharp right back onto Portola.

Although the course was always tight and twisty with tall Cypress trees hemming in the track on either side, accidents were scarce and relatively uneventful. The exception came in 1956 when Ernie McAfee (no relation to fellow racer Jack McAfee) fatally crashed his Ferrari into a tree. This spelled the end of the popular Pebble Beach Road Races, although it was the genesis of the Laguna Seca Raceway, its modern-day successor, down the road. By the final race held at Pebble Beach, entries had grown from thirty-five in 1950 to one hundred and forty in 1956.

A copy of the Official Program for the 1951 race can be found here.

Put-in-Bay

Put-in-Bay is a village located on South Bass Island in Put-in-Bay Township, Ottawa County, Ohio, United States. The name "Put-in-Bay" originally only referred to the bay, itself. In the latter-1700s, the schooners sailing on Lake Erie, would "put in" to this bay, to wait out bad weather on the Lake. The first race on the 3.1 mile course at Put-in-Bay was held in 1952 and continued through 1959. Restricted to under 2.0-liter engines for sports cars and under 1.5 liters for dedicated, closed-wheel sports racers, the original events were noted for not a single injury occurring to any competitors despite hay bales being the course's most advanced safety feature.

Today they have annual reunion events and their race history which you can read about here.

Reno Road Races

Track layout for the 1953 race. Terry O'Neil Collection The 1951 SCCA National Sports Car Championship season was the first season of the Sports Car Club of America's National Sports Car Championship. It began May 12, 1951, and ended December 9, 1951, after eight races. Reno was the six race of the circuit that year. The race took place in 1951 on the city streets. The races were sponsored by the Reno Chamber of Commerce and the San Francisco chapter of the SCCA.

In the 1953 SCCA National Races, the 2nd Reno Sports Car Road Races were again part of the circuit. The race was the Airman's Cup Race, again at Stead AFB over October 17-18. The proceeds for this race went to the Airmen's Recreational Facilities fund. The weather was so bad that year that the stands were empty for most of the races.

An interesting note was that the SCCA tested a new timing device at the 1953 race. A crystal-controlled, 100 kilohertz oscillator accurate to two parts per million designed by the University of California. Another interesting note is that a Hollywood film crew was at the races filming for a Mickey Rooney picture named The Little Giant. Later it was released in 1954 as Drive a Crooked Mile.

Riverside Raceway

Riverside Raceway was a race track or road course in Riverside, California. The track was in operation from September 22, 1957, to July 2, 1989. The original racetrack had a 1.1-mile (1.8 km) backstretch from 1957 to 1968.

The track was known as a relatively dangerous course, with its long, downhill back straightaway and brake-destroying, relatively slow 180-degree Turn 9 at the end. The first weekend of scheduled races in September 1957, a California Sports Car Club event, John Lawrence of Pasadena, California, lost his life. Lawrence, a former Cal Club, under 1500 cc Production champion, went off at Turn 5 (later designated Turn 8). With no crash barrier in place, and no rollbar on the car, the MGA he was driving went up the sand embankment, then rolled back onto the track.

More from Wikipedia.

1957 MG Entrants Under 1500cc

Toggle showing entrants table by clicking here.

No.	Driver	Entrant	Type	Model
0	Jim Honeter	Jim Honeter (USA)	TF
00	Loyal Davies	Loyale Davis	A
3	Cliff Hensley	Cliff Hensley (USA)	TD
25	Jim Chaffee	Jim Chaffee	A
30	Bruce Turner	Bruce Turner	A
47	Jack Dair	Jack Dair (USA)	TF
55	Ed Freutel	Ed Freutel	A
62	John Lumkin	John Lumkin (USA)	A
65	Skip Vandagriff	Skip Vandagriff	A
92	Jack Gleghorn	Jack Gleghorn	TD	Mk II
93	Vernon Stephan	Vernon Stephan	A
101	Paul Hart	Jack Bleak	TF
103	Ken Roehr	Kenneth Roehr (USA)	TD
127	Edward Selover	Ed Selover	A
135	William Steube	Williams Steube	TD
148	William Davis	W. M. Davis	TD	Mk II
153	Robert Sparks	Robert Sparks	A
156	Joe Lynch	Fred Newman	TD
160	John Lawrence	Robert Brigham (USA)	A
175	Robert Schulman	Robert Schulman (USA)	A
198	Donald Caselton	(USA)	TD
218	Harold Armes		TD	Mk II
234	George Beard		TD
237	Sam Taylor	(USA)	TD	Mk II
269	George Demetras		A
710	Harold Dixon		TF

Sandberg Hillclimb

Jean Burkhard at the Sandberg Hill Climb, April 6, 1952. Photo by FCCA Used in the 1950s. A half-mile unused gradient on the original "Ridge Route" an hour north of Los Angeles. Was 0.6 miles long for the 2nd April 1950 event, but was 0.7 miles long by the event held on the 10th September 1950. Started at the intersection of Pine Canyon Road and the Old Ridge Route to the Sandberg Hotel. Just off route 5 between Bakersfield and Los Angeles (specifically between Gorman and Castaic). Many events were held at the location: April 2 & 20, 1950 and April 15 & September 10, 1950.

Public road rallies and hill climbs like this at Sandberg Ranch were where sports car enthusiasts played, testing engine and chassis modifications. While there were classes for the hill climbs, they did keep overall times and it was amazing to note some small bore, albeit modified cars, actually beat the times of many larger production vehicles up the hill.

 

Santa Ana Blimp Hangars aka Santa Ana Road Race

The Air Station was established in 1942 as Naval Lighter-Than-Air Station Santa Ana, a base for airship operations in support of the United States Navy's coastal patrol efforts during World War II. NLTAS Santa Ana was decommissioned in 1949. In 1951, the facility was reactivated as Marine Corps Air Facility Santa Ana to support the Korean War. During 1950 it was used as a sports car track for the Santa Ana Road Race.

Roy Richter also became the Southern California distributor for Sydney Allard's British sports cars, designed to accept American hot-rod engines. He fitted one with a full-race Mercury flathead and, in 1950, led a Santa Ana road race from flag to flag, drubbing Jaguar driver Phil Hill, who would later become the only American-born Formula 1 world champion.

Santa Barbara Road Race

Santa Barbara Airport, Goleta, California. This event was sponsored by the city's Junior Chamber of Commerce and California Sports Car Club, whose president then was Bill Pollack. Held over the Labor Day weekend, 16 races were run the with the cooperation of the Long Beach MG Club. The program stated: "All the drivers are amateurs who receive no compensation for their efforts. Most of them own their own cars and use them in their daily work." A boisterous, standing crowd of 15,000 lined the 2.2-mile 9-turn airport course that weekend. At this event the race participants were anything but common. Santa Barbara, and neighboring Montecito, was (and is today) a very popular beach town north of Los Angeles populated by the rich and famous. On this particular weekend the race was attended by many of the Hollywood celebrities and the entire town was overwhelmed by exotic sports cars, races, car shows and various public and private parties celebrating sports cars and race drivers.

September 9th, 1953 Participants

1st Annual Santa Barbara Road Race (Race 4 - Stock MGs), Santa Barbara Airport.

Second race for MG TCs and TDs, not for Mark II.

Toggle showing entrants table by clicking here.

No.	Driver / Nationality	Car	Entrant
112	Ces Critchlow (USA)	MG TD	Ces Critchlow
6	Kenneth Deeter (USA)	MG TD	Kenneth Deeter
9	Sanford Sinclair (USA)	MG TD	S. L. Sinclair
10	Joseph Pichette (USA)	MG TD	Joseph Pichette
11	John Arnold (USA)	MG TD	John Arnold
14	Jim McCarthy	MG TD	Jim McCarthy
39	Walt Stone (USA)	MG TD	Walt Stone
45	Bill Barbour (USA)	MG TD	William R. Barbour
60	Jack Anderson (USA)	MG TD	Jack Anderson
79	Dennis Peet (USA)	MG TD	Dennis Peet
86	Hal Dolden (USA)	MG TC	Hal Dolden
92	Doug Ward	MG TD	William Kinsley
98	Charles Ducker (USA)	MG TD	Mrs. Herb Jeffries
150	Bert Anakin (USA)	MG TD	Burt Anakin

Sebring International Grand Prix of Endurance

Sebring International Raceway is America's oldest road racing track, with over six decades of storied history. The legendary circuit evolved from Hendricks Field, a World War II airbase used to train B-17 combat crews. On December 31, 1950, aviation and racing enthusiast Alec Ulmann promoted a six-hour race using the runways of the old airbase. In its early years, the Sebring circuit combined former airport runways with narrow two-lane service roads. Sebring is renowned for its rough surface. The course still runs on old sections of World War II-era landing fields that were constructed of concrete sections with large seams.

The selection of the Sebring air terminal as a race site may actually have stemmed from a 1950 race at Palm Beach Shores. However, there are indications the members of the newly-formed Sports Car Club of America already had been looking for another site, even before they were forced away from the planned West Palm Beach locale.

An interesting side note about the origin of Sebring.

From the Origins.

Longtime resident and Sebring fireman Allen Altvader was the manager at the Sebring Air Terminal in the late 40s and early 50s. As he tells the story - it was one day in 1949, that a plane sat down and two men asked to see the person in charge. One was Sam Collier, the other apparently was Bob Gegen. They said that they had flown over, viewed the site from the air, and asked if it would be possible to hold a race on the grounds there.

"They gave me the impression that they were a couple of millionaire playboys that had been associated with a lot of other men of their stripe," said Altvader, "They had raced at Watkins Glen, New York and what they wanted to do was to compete against each other."

Apparently the two did not have plans to hold a race for the public, but they had asked about setting up a circuit for practice road races. The three men took a ride around the facility by car, asking questions and talking about the possibilities. Altvader recalled that it did not appear that the two had reached any kind of planning phase, but was more in the nature of something they would like to get organized. When asked if the field would be available, Altvader informed them that the decision would be up to Sebring's city council, who had the final say over activities at the air terminal. "Well, the two got in their plane and left," he said, "and that's the last I ever saw of Sam Collier.

About Sebring International Raceway

Thompson Speedway

Connecticut's Thompson Speedway was the only purpose-built road racing track in the 1951 series, and the first such track used by SCCA. The 1951 track utilized a quarter-mile oval inside of a half-mile oval. The event consisted of two-lap time trials around the large oval followed by four-car match races in which cars ran clockwise around the outer oval, then made a sharp turn onto the inner oval and ran three quarters of a lap before making another sharp turn onto the outer oval again. This formed a sort of mini road course that included a pair of quite challenging corners. From 1952-1967, the oval track and an adjacent section of the Speedway property were leased to owners of the neighboring sports car track, the Thompson Raceway.

Torrey Pines

The Torrey Pines track was formed almost by accident. A 1951 race was scheduled to be held at Del Mar, but a last minute disagreement among organizers left racers without a venue. The suggestion was made to run on the blacktop service roads of the disused Army base, Torrey Pines. The 2.7 mile track proved to be a huge success, drawing 35,000 spectators to some races, and hosting several California Sports Car Club races as well as three West Coast 6-Hour Endurance Races. The races were first organized by the San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce and the California Sports Car Club.

In 1955 it was decided to convert the raceway into 36 golf holes. Its last race was conducted in January 1956, an endurance contest of six hours.

UNSEEN 50S RACING FOOTAGE: TORREY PINES OCT. 1955 its the 6th running of the Torrey Pines Road Races held on October 22-23, 1955. There are some pretty hairy TD slide outs and one deadly looking TC rollover in this clip.

Watkins Glenn

The first road race after WWII was held in the small town of Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes Region of New York on October 2, 1948. Law student Cameron Argetsinger dreamed of bringing European style competition to the village where he spent his summer vacations and he drew up a challenging course that encompassed asphalt, cement and dirt roads in and around the village of Watkins Glen. Argetsinger, an early member of the SCCA, proposed an amateur Road Race to be called the "Watkins Glen Grand Prix" to the Watkins Glen Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber was enthusiastic; Argetsinger selected a 6.6 mile course using mostly paved roads with a short dirt and gravel stretch, permissions were obtained to close a NYC railroad track and the roads needed, and SCCA sanction was obtained.

In 1951 they implemented a real communication system to coordinate the race and to better control the spectators. 1952 was the last year of the original circuit that passed through the center of town. During the Grand Prix, tragedy struck at Watkins Glen for the second time: a car left the course on the start-finish straight in town, entering the crowd. 12 spectators were injured and 1 died. The day's race schedule was abruptly halted, and never completed; the race would never pass through town again. Competition moved to a temporary course in 1953, and a 2.3-mile permanent circuit was built in 1956.

A copy of the September 14-15, 1951 program shown above can be found here.

Watkins Glen is still being used today. You can read their history at this site.

Willow Springs

Willow Springs International Motorsports Park is located in Willow Springs near Rosamond and Lancaster, California, and is about an hour north of Los Angeles. It is a historic race track, in existence more than fifty years. Construction of the track began in 1952, with the inaugural first race held on November 23, 1953. The main track is a challenging 2.5-mile (4.0 km) long road course that is unchanged from its original 1953 configuration. The interesting elevation changes and high average speeds make it a favorite of many road racing drivers.

Link to the current Willow Springs International Raceway.

Rallies and Tours

Besides racing, another popular pastime for the less death defying set of sports car enthusiasts was the road rally or rallye. A road rally is not a contest of speed or racing. The challenge is to follow a prescribed course at legal speeds and to read signs and landmarks along the route to find answers to questions supplied by the organizers. These events were often promoted by a club or a geographic location and had a theme or subject associated with them. It might have been associated with an event, season, historical happening or a geologic feature. Often the rallies were something that was intended to repeat itself, often yearly, so participants could look forward to the event and plan to attend over and over again. Some were about the scenery and location while others might have been about a historical event. But they all included driving in interesting situations. They were generally preceded by some form of car display, even if informal. These events were very popular in the early 1950's and a few of them continue to this day, albeit with a lot less T types in attendance.

What is a Rally?

From the 1954 program guide of the Continental Divide Rally.

Continental Divide Rally

The Colorado Region held their first SCCA National Rally in October of 1953. This rally was called the Continental Divide Rally and ran over a three day period with full hospitality on each day. In addition to the rally, there were performance tests and a full Concurs d'Comfort which were a required part of the rally and required mandatory extra equipment to deal with the expected harsh weather of the mountain passes. The rally also included a Concours d'Elegance in Durango in which each car was invited to participant in.

The 1954 rally started with a Monte Carlo section where contestants predicted their distance and average speed needed to travel from their address of record to the starting line. The rally itself was over 500 miles and included several passes which would normally be closed this late in the year. The entry fee was $10, which was an large sum of money for 1954. That would be equivalent to a $500 entry fee today. The event seemed to be dominated by Jaguars, Porsches and MGs.

See the entire 1954 program here.

View automobile memorabilia / collectibles from the 1958 6TH ANNUAL CONTINENTAL DIVIDE RALLY (SCCA).

The MG Car Club Road Rallye in Glenwood Springs

The event grew out of the 1952 founding of the MG Car Club - Rocky Mountain Centre by former Glenwood Springs residents and MG enthusiasts Hazel Hopkins Marble and Dr. Robert Livingston. The MG Car Club Road Rallye in Glenwood Springs Colorado is the oldest continually-held time-speed-distance rallye in the United States. The first Rallye Glenwood Springs began with a hardy group of MGCC-RMC sports car owners who discovered the joys of top-down motoring in Colorado when MGs still had running boards and the new TR2 and powerful XK-120 were just beginning to be sold by Colorado car dealers. Imagine what Colorado mountain roads were like during that 1953 Rally - gravel (some pavement!), no guardrails, single-lane bridges, hairpin curves, sheer cliffs, and thin air.

1955 Rallye picture.

Press On Regardless Rally

In 1957 nearly no one had heard of a performance rally in the United States. SCCA conducted a National Rally Championship but it was exclusively for time-speed-distance, route following events, a "gentleman's" social gathering on sunny Sunday afternoons. But the Press On Regardless (POR), which had been run beginning in the early '50's, was another country heard from. Press-on-Regardless Rally is a road rally organized by the Detroit Region of the Sports Car Club of America. The Press-on-Regardless was first run in 1949 as a 24 hour Time-Speed-Distance rally. MG T's won the rally in 1950, 1951 and 1952.

Detroit Region of SCCA kept this initial U.S. Performance rally alive and in 1958, for the first time SCCA's involvement became more than superficial. The 1958 POR was run with full SCCA sanction and used the Time Speed Distance (TSD's) National Rally Regulations wherever applicable.

From the Rally Racing News.

Windam Mountain Top Rallye

Windam, NY. Mohawk-Hudson Region of the SCCA. Started in 1955. Sponsored by the Windam Chamber of Commerce.

Importers/Distributors

Nuffield and later BMC did not sell directly to dealers in the Unites States and Canada. They exported cars through to a US based importer Hambro Trading Company of America. Hambro had a series of distributors (who would act on behalf of Hambro as importers) to specific areas of the country. Hambro offered them credit and promised the factory they would get paid. The distributor would receive the cars from the factory to Hambro's entry points and then allocate them, usually based on pre orders, to the regional dealer.

Each regional distributor had a number of dealers they supported. In most cases the dealers were independent of the distributor. You will find that many MG dealers sold not only MG's but other Nuffield automobiles and foreign cars in general. In fact many dealers sold Nash, VW and Studebaker and other American cars too.

In the early days of the MG TD the distributor also supplied spare parts for the dealers and did general promotions and advertising. Later, as the cars became more popular and widespread, independent parts organizations sprang up to sell factory or OEM parts for the cars, eliminating the distributors role here. Often the distributors sponsored racing teams to help promote the cars. Hambro would also provide advertising resources, money and assistance to help in promotions and events. Later Hambro would take responsibility for parts and training dealers away from the distributors. Eventually, after the MG TD and TF BMC would take over import responsibilities too thus regulating Hambro to parts supply and finally eliminating them all together.

Hambro Trading Company of America, Inc.

• Headquarters in US: 17 East 54th, New York, NY
• West Coast Office: 6999 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 48.

Other Offices

• Los Angeles Office: 819 E 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 54.
• Midwest Office: 208 So. LaSalle St., Chicago, Il
• New York Sales Office: 350 5th Avenue, New York, NY
• South Office: Houston Texas
• San Francisco^: 1017 Bayshore Blvd., Burlingame, CA

A division of Hambros Bank Limited, London England. The exclusive importer for MG's during the late 40's and 1950's into the United States. Hambro supported all of the United States distributors for MG from 1949 through 1957 and was the sole concessionaires for Nuffield Exports. Later they were the importers for BMC. Hambro's role was the financial security or guarantee company supporting regional distributors such as Gough, Arnolt and Inskip. You will see their name listed on the import cards of the cars as Hambro Trading Company of America A/C. The A/C standing for allocating costs, a financial term to describe who's responsible financially. In 1957 they renamed the import company the Hambro Automotive Corporation in the United States. Hambro was the true importer of the cars and bore responsibility for their shipment and import to the United States. Later there were lawsuits with US Customs and Hambro because of some clerical errors and the changeover from Nuffield to BMC. The US Government seemed to want to double the duty fees for MGs in the late 1950's for this reason. Around 1963 BMC took control of all imports from Hambro.

The following distributor and dealer lists were compiled from period advertisements and from a book of Nuffield Distributors and Dealers in North America in January of 1953. The images of the 32 page book was supplied to me by John F. Quilter of Eugene Oregon who is an automobile historian and a 32 year employee of British Leyland, Jaguar Rover Triumph, Jaguar Cars Land Rover North America.

^They were also responsible it appears for stocking parts, at least in the late 1950's. They had an eastern (Bronx, NY) and western (Burlingame, CA) parts warehouses.

S. H. Arnolt, Division of Climax Machinery Corp.

Arnolt Corporation was founded in 1932 by Stanley H. Arnolt II (1907-1963) in Chicago with three employees, manufacturing automobile lubricating devices. During that time Arnolt developed an inboard marine engine called the Sea-Mite, which was one-third lighter than other engines of equal horsepower. On the thick foggy morning of September 26, 1938, with one of his engines affixed to a 13-foot boat, Arnolt left St. Joseph, Michigan and headed for Chicago.

During the war years of 1941-1945, a North Manchester plant was established to produce precision-machined parts for bombers and other war items. Arnolt Corporation also had a plant in Pierceton that required tight security due to its production of a variety of defense items for government contracts. Among its many other products, the company made boat trailers, fold-out travel campers, row boats and other marine items, in addition to the parts for B-47 bombers and other aircraft items. Later, primary business came from the Department of Defense when Arnolt was making the landing gear components and pilot ejection mechanisms for carrier-based aircraft.

Production had expanded by 1948 to include the Rol-R-Lift and Rol-R-Dolly, one-man material handling tools. Arnolt Corporation further diversified in 1950 by acquiring the Climax Machinery Company, a manufacturer of slicing machines and club smokers - an all-metal chromed ash receiver (some with glass holders) - which could be found in dining club cars or in Pullman accommodations on trains and in theatre lobbies.

S. H. Arnolt, Inc., an importer and distributor of foreign cars, was established in 1953 in Chicago. S.H. Arnolt was headquartered on 415 East Erie Street near Outer Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Arnolt obtained the Midwest distributorship for Nuffield Exports, Ltd. of England. His first order was for 25 MG cars and 20 Morris Minors, as well as six Riley cars. As the business grew to 30 dealers throughout the Midwest, other makes of cars were added to the line, including Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Aston-Martin.

Arnolt described his company as a "job shop". However, with such manufacturing diversification with products for the marine, automotive, aircraft, and furniture industries, in addition to focusing on production of numerous items for World War II, by 1955 Arnolt's job shop had reached sales of nearly $8 million.

Territory Covered

Wisconsin - Illinois - Ohio - Indiana - Michigan - Iowa - Eastern half of Nebraska (East of a line between Keyapaha and Furnas Counties) - Missouri - East portion of Kansas (East of a north/south line running from Washington County in the north to Cowley County in the south. Trading area of Covington in Kentucky (made up of Boone - Kenton - Campbell - Gallatin - Grant and Pendleton Counties).

Dealers of S.H. Arnolt

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
ILLINOIS	Alton	Pissa Sports Car Company	700 West Broadway	38.890949	-90.190868
	Arlington Heights	Anderson Motors, Inc.	1410 E. Northwest Highway	42.07651	-87.965138
	Chicago	S.H. Arnolt	415 East Erie Street	41.894052	-87.617224
	Decatur	Kilborns	235 W. Wood Street	39.840424	-88.957867
	Glen Ellyn	Bill's Car-Ral	344 Pennsylvania Street	41.877214	-88.075216
	Hoopeston	Imported Motor Car Co.	214 E. Penn Street	40.466189	-87.669774
	Joliet	Antonio Auto Sales	320 So. Chicago Ave.	41.518121	-88.081042
	Macomb	Foster Auto Sales	1140 E. Jackson Street	40.458662	-90.657465
	McHenry	Foreign Car Sales Division of Switzer-Craft, Inc.	203 South Green Street	42.326879	-88.26782
	Moline	German Motors	412 14th Street	41.506753	-90.517561
	Mount Carmel	Wabash Sales & Service Co.	123 W. Fourth Street	38.409406	-87.761484
	Oak Park	Lilly Truck Service, Inc.	6249 W. North Ave.	41.909208	-87.782469
	Rockford	Auto Imports	415 Chestnut Street	42.270156	-89.097342
	Springfield	Capital Cycle Sales & Service	312 No. Fifth Street	39.804168	-89.649201
INDIANA	Elkhart	Zillmer Motor Cars, Inc.	Hwy. 33 West (Rt. 3)	38.670098	-88.485802
	Flora	Cripe Motors Inc.		40.547396	-86.524557
	Goshen	Bauman's Auto Service	1500 E. Lincoln Ave.	41.590171	-85.813268
	Huntington	Poehler-Von Holten	U.S. 24, East	40.907545	-85.487763
	Indianapolis	American & Foreign Motor Car Service	2215 College Ave.	39.798079	-86.144695
	Indianapolis	Auto Imports Ltd.	4555 S. Meridian Street	39.698462	-86.158188
	Petersburg	Jake Wellman	Route 4	38.492126	-87.278916
	Richmond	Gennelt & Son's, Inc.	1 Main Street	39.828421	-84.9002
	South Bend	Newman & Altman, Inc.	613 S. Michigan Avenue	41.669486	-86.250245
	Warsaw	Menzie Motor Sales	210 East Main Street	41.239101	-85.855856
	West Lafayette	Levoe Motor Sales	210 Brown Street	40.422122	-86.903477
IOWA	Cedar Rapids	Empire Motors	1225 1st Avenue	41.985159	-91.656802
	Sioux City	C. J. Murray & Company	100 W. Seventh Street	42.498507	-96.407927
MICHIGAN	Battle Creek	John H. Bailey Company	373 W. Michigan Avenue	42.325515	-85.195103
	Detroit	Falvey Sales & Service	22524 Woodward Ave.	42.458737	-83.132517
	Detroit	Sports Cars Detroit	5201 Kercheval Street (Grosse Point)	42.352621	-83.015716
	Detroit	Wood Motors	19770 Mack Avenue (Grosse Point Woods, 30)	42.428351	-82.908842
	Grand Rapids	Import Motors, Inc.	644 Lovett Street, S.E.	42.950934	-85.616328
	Holland	Jerry Cook, Inc.	25 W. 7th Street	42.791228	-86.108481
	Kalamazoo	The Car Bazaar	219 W. Water Street	42.29258	-85.585053
	Lansing	Brooks Engineering	5026 No. Grand River	42.769085	-84.597314
	Pontiac	Falvey Sales & Service	85 W. Lawrence Street	42.637108	-83.29523
	Spring Lake	Carpenter Automobile Imports	807 W Savidge Street	43.077133	-86.207455
	Ypsilanti	Davis Motor Sales	24 E. Michigan Ave.	42.241068	-83.610722
MISSOURI	Joplin	Grider Motor Co.	806-808 East 7th Street	37.083949	-94.505426
	Kansas City	Hollywood Motors	2743 McGee	39.076651	-94.579992
	St. Louis	Town and Country	6498 Chippewa	38.592405	-90.302029
NEBRASKA	Lincoln	Simpson Motors Imports	2242 Van Dorn Street	40.784701	-96.688476
	Omaha	Loyal's Auto Exchange	2204 Farnham Street	41.257686	-95.944667
OHIO	Alliance	Imported Support & Utility Motor Cars	2115 South Union Avenue	40.900417	-81.106215
	Barberton	Jordan & Sons Auto Imports	108 Third Street, NW	41.013369	-81.608742
	Brookfield	Davis Sales & Service	5907 Old 82	41.236214	-80.605873
	Cincinnati	Raymond Motors	Shawnee Run Road & Miami St.	39.180136	-84.364187
	Cleveland	Jaguar-Cleveland Motors, Inc.	20124 Kinsman Rd. (Shaker Heights)	41.464614	-81.572018
	Cleveland	M.G. Auto Sales	13124 Lorain Avenue	41.458287	-81.781005
	Cleveland	Sports Cars Ltd.	4501 Euclid Avenue	41.503957	-81.65566
	Columbus	British Motor Mart	2451 N. Star Rd. at Lane	40.006843	-83.048027
	Columbus	Columbus Sports Car Co.^	1855 Northwest Blvd.	39.995805	-83.047362
	East Liverpool	Chuck Kennedy's	610 Walnut Street	40.620003	-80.576704
	Lima	Lima-Hudson Co.	600 N. Main Street	40.74668	-84.104506
	Mansfield	Bookwater Motor Sales	330 Ashland Avenue	40.763089	-82.495846
	Marion	Glenn Walraven Motors	1111 No. Main Street	40.609554	-83.130543
	Massillon	Stark Sports Cars, Inc.	1930 Lincoln Way, East	40.799768	-81.498601
	Newark	Gibbs Motor Co.	20 South 1st Street	40.058284	-82.398814
	Tiffin	Coppus Motor Sales	145 Madison Street	41.113568	-83.17467
	Toledo	Kalmbach Motor Sales	1514 West Bancroft Street	41.663655	-83.579458
	Urbana	Dorsey Motor Sales, Inc.	219 Miami Street	40.108242	-83.754467
	Youngstown	Davis Imported Motors	1605 Belmont Street	41.121174	-80.659166
	Zanesville	Zane Sports Sales	615 Adair Avenue	39.953076	-82.010892
WISCONSIN	Appleton	Appleton Renault Sales Co.	1850 W. Wisconsin Avenue	44.273721	-88.435598
	Fond du Lac	ABC Motors	180 N. Main Street	43.784007	-88.448365
	Janesville	Harder Cycle Sales	102 W. Eastern Avenue	42.492321	-89.03741
	La Crosse	Auto Imports Company	330 State Street	43.813635	-91.251516
	Madison	Bruns Sherman Avenue Garage	2501 Sherman Avenue	43.102471	-89.364522
	Milwaukee	Wisconsin Auto Sales	642 No. Seventh Street	43.043127	-87.920174
	Sheboygan	Roewardt-Thomson, Inc.	8th and Clara Streets	43.738391	-87.712957

^ Bob Fergus had quit selling Cadillacs and obtained the MG, Jaguar, Austin, etc. dealerships. Initially he had no cars to sell, just literature to show what was available. When you bought a car, you had the choice of going to New York to pick it up, or pay for delivery. Shortly there was a TD and then an XK 120 demonstrator. Bob Fergus and Harley Watts and others made numerous trips to New York to drive new cars back. This quickly included Porsches. "The Columbus Sports Car Co." moved from several apartment garages on Auburn Ave. to a garage with a one car show room on Livingston Ave. to a new showroom on Northwest Blvd. When new cars for display were not in hand, Bob's TC and 35B Bugatti were there to see. From the Fast Ones.

British Cars & Parts, Inc.

British Cars & Parts was located at 610 Colman Building, Seattle 4, Washington.

Territory Covered

Washington and Oregon.

Dealers of British Cars & Parts, Inc.

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
OREGON	Eugene	Sheppard Motors	10th & Oak Streets	44.048879,	-123.09123
	Klamath Falls	Parker-Pontiac Company	4th & Klamath	42.222861	-121.783191
	Medford	Miles Motors	1201 N. Riverside Avenue	42.338277	-122.876546
	Portland	Armstrong & Goetz Motors	1545 S. E. Union Avenue	45.511836	-122.661819
WASHINGTON	Aberdeen	Grays Harbor Motors Joe Trohimovich~	1st & G Streets	46.977611	-123.816209
	Everett	Olsen Motor Service	2417 Broadway	47.985053	-122.200953
	Port Orchard	Cedar Cove Motors~	Route 4	47.534523	-122.627148
	Seattle	Ravenna Motors~	2715 E. 55th St.	47.668426	-122.297966
	Seattle	Rowland Motors British Car Sales of Seattle	511 East Pike Street	47.61396	-122.324999
	Spokane	Jaremko Motors^	2020 North Monroe	47.613801	-122.325192
	Tacoma	British Car Sales of Tacoma	1325 S. Tacoma Wy	47.23159	-122.452522
	Tacoma	Henderson Auto Sales~	7030 S. Tacoma Way	47.192802	-122.484226
	Yakima	Caraway Motors~ Archie Caraway	213 S. Third Ave.	46.597229	-120.510408
	Walla Walla	Dawson Motors~	Walla Walla Ave. at Wellington	46.077288	-118.309700

~ Noted as a 1950 MG dealer

^ Still in business today selling Nissan-Saab. The oldest import dealer west of the Mississippi. They have been in the Spokane area for over 75 years.

British Motor Car Distributors, Ltd.

The Northern California distributor for Nuffield and later BMC. Located at 214 Van Ness Avenue and at 1540 Market Street, San Francisco, California. Originally started by Kjell Qvale as a car dealership selling MG's in Alameda, CA in 1948.

Al Moss also bought all the remaining inventory from BMCD when they no longer wanted to sell MG T parts.

Territory Covered

California (North of a line drawn above Fresno, but including Modesto) - Nevada (North of a line drawn above Las Vegas to Utah state line) - Guam - Okinawa.

Dealers of British Motor Car Distributors, Ltd.

It is largely assumed that each of dealers was holey owned by Kjell Qvale.

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
CALIFORNIA	Berkeley	Norwitt British Cars	2567 Shattuck Avenue Note: Sometime around 1954 the showroom moved to 2655 Shattuck.	37.86281	-122.267126
	Burlingame	Kingdom Motors	1321 Howard Avenue	37.576819	-122.345973
	Daly City	Cardinal Motor Sales	6565 Minion Street	37.70372	-122.46252
	Hayward	Allied Sports Car	20525 E. 14th Street	37.689679	-122.106215
	Los Gatos	S. M. Drake Foreign Cars	16233 San Jose Avenue	37.233036	-121.964412
	Modesto	Garrett Motor Sales	931 McHenry Avenue	37.656475	-120.994173
	Monterey	Lacey British Cars Lorin D. Lacey	298 Pearl Street	36.597829	-121.893377
	Oakland	Norwitt British Cars	3068 Broadway	37.819972	-122.261247
	Palo Alto	Continental Car Company	439 Alma Street	37.443901	-122.164612
	Redwood City	C & M Motors, Inc.	1612 El Camino Real	37.479643	-122.226239
	Sacramento	Oxford Motors, Ltd. Sammy Weiss	1831 J Street	38.577158	-121.48155
	Salinas	Cuiwell British Cars	510 Alisal Street	36.672128	-121.667749
	San Anselmo	E. F. Sweeney British Cars	610 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard	37.977069	-122.561676
	San Francisco	British Motor Car Distributors	1800 Van Ness	37.792719	-122.422281
	San Jose	Tip Blume Foreign Cars	352 W. San Carlos Street	37.328698	-121.892872
	San Leandro	Lea Harkins Motor Sales	355 E. 14th Street	37.733296	-122.162595
	Santa Cruz	Fry's Garage	644 Ocean Avenue	36.97651	-122.016844
	Santa Rosa	Ken's British Cars	2424 Sonoma Avenue, Montgomery Village	38.444649	-122.687268
	Stockton	Crown Motor Company	1847 North Wilson Way	37.974777	-121.276565
	Turlock	Joe Saso	520 North Center	37.491332	-120.840588
	Ukiah	Mark King's Garage	903 South State Street	39.138066	-123.20561
	Vallejo	Bonded British Car Co.	1826 Sonoma Boulevard	38.102904	-122.254627
	Willits	C & H Automotive & Chain Saw Service	233 South Main Street	39.410211	-123.354247
NEVADA	Reno	Oden British Cars	119 East 4th Street	39.530236	-119.812669

Denver Imported Motors, Inc.

2610 West Alameda Avenue, Denver 19, Colorado.

Territory Covered

Colorado - New Mexico (North of east/west line below Albuquerque natural trading area to take in south eastern quarter of Wyoming, and western half of Nebraska) - (West of n line from Keyapaha County to Furnas County) Western portion of Kansas (West of a north/south line running from Washington County in the north to Cowley County in the south, including Washington and Cowley Counties.

Dealers of Denver Imported Motors, Inc

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
COLORADO	Boulder	Rush Motors	1500 Pearl Street	40.018577	-105.275311
	Colorado Springs	Import Motors	1608 S. Nevada	38.811339	-104.82264
	Denver	Collins Company	1029 Broadway	39.732761	-104.987456
	Denver	Denver Imported Motors	2610 W. Alameda	39.711198	-105.018033
	Denver	Lowen-Thomson-Brown	1300 Lincoln Street	39.736919	-104.986104
	Grand Junction	Moss Motorama, Inc.	1155 North 5th Street	39.078092	-108.564782
	Grand Junction	World Motors	2848 North Avenue	39.077967	-108.524818
KANSAS	Manhattan	Miller Auto Exchange, Inc.	306 Houston	39.178298	-96.560524
	Wichita	Aircraft and Automotive Specialties	1328 East Kellog	37.67887	-97.321874
NEW MEXICO	Albuquerque	S-P Motors	5200 W. Central Avenue	35.083201	-106.695487
	Santa Fe	S-P Motors	2700 Cerrillos Road	35.65829	-105.985184
WYOMING	Cheyenne	Trail Motors	1715 Pioneer Avenue	41.133013	-104.818101

Foreign Motor Car Company

843 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah

Territory Covered

Utah - natural trading area consisting of south eastern section of Idaho - south western quarter of Wyoming.

Dealers of Foreign Motor Car Company

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
IDAHO	Boise	Import Motors	1600 Front Street	43.61913	-116.214743
	Idaho Falls	Blair Hammon Garage	525 Highland Drive	43.50318	-112.035583
	Pocatello	John P. Harris Company	151 North 2nd Street	42.864279	-112.446186
	Rexburg	Enterprises, Eldon C. Hart	151 N 1st E	43.829504	-111.781631
UTAH	Provo	L. H. Strong Motors	461 West 3rd South	40.229497	-111.666747
	Salt Lake City	Foreign Motor Car Co.	343 South Main Street	40.761723	-111.890958
WYOMING	Afton	Call Aircraft Manufacturing Co.	Ruell Call	42.7252	-110.932072
	Jackson	Studebaker Sales & Service	c/o L. Willard	43.479768	-110.762364
	Rock Springs	Stuart Lee	Box 392	41.591342	-109.223721

Gough Industries

Gough Industries at 819 East 1st Street, Los Angeles 54, California and at 201 North Avenue, Los Angeles 19, California.

Gough Industries also represented Philco radios, refrigerators and TV sets. They ran a contest: In 25 words or less let us know "Why I like a Philco TV". The first prize winner would get the keys to a new MG TC. A young married woman with two children won the contest but had no use for the car and she immediately put the MG up for sale with an ad in the Los Angeles Times. Al Moss responded to her ad and bought the car, a red MG TC with tan upholstery, on September 13, 1948. She hadn't registered the car, so Al became the first registered owner and owned this same MG TC until just prior to his death. In August 2012, by Al's request, the car was auctioned off in Montery, CA for $66,000. The high bidder was Moss Motors, who owns the car to this day.

Al Moss also bought all the remaining inventory from Gough Industries when they no longer wanted to sell MG T parts.

Processing of Cars at Gough

A very interesting article appeared in the January 1954 issue of Road & Track magazine on how Gough Industries prepared the MG's from the factory.

In this article the author witnessed the process of bringing a car into Los Angeles from the ship to the dealer. He even climbed inside the hold of the ship. The importer was Gough Industries and their 'processing plant' was 'as large as the MG factory' according to the author.

Some interesting tidbits:

• Cars were basically manhandled all along the way.
• Accessories were not installed at the factory but left with the cars. These included all the bits that could break/fall off such as wing nuts, hubcaps, wiper motors, headlamps ...
• All the chrome was shellacked and covered with waterproof paper. The paper was also on the upholstery and the dash.
• The engines were coated in Cosmoline (a brown gooey Vaseline like substance to prevent rust). Gun owners know the stuff.
• If a car had major damage it was parted out and not sold as a car. Minor paint and bumper issues were dealt with though
• No fuel was in the cars presumably for fire reasons but they were lubed and the oil in place. This meant they had to be pushed after unloading.
• The cars were packed in the ship with as little as 3" spacing.
• When the cars are processed they are ready to be sold. They are washed and waxed and completely detailed. The dealer only has to deliver it and install any dealer sold accessories.

Another article in the same issue talks about the MG factory side. Equally interesting.

Territory Covered

California (South of a line drawn above Fresno but excluding Modesto) also lower (Baja) California - Arizona - Southern corner of Nevada to include Las Vegas - Hawaii.

Dealers of Gough Industries

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
ARIZONA	Phoenix	Thomas Brothers	917 East Van Buren St.	33.451323	-112.060824
	Tucson	World Wide Motors	240 North Stone Avenue	32.224664	-110.971625
CALIFORNIA	Beaumont	British Motors (Chuck Miller)	402 W. Sixth Street	33.930605	-116.983647
	Bellflower	Triangle Motors	17439 S. Clark Ave.	33.87393	-118.133919
	Beverly Hills	International Motors	8670 Wilshire Blvd.	34.06609	-118.380766
	Burbank	Mack Motor Company	507 S. San Fernando Blvd.	34.177761	-118.304817
	Burbank	Mack Motor Company (1953)	430 South Victory Boulevard	34.170154	-118.313754
	Compton	Lee Carpenter	828 E. Compton Blvd.	33.8958	-118.21418
	Coronado	Coronado Motor Imports	929 Orange Ave.	32.686848	-117.179169
	Culver City	Rabuzzi Motors	8951 Venice Blvd.	34.028664	-118.390219
	El Centro	Ray Miller	426 N. Imperial Ave.	32.796041	-115.570208
	Fresno	Brittsan Motors	701 Fulton Ave.	36.73106	-119.787456
	Fullerton	Commonwealth Motors Ltd.	748 W. Commonwealth Ave	33.869926	-117.939575
	Hermosa Beach	B.B. Car Sales	700 Pacific Coast Hwy.	33.860616	-118.391506
	Huntington Park	Richter Motors (aka Richter-Darwin Motors)	2818 E. Gage Ave.	33.981677	-118.219609
	La Jolla	La Jolla Motor Imports	6798 La Jolla Blvd.	32.83068	-117.276699
	Long Beach	General Motor Finance (Brewster Gray)	1100 American Ave.	33.780717	-118.189642
	Los Angeles	International Motors	5670 Sunset Blvd.	34.097982	-118.313282
	Los Angeles	Bob Roberts	4301 Crenshaw Blvd.	34.005081	-118.333946
	Los Angeles	Peter Satori Motors, Inc.	2301 W. Colorado Blvd.	34.139834	-118.216465
	Monrovia	Clifford T. Nutt~	245 W. Foothill Blvd.	34.151654	-118.004756
	Monrovia	Huntington Motors	1002 S. Myrtle Ave.	34.141761	-118.000697
	Monterey Park	Import Motors, Ltd. (Ted Tapler)	218 W. Garvey Blvd.	34.062401	-118.124755
	Newport Beach	British Motors Inc.	1209 Coast Highway	33.611975	-117.887444
	Oxnard	Hinkley Motor Sales Crawford Motor Co. (1953)	1217 S. Oxnard Blvd.	34.18803	-119.17529
	Pasadena	Peter Satori - British Motor Cars	297 W. Colorado Blvd.	34.14581	-118.156577
	Pomona	Macy Motors	999 W. Holt Ave.	34.062259	-117.766927
	Riverside	Al Pernett Imported Cars	1651 8th Street	33.951352	-117.529424
	Riverside	Al Pernett Imported Cars (1953)	1209 8th Street	33.947258	-117.547577
	San Bernardino	Bering Monroe Motors	1000 E. Baseline	34.121371	-117.265493
	San Diego	San Diego Motor Imports	303 West "A" Street	32.718853	-117.165758
	Santa Ana	British Motors Inc.	1219 S. Main	33.732781	-117.867359
	Santa Barbara	Phipps Motors	233 W. Carillo St.	34.418345	-119.704876
	Santa Monica	Brentwood Motor Co.	2610 Wilshire Blvd.	34.036204	-118.477154
	Studio City	John C. Mehan Co. Inc.	12001 Ventura Blvd.	34.143866	-118.393491
	Van Nuys	Wells Motors^	14550 Sherman Way	34.201004	-118.4506
HAWAII	Honolulu	British Motor Imports	1551 Kapiolani Blvd.	21.292393	-157.842649
NEVADA	Las Vegas	George L. Holland, Inc.	1600 Freemont St.	36.163483	-115.128116

~ Not listed in the 1953 Hambro catalog but identified as being in business selling MG's in 1954

^ Wells Motors was the dealership that TD19629 was sold by new. It was a converted gas station at the time.

Imperial Car Distributors, Inc.

Located at 215 Academy Street, Hampton, Virginia.

Territory Covered

North Carolina - South Carolina - Virginia - West Virginia - Maryland - Delaware - Eastern portion of Kentucky east of a line drawn between Hancock and Logan Counties but excluding the trading area of Covington (Made up of Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, and Pendleton Counties) - Eastern portion of Tennessee east of a line between Robertson and Lincoln Counties.

Dealers of Imperial Car Distributors, Inc.

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
DELAWARE	Wilmington	Standard Motors, Inc.	42nd & Market	39.76113	-75.521373
KENTUCKY	Danville	Crook-Harmon Buick Company	117 N. Second Street	37.64601	-84.770842
	Lexington	Harry Aldridge Motors	133 Midland Avenue	38.041737	-84.489564
	Louisville	Thurston Cook Motor Co.	900 S. 4th Street	38.241585	-85.759515
	Pikeville	Bowling Motor Sales	154 College Street	37.477157	-82.520372
MARYLAND	Baltimore	Bittorf Motor Co., Inc.	1001 Cathedral Street	39.301171	-76.617324
	Baltimore	Jack Pry Ltd.	1601 Mount Royal Avenue	39.31022	-76.62375
	Silver Springs	Auto City Inc.	7990 Georgia Avenue	38.986809	-77.027208
NORTH CAROLINA	Durham	Center Motor Co.	311 Rigsbee Avenue	35.99832	-78.89998
	Fayetteville	Bryan Pontiac Cadillac Co.	410-412 W. Russell Street	35.052229	-78.883833
	Greensboro	Alexander & Mann Motor Co.	234 Commerce Place	36.074771	-79.792169
	Havelock	Robert L. Rose Motor Co., Inc.		34.879101	-76.901403
	Wilmington	Eastern Motors Inc.	217 N. 3rd Street	34.238016	-77.946315
	Winston-Salem	Stevens Motor Co.	100 Burke Street	36.095424	-80.257349
SOUTH CAROLINA	Aiken	Cullum Motors	1933 Hayme Avenue	33.564901	-81.746555
	Charleston	Wittschen Motor Company	662-664 King Street	32.796627	-79.944389
	Columbia	W. Perry Smith Motors	1720 Gervais Street	34.003818	-81.024729
	Greenville	Bridge Motor Company	225 Buncombe St.	34.854339	-82.401186
	Mullins	Jones Motor Company		34.206053	-79.254612
	Sumter	Service Motor Company		33.921711	-80.341355
SOUTH DAKOTA	Sioux Falls	Sports Car Motor Sales		43.551783	-96.700341
TENNESSEE	Chattanooga	Baldwin Motors Inc.	410 Broad Street	35.05186	-85.310524
	Johnson City	Custom Motors c/o Equipment Sales Co.	Siever & Walnut Street	36.311326	-82.355432
	Knoxville N. E.	Snider Motors Inc.	2022 N. Broadway	35.990968	-83.920002
	Nashville	Hillsboro Motors Inc.	210 Woodland Street	36.170256,	-86.768873
	Shelbyville	Darnell-Benson Buick Company		35.482269	-86.457857
VIRGINIA	Arlington	John Gifford Motors	3618 Lee Highway	38.895901	-77.104767
	Danville	Greenberg Motor Sales	542 Craghead Street	36.585106	-79.386704
	Hopewell	J. R. Harper Inc.	401 E. Broadway	37.30613	-77.282694
	Norfolk	Mid-town Motor Co.	2400 Granby Street	36.869811	-76.283914
	Petersburg	Beck Motor Co., Inc.	Washington & Perry Street	37.226595	-77.409122
	Richmond	Tran-Sport Sales & Service	1010 N. Boulevard	37.564174	-77.469751
	Roanoke	Sink & Lovell Auto Sales Co.	4503 Williamson Road	37.313059	-79.951921
	Virginia Beach	Coates Motor Co., Inc.	31st & Pacific Avenue	36.859141	-75.979269
	Winchester	Whiting Motor Co.	1516 Valley Avenue	39.1727	-78.174593
WEST VIRGINIA	Bluefield	Bluefield Auto & Body Co.	809 Bluefield Avenue	37.265651	-81.233963
	Charleston	Lucenti Motor Sales	617 Washington Street	38.364953	-81.645157
	Clarksburg	Quinn-Cooper Cadillac Co.	Route 50, Bridgeport Road	39.278768	-80.309256
	Huntington	Irwin's Foreign Cars	1120 Third Avenue	38.422588	-82.440432
	Vienna	Vienna Motors, Inc.	605-7 Grand Central Avenue	39.304542	-81.550303
	Wheeling	Leech K. Cracraft	1165 National Road	40.074845	-80.683746

J. S. Inskip Inc.

Headquarters at 304 East 64th Street, New York, NY. Co-located with Rolls Royce distributorship. Dealerships in Southern New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Made a custom body four passenger MG TD.

In addition to functioning as an importer and distributor of automobiles and spare parts, Inskip had retail dealerships in mid-Manhattan and in Providence, Rhode Island. Inskip's clientele included the elite of American industry, entertainment and society. Supporting the company's dealers, Inskip's New York headquarters also fielded a competition MG driven by David Ash, AKA "Mr. MG", who then headed the distributor sales operation. Also working for Inskip was Gus Ehrman of racing fame, the Providence service manager.

Territory Covered

Maine - New Hampshire - Rhode Island - Vermont - New York - Massachusetts - New Jersey - Connecticut - Pennsylvania - Washington, D. C.

Dealers of J. S. Inskip Inc.

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
CONNECTICUT	Darien	Tolm Motors, Inc.	266 Post Rd	41.087608	-73.459538
	Essex	Essex Motors	Novelty Lane	41.350961	-72.385903
	Fairfield	Fairfield Motors. Inc.	2120 Post Road	41.140472	-73.269251
	Greenwich	Master Motors, Inc.	213 West Putnam Avenue	41.025847	-73.63416
	Hartford	Pallotti Poole, Inc.	549 Wetherafield Avenue	41.740826	-72.672148
	Hartford	R. G. Sceli & Co., Inc.	1249 Main Street	41.7716	-72.675453
	Lakeville	Lakeland Motors		41.964532	-73.440826
	Meriden	Meriden Motor Sales	285 West Main Street	41.539518	-72.812599
	New Haven	Beatson & McDonald Motors	183 Grand Avenue	41.309285	-72.894578
	New Haven	Gimbel Motors, Inc.	143 Whalley Avenue	41.315151	-72.936979
	New London	A & C Motors	195 Howard Street	41.34459	-72.099368
	New Milford	W.D. Worden Garage	894 Bridge Street	41.575967	-73.41321
	Norwalk	H. W. Karstens, Jr.	540 West Avenue	41.112655	-73.416032
	Saugatuck	Bridge Garage Service	Riverside Avenue & Bridge Street	41.122435	-73.370338
	Sharon	Sharon Garage		41.879323	-73.476909
	Waterford	Fay-Mar Motors	37 Boston Post Road	41.342673	-72.116094
	Westport	George Motor Sales	626 Riverside Avenue	41.119347	-73.370381
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	Washington	Jack Pry	1507 Fourteenth Street, N.W.	38.910137	-77.031929
MAINE	Bangor	Norris Brothers, Inc.	15 Oak Street	44.80017	-68.765779
	Portland	Morong Brothers, Inc.	169 Front Street, South Portland	43.650252	-70.239503
MASSACHUSETTS	Abington	Skyway Motors	336 Centre Avenue (Junction of Routes 58 & 123)	42.11064	-70.931234
	Athol	Athol Motors	220 Main Street	42.593588	-72.234959
	Attleboro	Attleboro Kaiser-Frazer Co.	63 Washington St., South Attleboro	41.929645	-71.353692
	Bedford	Hansen-MacPhee Engineering Inc.	314 Great Road (Route 4)	42.486664	-71.262883
	Beverly	Tucker Motors	469 Rantoul Street	42.555586	-70.881087
	Boston	Foreign Motors Inc.	1686 Commonwealth Avenue	42.341298	-71.145875
	Easthampton	Russell Motor Sales	322 Main Street	42.260533	-72.684604
	Falmouth	William F. Gallagher	East Main Street	41.55243	-70.610339
	Harwich	Harwich Motor Sales		41.69791	-70.097458
	Hingham Harbor	Bob Howlett, Inc.	10-12 Summer Street	42.245421	-70.883394
	Holyoke	Packard-Holyoke Motors. Inc.	155 Elm Street	42.207127	-72.612013
	Lowell	Merrimac Aircraft, Inc.	1600 Lakeview Avenue, Dracut	42.676906	-71.337224
	Malden	Centre Auto Sala	15 Centre Street	42.425365	-71.068144
	New Bedford	Joseph Goodman. Inc.	528 Ashley Boulevard	41.67284	-70.931899
	Northampton	Packard-Northampton, Inc.	141 King Street	42.324809	-72.632419
	Pittsfield	Milton Motors, Inc.	184 South Street	42.444076	-73.255861
	Plymouth	Plymouth Motors, Inc.	Water Street	41.960719	-70.666791
	Springfield	Sports Cars Ltd.	579 Main Street	42.094122	-72.581039
	Waltham	Waltham-Packard	90 Linden Street	42.37951	-71.22235
	Worcester	B. V. Motors	4 May Street	42.254855	-71.814689
	Worcester	Coventry Motors	863 West Boyleston Street	42.323564	-71.794122
	Yarmouth	Wilson Motors	Route 28. West Yarmouth	41.650597	-70.242058
NEW HAMPSHIRE	Concord	Main Street Motors. Inc.	84 South Main Street	43.19784	-71.531941
	Manchester	Lynch Brothers		42.996361	-71.454788
NEW JERSEY	Atlantic City	Colonial Motor Co.	3500 Atlantic Avenue	39.351572	-74.452191
	Burlington	Sports Car Center	Route 25	40.071307	-74.864966
	Cranford	Platt's Service Center	Raritan Rd. & Walnut Ave., Clark	40.634261	-74.303478
	East Orange	Bekrag Auto Sales Corp.	373 Central Avenue	40.750687	-74.202188
	East Paterson	Steiker Motors	10-12 Broadway	40.919115	-74.174947
	Elizabeth	Edward K. Cumming & Co., Inc.	414-416 Morris Avenue	40.671094	-74.221242
	Englewood	Block Motor Sales	554 Grand Avenue	40.876214	-73.983995
	Franklin	Duckie's Garage	North Church Rd.	41.120608	-74.590292
	Hakensack	Havell Motors Company	175 Essex Street	40.879467	-74.051855
	Highland Park	T & T Motors Inc.	210 Woodbridge Avenue	40.501212	-74.412557
	Long Branch	Mathews Brothers	350 Broadway	40.303618	-73.993782
	Merchantsville	Zenith Sport Car Corp.	Route 38 & Haddonfield Road	39.938287	-75.030015
	Montclair	Kingsfield Motor Sales	636 Bloomfield Avenue	40.832913	-74.247731
	Morristown	Havell Motor Sales	159 South Street	40.792255	-74.476299
	New Brunswick	Handy Motors	321 Handy Street	40.490598	-74.453092
	Paterson	Steiker Motors	77 River Street	40.921109	-74.173627
	Perth Amboy	Royal of Amboy	350 Maple Street	40.511564	-74.271077
	Plainfield	Suburban Motors	630 South Avenue	40.623554	-74.410316
	Point Pleasant	Van Culin Motors. Inc.	609 Bay Avenue	40.090368	-74.05178
	Princeton	Brook Motors	198 Witherspoon Street	40.354958	-74.662154
	Red Bank	Mathews Brothers	Newman Springs Road	40.336797	-74.082319
	Ridgewood	Monogram Motors	48 North Maple Avenue	40.979606	-74.112741
	Somerville	Park Motor Sales	144 East Main Street	40.566266	-74.606439
	South River	Wagner-Hetman Auto Sales	Bridge Road	40.445902	-74.386295
	Summit	Mayfair Motors	233 Broad Street	40.713793	-74.3509
	Trenton	Hoper Motors	300 Homan and Maple Avenue	40.241225	-74.783491
	Trenton	O'Keefe Motors. Inc.	403 Samuel Street	40.202911	-74.731623
NEW YORK	Albany	Kaye's Auto Exchange, Inc.	515 Central Avenue	42.669988	-73.778227
	Amityville	Venetian Auto Sales	340 Merrick Road	40.669328	-73.408447
	Auburn	Brigge Motors	7 Franklin Street	42.935108	-76.558755
	Babylon	Babylon Motors	345 Little East Neck Road	40.702082	-73.341091
	Banksville	Sports Car Enterprises	(RFD 1, Greenwich, Ct. P.O.)	41.141538	-73.639782
	Bay Shore	Degen Motor Sales. Inc.	249 West Main Street	40.7162	-73.256838
	Binghamton	George S. Carver	207 Water Street	42.100308	-75.914199
	Buchanan	Buchanan Garage, Inc.	179 Lindsey Avenue	41.261848	-73.937818
	Buffalo	Lens	Delaware at Mohawk Avenue	42.887969	-78.877664
	Corinth	Rogers Motors	2 Saratoga Avenue	43.245312	-73.839971
	Dansville	Molyneaux Motor Sales	1 Milton Street	42.561528	-77.697449
	Fayetteville	M. G. Sales & Service	Montgomery Road, Dewitt	43.030659	-76.05488
	Fulton	Oswegy County Motors, Inc.	Hannibal Road	43.326083	-76.434957
	Geneva	Mohawk Motors Co., Inc.	West Hamilton Street	42.858853	-76.994895
	Glens Falls	Bromley Auto Sales, Inc.	Warren Street	43.309753	-73.643485
	Great Neck	European Car Distributors, Ltd.	363 Great Neck Road	40.778673	-73.732093
	Greenvale	North Shore Sports Cars	Northern Boulevard	40.809635	-73.62825
	Hempstead	Hempstead Auto Co.	46 Fulton Avenue	40.705254	-73.63504
	Horseheads	E. & F. Motorcar Sales & Service	Sayre Street	42.16163	-76.817481
	Huntington	Lads British Auto Sales Company	618 New York Avenue	40.862665	-73.422083
	Katonah	Craven & Hedrick, Inc.	Bedford Road	41.258743	-73.685208
	Latham	Nemith Auto Co.	Traffic Circle, Route 9	42.747556	-73.760707
	Lindenhurst	Venetian Auto Sales Company	222 Merrick Road	40.684348	-73.371969
	Mahopac	Ridgeview Pontiac Co.	Route 6	41.372546	-73.733562
	Malone	Dufrane's Motor Sales	417 East Main Street	44.848985	-74.29232
	Mamaroneck	Sports & Utility Motors. Inc.	816 East Post Road	40.953828	-73.72455
	Manhasset	Grand Prix Motors	537 Plandome Road	40.799817	-73.701087
	Margaretville	Lukow Motors		42.148737	-74.648185
	Maryland	Morris Garage		42.536489	-74.887889
	Middleburgh	Imported Motors	Valley Air Park	42.647533	-74.38724
	Mineola	M. V. Motors, Ltd.	360 Jericho Turnpike	40.746428	-73.650307
	Newark	McDougall's Sales & Service	2 East Avenue	43.048933	-77.092642
	Newburgh	Kelly Motors	Lake Street	41.499956	-74.026471
	New Rochelle	Imported Car Sales & Service	93 Huguenot Street	40.913407	-73.776671
	New York City	J. S. Inskip. Inc.	24 East 54th Street	40.760545	-73.974146
	Niagra Falls	Lenz	1110 Main Street	43.09951	-79.05396
	Norwich	S. A. Jones	94 South Broad Street	42.525523	-75.523808
	Nyack	Small Cars of Rockland	Route 59, West Nyack	41.09195	-73.973011
	Oceanside	Elliott Sales & Service	3274 Long Beach Road	40.631754	-73.641155
	Ogdensburg	Ricketts Sales & Service	116-124 Lake Street	44.693451	-75.496001
	Oyster Bay	Brewster Automobile Corp.	Berry Hill Road, South Street	40.865684	-73.532365
	Port Washington	Johnson Motors	122 Main Street	40.830437	-73.691001
	Rochester	Sport Car Sales, Inc.	2 Henion Street	43.150699	-77.634246
	Rochester	Two Brothers Motors. Inc.	1755 Monroe Street	43.129138	-77.568242
	Rockville Centre	Bill Frick Motors~	1000 Sunrise Highway	40.656532	-73.623272
	St. James	Lake Avenue Garage		40.879974	-73.157289
	Schnectady	Dillard Motor Corp.	1851 State Street	42.779157	-73.902542
	Sea Cliff	Roy A. Hendrickson & Son	212 Sea Cliff Avenue	40.849162	-73.644546
	Skaneateles	Skaneateles Car Distributors Inc.	1321 East Genesee St.	42.944761	-76.412671
	Southampton	Doering Brothers	32 Windmill Lane	40.884375	-72.392619
	Wellsville	P. B. & B. English Auto Sales	6 West Hanover Street (Box 223)	42.115789	-77.939202
	White Plains	Shamrock Motors, Inc.	19 East Post Road	41.025928	-73.77033
	Yonkers	Fair Trade Service Corp.	51 Central Park Avenue	40.908145	-73.878155
PENNSYLVANIA	Allentown	Gordon Motor Sales	26 North Fifth Street	40.603779	-75.468137
	Bryn Mawr	Sport Cars, Inc.	572 Lancaster Avenue	40.017451	-75.310239
	Doylestown	George K. Maginniss	Route 611	40.310491	-75.129847
	Erie	A. Louis Straus	1315 Peach Street	42.121702	-80.081697
	Exton	Speedcraft Enterprises	1 Route W (PO Box 15)	40.02814	-75.628265
	Ford City	Reed Motor Sales	825 Seventh Avenue	40.768119	-79.529398
	Glenside	Sampson Motors	Easton & Castlewood Road	40.114454	-75.14007
	Greensburg	County Auto Sales	Route 30 (Box 218A, R.D. 6)	40.303798	-79.544431
	Harrisburg	Foreign Motor Sales	436 So. Cameron Street	40.25834	-76.871458
	Hazelton	Hazelton Sport Car Co.	29th & North Church Street	40.981048	-75.980204
	Horsham	George K. Maginniss	2936 Easton Road	40.171651	-75.127904
	Johnstown	Sell Motor Company	400 Franklin Street	40.321984	-78.919228
	Kingston	Goodwin Auto Co.	651 Wyoming Avenue	41.271066	-75.886572
	Kutztown	Nick Ciliberti Motors	601 East Main Street	40.527672	-75.767632
	Lancaster	Guy Gilgore	1408 Lititz Pike	40.061298	-76.306799
	Lansdale	George K. Maginniss	Route 463 (PO Box 68)	40.246548	-75.242321
	Larchmont	YBH Sales & Service	3105 West Chester Pike (Newtown Square P.O.)	39.984396	-75.378508
	Meadville	Brooks Brothers	377-381 North Street	41.640391	-80.147121
	Montgomeryville	Taylor Motors	Bethlehem Pike (Route 309)	40.247728,	-75.244081
	New Hope (Bucks County)	Hooper Motors, Ltd.	Highway 202	40.346356	-75.03305
	Norristown	Fred H. Kopenhaver	Butchers Lane, Washington Square	40.144953	-75.309843
	Philadelphia	Royston Motors, Inc.	Chestnut at 20th Street	39.952056	-75.173497
	Phillipsburg	Tex Arnold Motors		40.896679	-78.22056
	Pittsburgh	Motor Sport. Inc.	5438 Centre Avenue	40.456115	-79.938016
	Pittsburgh	York Motors	5866 Baum Boulevard	40.459903	-79.928672
	Reading	Nick Ciliberti Motors	1204 Old Wyomissing Road	40.324111	-75.952415
	Scenery Hill	Frank W. Huffman	2179 U.S. 40	40.086001	-80.069779
	Trooper	Dependable Autos	Ridge Pike	40.149882	-75.397306
	Washington	Bob Provins Imported Motor Cars	57 West Strawberry Avenue	40.168405	-80.246192
RHODE ISLAND	Coventry	Webber Motor Sales	Route 3, Tiogue Road	41.680813	-71.526566
	Hillsgrove	Marley Motors	1776 Post Road	41.732892	-71.435854
	Providence	Economy Auto Sales	1224 Broad Street	41.793137	-71.408248
	Riverside	Savard Motors	33 Maple Avenue	41.770407	-71.362587
VERMONT	Brattleboro	Fisher Motors, Inc.	225 Main Street	42.855448	-72.559538
	Burlington	F. H. Taplin, Inc.	51 Elmwood Avenue	44.48191	-73.213729
	Manchester Centre	John Hayes	Route 7	43.176907	-73.056789
	Rutland	Burke's Garage	102 Willow Street	43.607334	-72.978145
	St. Johnsbury	C. H. Goss Company	17 Central Street	44.419222	-72.02124
	Stowe	Stowe Auto Service, Inc.		44.465373	-72.68631

~ Not listed in the 1953 Hambro catalog but identified as being in business selling MG's in 1954

Nueces Garage

617 North Water Street. Corpus Christi, Texas.

Territory Covered

Texas (south of line drawn through El Paso due east to Louisiana border including El Paso and San Antonio).

Dealers of Nueces Garage

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
LOUISIANA	New Orleans	British Motors	1400 St. Charles Avenue	29.93953	-90.074717
	Shreveport	Sports Car Sales	3831 Dilg League Drive	32.489429	-93.801389
TEXAS	Beeville	Deer Motor Company		28.401065	-97.747963
	El Paso	John Bull Motor Company	501 Montana	31.76561	-106.489085
	Houston	Continental Motors, Ltd.	3919 Winkler Drive	29.732502	-95.342427
	Houston	Sports Cars, Inc.	3705 Buffalo	29.760023	-95.38962
	Kingsville	Sleight Motors	3rd & Santa Gertrudes	27.522649	-97.872146
	Odessa	Odessa Sport Car Company	1115 North Grant	31.854286	-102.374158
	Pecos	Nash Pecos Motors	520 West 3rd Street	31.424177	-103.499592
	San Antonio	Osborn Motors	2103 Broadway	29.444764	-98.476415
	Victoria	Webb Garage	404 West Constitution	28.800307	-97.009408
	Waco	Hub City Motors	4317 North 19th Street	31.58592	-97.17637
	Waco	Inmons M/C Sales~	25th & Franklin Ave.	31.539735	-97.149315

~ Not listed in the 1953 Hambro catalog but identified as being in business selling MG's in 1954

Clarence Talley Auto Company

(Sales) 2146 North Harwood Street, Dallas, Texas Telephone: Riverside 3637

(Service) 2308 Main Street, Dallas, Texas Telephone: ST 3931

Territory Covered

Texas (North of line drawn through El Paso due east to Louisiana border excluding El Paso and San Antonio) - Oklahoma.

Dealers of Clarence Talley Auto Company

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
OKLAHOMA	Oklahoma City	Thoroughbred Car Company	4608 No. Western	35.517801	-97.529649
	Pauls Valley	Knott's Motor Company		34.740167	-97.222205
	Ponca City	John L. Corlett	1002 No. Third	36.715391	-97.081345
	Stillwater	Lucky Sam Imperial Cars	1101 Main Street	36.1099	-97.058213
	Tulsa	Tom Gray Motor Company	750 So. Lewis	36.150022	-95.958207
TEXAS	Abilene	Quality Body Works	5th and Walnut Streets	32.418008	-99.71772
	Amarillo	Amarillo Sport Car Co.	2142 Fourth Street	32.418008	-99.71772
	Lubbock	Pup Thomas. Inc.	Main at Avenue "Que"	33.585496	-101.855226
	Mineral Wells	Shirley Johnson Motor Co.	409 East Hubbard Street	32.809235	-98.110272
	Tyler	Al Towns Motor Co.	425 Poplar-Bakham	32.353863	-95.295144
	Witchita Falls	Lone Star Motor Co.	409 Scott Street	33.900992	-98.48237

Waco Motors

Waco Motors at 1779-1799-1800-1801 West Flagler Street, Miami 35, Florida was an importer for many imported cars during the 1950's.

Territory Covered

Florida-Alabama-Mississippi

Dealers of Waco Motors

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
ALABAMA	Athens	Magnussons Harley Davidson S&S	U. S. Highway North	34.803232	-86.971649
	Mobile	Magnolia Marine Service	11 So. Water Street	30.693015	-88.03921
FLORIDA	Daytona Beach	Ted Cash Motors	112 N. Ridgewood Avenue	29.211193	-81.023689
	Delray Beach	Ludington Motors, Inc.	Box 2115	26.461622	-80.072872
	Ft. Lauderdale	Import Motors Inc., of Florida	2608 S. Federal Highway	26.090165	-80.135695
	Ft. Meyers	Ft. Myers Hudson Co.	1959 Lee Street	26.641628	-81.865731
	Lakeland	Warren A. Nunn Motor Co.		28.039865	-81.949867
	Leesburg	Briles Motor Co.	216 S. Sixth St.	28.809718	-81.877822
	Melbourne	Logan Motors	700 Dixie Highway	28.201274	-80.663672
	Miami	Imported Motors	829 N.E. 79th St.	25.848217	-80.179716
	Orlando	Foreign Cars, Inc.	300 Orange St.	28.616954	-81.381431
	Palatka	Bob Lee Motors	1st & Lemon Streets	29.64606	-81.628515
	Pensacola	Sports Motors, Inc.	900 E. Cervantes	30.423531	-87.206234
	Sarasota	Cutler Motors	9th & Broadway	27.344019	-82.546641
	St. Petersburg	Nichols Bros. Inc.	424 Ninth St. South	27.766608	-82.646597
	Tampa	Import Motor Cars	418 E. Platt St.	27.943446	-82.452898
	Vero Beach	J.R. Furlong & Co.	U.S. 1 at 24th	27.643209	-80.398487
	West Palm Beach	Taylor Motors	821 So. Dixie Highway	26.706044	-80.053748
	Winter Haven	George W. Price Motors	Box 511	28.022364	-81.732924
	Winter Park	Schmidt Motors	Box 316	28.600291	-81.328035
GEORGIA	Albany	Foreign Car Sales	128 Broad Street	31.576378	-84.105817
	Augusta	Foreign Motor Inc.	921 Reynolds	33.478015	-81.967515
	Columbus	Harris Motor Co.		32.468061	-84.990449
	Savannah	Jolley Motors	122 E. Broad Street	32.076566	-81.084822

Walker, Archie Jr., Imported Motors

4317 Excelsior Boulevard, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Territory Covered

Minnesota - North Dakota - South Dakota

Dealers of Walker, Archie Jr., Imported Motors

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
MINNESOTA	Fergus Falls	Dudgeon Motors		46.283555	-96.077782
	Moorhead	Moorhead Direct Service	N. Fourth Ave. at Fifth St.	46.284571	-96.094678
	Owatanna	Pegg-Sona Motor Company		44.083778	-93.228589
	Rochester	Herb's Auto Sales		44.023403	-92.463004

Miscellaneous US Dealers

Territory Covered

Montana - Tennessee

Miscellaneous Dealers

State	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
MONTANA	Great Falls	Foreign Motors	622 Central Avenue	47.504997	-111.295958
TENNESSEE	Clarksville	Lewis Motors	E. College Street	36.532966	-87.344004
	Columbia	B&B Motors		35.615060	-87.036174
	Memphis	Memphis Packard Inc.	938 Union Avenue	35.138323	-90.029997

James L. Cooke Motors, Ltd.

2489 Bloor Street, West, Toronto 9, Ontario

676 Bay Street. West, Toronto. (Jame, L. Cooke Motors (Downtown) Ltd.)

Territory Covered

Ontario

Dealers of James L. Cooke Motors, Ltd.

Province	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
ONTARIO	Aurora	F.C. Davis & Son	Yonge Street	43.982314	-79.463658
	Aylmer	Aylmer Motor Sales	Box 18	42.773286	-80.983345
	Barrie	Graves & Allen	Highway No. 27	44.386481	-79.694203
	Brampton	Graham Motors		43.688451	-79.763664
	Brantford	Evans & Clark Motor Sales	140 West Street	43.145419	-80.265397
	Brighton	Bert Hennessey & Son		44.039970	-77.738613
	Burlington	Watson Motor Sales	47 Beach Blvd., Station 28, Hamilton Beach	43.265112	-79.772621
	Chatham	George Greven Automotive Service Ltd.	385 Richmond Street	42.595209	-82.182944
	Coburg	Thomas Motor Sales	105 University Street	43.963143	-78.171565
	Collingwood	Girdwood's Garage	Hume Street	44.497720	-80.204633
	Cooksville	Russell's Garage	Box 155	43.580140	-79.616461
	Dunnville	L. M. Root	Mille Street	42.903710	-79.617622
	Essex	William Bridgen & Son		42.173121	-82.820390
	Port Frances	Reid's Garage Ltd.	Portage & 1st Streets	48.611051	-93.395636
	Port William	Danis Motors	Brock & Sprague	45.097971	-64.410147
	Goderich	William A. Craig & Son	Box 432	43.743128	-81.707887
	Guelph	Reinhart Motors	12 Gordon Street	43.541956	-80.247789
	Hagersville	Nottingham's Garage	Howard Street	42.960919	-80.054395
	Haliburton	Boice Motor Sales		45.046452	-78.508743
	Hamilton	King West Motors	235 King Street, West	43.258736	-79.876540
	Hamilton	Szabo Motors Ltd.	690 King Street, East	43.252011	-79.848113
	Hanover	Ted Zister	Durham Street, East	44.151672	-81.030830
	Kingston	Harvie-Gardiner Ltd.	314 Montreal Street	44.240140	-76.486507
	Kitchener	Central Motors Kitchener	331 King Street, East	43.447471	-80.483744
	Leaksdale	British Ontario Motors		44.204927	-79.161483
	Markham	Markham Motors	Highway No. 7	43.855629	-79.334142
	Mount Forest	Robert A. Anderson	Box 309	43.979401	-80.732176
	Niagra Falls	Falls Motor Sales	1210 Ferry Street	43.089626	-79.086490
	Noranda	Noranda Auto Service	401 Murdoch Street	48.248059	-79.028555
	North Bay	Barker & Holmes Motors	1205 Fisher Street	46.311140	-79.447925
	Oakville	McDertnott's Garage	83 Colborne Street	43.464370	-79.658834
	Orangeville	Walker & Brown Motor Service	10 First Street	43.919710	-80.097736
	Orilla	Highway Garage	179 Memorial Avenue	44.599152	-79.424849
	Oshawa	Cranfield Motor Sales	610 Simcoe Street, South	43.881723	-78.856415
	Owen Sound	Binns Garage	R. R. No. 5	44.567533	-80.943011
	Parry Sound	Watson's Garage	54 Bowes Street	45.343385	-80.021596
	Peterboro	Reuben N. Wilson Motors	Reid & McDonnell Streets	44.309374	-78.328198
	Pickering	Disney Motors		43.835867	-79.090600
	Picton	Haddon Motor Sales	Main Street	44.006868	-77.142710
	Sarnia	Edgewater Motors Ltd.	287 Front Street	42.976120	-82.406818
	Sault Ste. Marie	Northland Motors	114 March Street	46.511115	-84.331683
	St. Catharines	Lu Russell Motor Sales	250 Welland Avenue	43.167774	-79.234462
	St. Thomas	Butterworth Motors	240 Talbot Street	42.779124	-81.202159
	Stratford	Riehl Motors	180 Erie Street	43.368010	-80.985767
	Sudbury	Kingsway Motors	507 Kingsway	46.494935	-80.980470
	Sundridge	Black Motor Sales		45.769087	-79.396446
	Timmins	Daigneault Motor Sale	71 Algonquin Boulevard	48.476142	-81.334398
	Toronto	Car Sales & Service Ltd.	880 Bay Street	43.662797	-79.386708
	Toronto	Corbett Motors	1417 Gerrard Street, East	43.671979	-79.322776
	Toronto	Davisville Motors	1853 Yonge Street	43.697050	-79.396340
	Toronto	Elward Sales & Battery Co., Ltd.	565 Dupont Street	43.672129	-79.419002
	Toronto	Gene Lewis Motors	1380 Eglinton Avenue, West	43.698519	-79.437849
	Toronto	Matson Motors Ltd.	355 Keel Street	43.664981	-79.464224
	Toronto	Scarboro Beach Garage	2301 Queen Street, East	43.671592	-79.292176
	Toronto	Wilson & Hargrave Ltd.	2 Teddington Park	43.733128	-79.404187
	Welland	County Motors Ltd.	Niagara Street, North	43.011514	-79.249924
	Weston	Scale's Garage	1910 Jane Street	43.710132	-79.505774
	Windsor	H. D. Thomson Motors,	840 Wynndotte Street	42.318510	-83.024794
	Woodstock	Parker's West End Motors	105 Ingersoll Road	43.125532	-80.772506

James L. Cooke (Western) Ltd.

2345 Marion Street. St. Boniface, Winnipeg

Territory Covered

Manitoba - Saskatchewan

Dealers of James L. Cooke (Western) Ltd.

Province	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
MANITOBA	Altona	Edward H. Epp		49.103381	-97.557784
	Austin	Austin Motors		49.950346	-98.936283
	Baldur	Lloyd W. Gordon		49.385508	-99.243926
	Brandon	C. & C. Motors	5th St. & Rosser Avenue	49.848449	-99.944627
	Brandon	Wheat City Motors	12 St. & Rosser Avenue	49.848445	-99.954149
	Carmon	McCallum & Shaw		49.508547	-98.001779
	Cypress River	Dick's Garage		49.556122	-99.090903
	Dauphin	Vermillion Transfer		51.150388	-100.049189
	Ethelbert	Hiway Service Garage		51.525787	-100.393465
	Flin Flon	Morris Motors	98 First Avenue, East	54.770705	-101.869962
	Hamiota	G.J. Smith		50.181702	-100.599912
	Kelwood	F. William & Son		50.624196	-99.461769
	Killarney	W.H. Davies		49.186015	-99.662544
	Manitou	Pembina Consumers Co-Op Ltd.		49.242660	-98.536082
	Melita	J.W. McKinney		49.272074	-100.993141
	Minitonas	Robb Motors		52.086233	-101.037435
	Morden	Mid-Town Service		49.192430	-98.097925
	Neepawa	H. W. Cleland & Son		50.227622	-99.467046
	Norte Dame De Lourdes	Josaphat Le Neal		49.532732	-98.557996
	Pierson	Charles Durward		49.179657	-101.262232
	Portage La Prarie	East End Service Station		49.972492	-98.283194
	Reston	W. M. Lockhart & Sons		49.557597	-101.093376
	Roblin	Sorbo Motors		51.228264	-101.352385
	Russell	Russel Motors		50.780393	-101.285070
	Ste. Anne	H. Dusessoy & Son		49.671329	-96.654086
	Ste. Claude	G.L. Bernard		49.657938	-98.346494
	Selkirk	Selkirk Sales & Service		50.144949	-96.873103
	Shoal Lake	Byram's Service Station		50.438043	-100.590835
	Somerset	G.N.Lussier		49.413239	-98.659020
	Steinbach	Johnny's Service Station		49.525098	-96.683277
	Swan River	George E. Scalf		52.105114	-101.270619
	Virden	Forsters Garage & Electric		49.854892	-100.927641
	Winnipeg	Century Motors Limited	818 Portage Avenue	49.880471	-97.327714
	Winnipeg	Sarlington Motors	Sargent & Arlington Streets	49.896840	-97.168626
ONTARIO	Fort Francis	Reid's Garage Lltd.	Portage & 1st Streets	48.611015	-93.395646
	Fort William	Danis Motors	Brock & Sprague	48.368384	-89.261478
SASKATCHEWAN	Carlyle	Biberdorf Brothers		49.633970	-102.266973
	Colonsay	Morgan & Son		51.975805	-105.875139
	Gravelbourg	Gravelbourg Motors		49.872930	-106.550819
	Humbolt	Lux Agencies Ltd.		52.202097	-105.123154
	Kelvington	Lockies Service		52.163413	-103.522034
	Lloydminster	Mel Olson & Son		53.278073	-110.006695
	Maple Creek	McIntyre Implements		49.902133	-109.477311
	Meadow Lake	Auto Clinic		54.131761	-108.428538
	Melville	Melville Machinery Sales		50.927101	-102.809327
	Moose Jaw	Hodgson Motor Sales	1413 High Street, West	50.391334	-105.564955
	Nipawin	N. & H. Electric		53.362371	-104.013016
	North Battleford	Avenue Auto Body & Repair Shop		52.776581	-108.299134
	Pathlow	Thompson Brothers Garage		52.715877	-104.804446
	Preeceville	Preeceville Electric		51.954369	-102.668138
	Prince Albert	Standard Service Station. At The Bridge		53.199477	-105.759894
	Regina	Transport Equipment Co.		50.447335	-104.618238
	Saskatoon	Royal Motors Limited	19-21 Twenty-third Street, East	52.131348	-106.668783
	Swift Current	Armstrong & Sons		50.284999	-107.799889
	Watrous	T. N. B. Machine Co.		51.672013	-105.469048
	Weyburn	Soo Farm Equipment		49.668316,	-103.858262
	Wilkie	Smith, Bell & Badger		52.409780	-108.702781
	Wynyard	John Fitchtner		51.765209	-104.179210
	Yorktown	Morris Rod Weeder Co. Ltd.	62 Argyle Street	51.208749	-102.454748

Oxford Motors, Ltd.

2211 West Fourth Street, Vancouver

Territory Covered

British Columbia - Alberta - Yukon Territory

Dealers of Oxford Motors, Ltd.

Province	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
ALBERTA	Calgary	Cooke Motors Limited	938 Fourth Avenue West	51.108874	-114.071351
	Edmonton	Mill Creek Motors Limited	82nd Avenue at 96th Street	53.518116	-113.476683
BRITISH COLUMBIA	Abbotsford	Mill Lake Auto Sales		49.051395	-122.326720
	Alberni	Kennedy Auto Sales	Johnson Street	49.263447	-124.796905
	Chilliwack	Westgate Service	403 Yale Road West	49.143010	-122.020802
	Comox	Comox Garage	P.O. Box 41	49.675825	-124.935249
	Creston	R. W. A. Maxwell		49.095511	-116.513543
	Hammod	Hammod Motors		49.205634	-122.658594
	Kamloops	Casco Tire Service	53 Victoria Street West	50.677066	-120.342557
	Kelowna	Gil Mervyn Service	1610 Pendozi Street	49.881996	-119.458184
	Langley Prairie	Langley Car Sales	P.O. Box 252	49.074268	-122.559198
	Nanaimo	Weeks Motors	322 Selby Street	49.165027	-123.942747
	Mission City	Horne Service	P.O. Box 126	49.132858	-122.326204
	New Westminster	Dublin Service	Dublin at 12th Street	49.211968	-122.935998
	Penticton	Triangle Service Station		49.493205	-119.603165
	Princeton	Bennett Motors	P.O. Box 164	49.458816	-120.506155
	Quesnel	Quesnel Auto Sales	P.O. Box 1342	52.976057	-122.490389
	Salmon Arm	Salmon Arm Machine Shop		50.699895	-119.284845
	Trail	Butorac Motors	1225 Pine Avenue	49.095951	-117.710840
	Vancouver	Cassiar Motors	3401 East Hastings Street	49.281355	-123.030790
	Vancouver	Champion Motors Limited	215 East 2nd Avenue	49.269205	-123.100086
	Vancouver	Circle Van Limited	1205 Kingsway	49.252077	-123.079761
	Vancouver	Fleming Motors Limited	2290 Cambie Street	49.265116	-123.114446
	Vancouver	Grandview Car Sales	2010 Commercial Drive	49.266402	-123.069680
	Vancouver	Roy Howard Limited	849 Hornby Street	49.282128	-123.122858
	Vernon	Watson's Auto Service		50.265318	-119.273944
	Victoria	Victoria Super Service Limited	1400 Blanchard Street	48.426939	-123.361861
	West Vancouver	British Pacific Motors	550 16th Street	49.329149	-123.158750
	Westview	Davies & Macken	P.O. Box 690	49.836511	-124.527251
YUKON TERRITORY	Whitehorse	Standard Service Station	P.O. Box 36	60.721988	-135.054087

The Sports Car Co.

1180 St. Antoine Street, Montreal

Territory Covered

Nova Scotia - New Brunswick - Quebec - Eastern Ontario

Dealers of The Sports Car Co.

Province	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
NEW BRUNSWICK	Saint John	Bernard Motors, Ltd.	326 Union Street	45.275833	-66.054434
NOVA SCOTIA	Halifax	British Car Sales	Corner of Cogswell & Gottingen Streets	44.650403	-63.580934
ONTARIO	Cornwall	McGrail Motor Sales Co.	66 Pitt Street	45.016249	-74.727561
	Ottawa	Federal Motor Sales (Carleton) Ltd.	137 Albert Street	45.421739	-75.696227
QUEBEC	La Pointe County	J. Priam Martel	St. Nazaire	48.587903	-71.550864
	Mont Laurier	Garage Cloutier		46.551478	-75.500958
	Montreal	The Sports Car Co.	1180 St. Antoine St.	45.495716	-73.568146
	Montreal	Bronx Park Garage	7635 Lasalle Boulevard	45.430642	-73.592323
	Montreal	McGrail Motors Ltd.	2501 Rosemount Boulevard	45.546539	-73.586261
	Montreal	McGrail Motors Ltd.	5228 Cote des Neiges Road	45.495853	-73.621308
	Quebec City	McGrail Motors Ltd.	1275 De La Canardiere	46.834629	-71.223473
	St. Andrews East	J.P. Mellers Garage		45.566667	-74.333333

Toledo Motors, Ltd.

2134 St. Catherine Street. West, Montreal

Territory Covered

Ontario - New Brunswick - Quebec - Nova Scotia - Prince Edward Island

Dealers of Toledo Motors, Ltd.

Province	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
NEW BRUNSWICK	Brockville	Bigford Motors	180 Perth Street	44.593053	-75.694451
	Chipman	Morrison Brothers Garage		46.175252	-65.881674
	East Bathhurst	Ross Motors		47.612765	-65.634574
	Frederiction	Colin C. Smith	690 King Street	45.959168	-66.637244
	Grand Falls	Powers Motors		47.047254	-67.741383
	Grand Manan	Harbour Auto Sales	Grand Harbour Street	44.686370	-66.767301
	Lancaster	Kirsteads Service Station		45.243106	-66.145931
	Moncton	Moncton Nash Sales Ltd.	585 Mountain Road	46.098267	-64.798945
	Newcastle	Gerald Somers		47.003899	-65.567185
	St. John	New Brunswick Motors (Saint John) Ltd.	28 Thorne Avenue	45.284713	-66.050077
	St. Stephen	Cecil's Equipment Co.	King Street	45.194163	-67.275512
	Woodstock	Bowlin Motors	Connell Street	46.150889	-67.576730
NOVA SCOTIA	Comeauville	Leonard C. Comean		44.288693	-66.127926
	Kentville	Marshall's Service Station	95 Cornwallis Street	45.079434	-64.494351
	New Glasgow	Jack Smith's Garage	Westville Road	45.581057	-62.659608
	Port Williams	Mr. Otis E. Gates		45.097962	-64.410040
	Sydney	Steel City Motors, Ltd.	George Street	46.136836	-60.192006
	Truro	Mr. O. M. Whitman	Prince Street	45.365150	-63.280494
ONTARIO	Anprior	Two Macs Motors	R.R. 3	45.434659	-76.351621
	Carlton Place	Mississippi Motors	38 High Street	45.141071	-76.149439
	Cornwall	Mr. Roy McNamara	353 Pitt Street	45.020887	-74.730028
	Eganville	Mr. A. M. Miltimore	Queen Street	45.535142	-77.096125
	Hawksbury	Jos. St. Denis & Son Ltd.		45.609667	-74.615616
	Ottawa	Percy Corrine Automobiles	42 Montreal Road	45.433189	-75.669015
	Oxford Mills	Diamond's Garage	P.O. Box 28	44.966483	-75.680411
	Pembroke	Charlesons Service Station	454 Pembroke Street	45.827781	-77.101425
	Perth	McGlade Service Station	112 Gore Street	44.897932	-76.247280
	Petawawa	Petawawa Garage & Motor Sales		45.898311	-77.282746
	Renfrew	James A Bowes		45.474720	-76.687689
	Winchester	Mr. W. C. MacDonald		45.092972	-75.353594
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND	Charlottetown	Mr. S. R. McKay	St. Arvards	46.245261	-63.134662
	Summerside	Hall Manufacturing & Cold Storage Co.	Water Street	46.391445	-63.790271
QUEBEC	Brownsburg	Mr. Yvan Cyr		45.676491	-74.404520
	Cap Chat	Mr. J Rolland Gagnon		49.097213	-66.689197
	Cap de La Madeleine	Deshaies, Auto & Buffet Service.	9 Fusey Street	46.363101	-72.530660
	Causapscal	Garage Philippe Trumblay		48.362891	-67.231370
	Chambly	Garage Richelieu		45.439137	-73.289754
	Chandler	Chandler Motors Reg'd		48.349680	-64.677533
	Chicoutimi	Garage Pearson	96 Blvd. Riv. du Moulin	48.428941	-71.059711
	Cowansville	Ideal Motors Reg'd		45.206314	-72.747154
	Cross Point	Cote Garage		48.039125	-66.699164
	Dolbeau	Garage Pronovost & Freres Enr. des Cedres		48.881727	-72.232291
	Drummondville	Garage Simon Houle	Village Marcotte	45.884550	-72.500086
	Farnham	Fortin & Cie Limitee	64 Station Street	45.281645	-72.979048
	Forestville, Co. Saguenay	Forestville Automotive		48.739157	-69.087791
	Fort Coulonge	White Rose Service		45.841525	-76.738290
	Granby	Georges & Jean Normandin	301 Main Street	45.399817	-72.726958
	Hudson	Hudson Auto Service	Main Road	45.458729	-74.140956
	Ile Perrot	Lafleche Automobile Enr.		45.394656	-73.957905
	Joilette	Garage Philippe Beaudry	805 De Lanaudiere Street	46.019178	-73.442402
	Kenogami	Garage Eugene BeIley	27 Bergeron Street	48.425775	-71.239012
	L'Abord A Plouffe	Garage A. Desjardins	23 Labelle Boulevard	45.534380	-73.729669
	Lachine	Godin Frere Enrg.	730 St. Joseph Street	45.431491,	-73.670586
	Lake Megantic	Garage J. C. Roy	181 Laval Street	45.588785	-70.904188
	La Malbaie	Mr. Antoine Couturier		47.655204	-70.151283
	Laprairie	Garage Drolet	27 Georges Street	45.419637	-73.496946
	L'Assomption	Quincaillerie Eugene Roy	168 St. Jacques Street	45.825358	-73.424765
	La Tuque	Garage J.M. Marineau		47.437791	-72.783944
	Les Etroits, Co. Temiscouata	Mr. Albert Balanger		47.683758	-68.878906
	Levis	Dubreuil Freres Enrg.	73 Commerciale	46.752310	-71.238815
	Magog	Mr. Delphis Benoit	207 Dollard Street	45.267874	-72.147326
	Maniwaki	Mr. R. J. Marois		46.377511	-75.964888
	Maria, Co. Bonaventure	Garage Morin		48.173275	-65.983051
	Montreal	Depelteau Automobile Reg'd.	3840 St. Catherine Street, East	45.545695	-73.537057
	Montreal	Frontenac Automobile Inc.	2089 Papineau Avenue	45.526499	-73.560758
	Montreal	Garage DeFleurimont Limited	419 DeFleurimont Street	45.540433	-73.590755
	Montreal	Georges Robert Auto	1870 St. Lawrence Boulevard	45.511300	-73.566879
	Montreal	Jos. Coiteaux.	1235 Papineau Avenue	45.522097	-73.551208
	Montreal	Mr. Marcel Provost	8727 Notre Dame Street, East	45.599586	-73.512439
	Montreal South	District Motor Sales & Service	965 Taschereau Boulevard	45.515288	-73.507739
	Nicolet	Garage Maurice Ledue	89 Panel Street	46.228862	-72.615583
	Point Viau	Garage Beauchemin	380 Taschereau Boulevard	45.570484	-73.692244
	Quebec	Modorne Limitee	25 rue de la Couronne	46.813603	-71.224227
	Rawdon	Cameron Service Garage		46.044872	-73.710616
	Rigaud	Rigaud Motor Sales Reg'd.		45.479220	-74.302287
	Rimouski	Garage Ducheane Enrg.	128 Cathedral Avenue	48.451165	-68.527352
	Riviere Blanche, St. Ulrich, Co. Mantane	Garage Georges Fournier		48.786831	-67.693810
	Riviere du Loup	Garage Lucien Levesque	260 Temiscouata Street	47.822477	-69.514369
	Ste. Genevieve de Pierrefonds	Poirier & Fila Enrg.	15885 Gouin Blvd., West	45.482882	-73.867749
	Ste. Rose	Car-Mac Services Limited	LaBelle Boulevard	45.611018	-73.792222
	St. Andrews East	J.P. Mellers Garage		45.563278	-74.334886
	St. Casimir	St. Casimir Automobile Reg'd.		46.655592	-72.139884
	St. Eustache	Gilmore & Godel Garage & Sales Reg'd.	87 St. Louis Street	45.555762	-73.891114
	St. Georges de Beauce	Garage Gilbert Enrg.	43 First Avenue	46.120559	-70.672759
	St. Hyancinthe	Willys Automobiles Enr.	200 Concorde Street	45.624330	-72.940801
	St. Jerome de Terrebonne	Rochon Automobile		45.786190	-73.992724
	St. Johns	Eugene Dolbee Jr. Engrg.	291 Richelieu Street	45.308516	-73.250969
	St. Joseph d'Alma	Mr. Andrew Singer		48.550225	-71.651730
	St. Joseph de Sorel	Guertin Automobile	74 St. Joseph Street	46.044959	-73.127640
	St. Prime	Garage Antonion Genest		48.593243	-72.336030
	St. Remi de Napierville	Garage Trudel		45.261506	-73.616292
	Shawinigan Falls	Mr. Romeo Gelinas	117 Station Avenue	46.542919	-72.751949
	Sherbrooke	Wellington Tire Limited	81 Wellington Street South	45.400620	-71.889863
	Thetford Mines	Mr. Nap Beaulieu	1 rue Lafond	46.095700	-71.295757
	Tourville, Co. L'Islet	Lord & Frere Limitee		47.095491	-69.985779
	Trois Pistoles	Gaspesia Lumber Limited		48.125243	-69.175339
	Val Barrette	Garage B. St. Jean		46.508588	-75.354533
	Valleyfield	Valleyfield Service Station	27 St. Alexander Street	45.261326	-74.133383
	Verdun	Garage Robidoux	230 Hickson Avenue	45.464834	-73.565802
	Verdun	Woodland Garage Limited	980 Woodland Avenue	45.452739	-73.577289
	Victoriaville	Garage J. R. Plourde Limitee	45 Notre Dame Street	46.056202	-71.960981
	Windsor Mills	Mr. Augustin Maurice	Elm Street	45.571425	-72.001274

Newfoundland

Province	City	Dealer	Address	Latitude	Longitude	Map
NEWFOUNDLAND	St. Johns	British Motors, Ltd.	Bonaventure Avenue	47.566819	-52.710342

Notable Dealers

In late 1952 there were over 600 MG dealers in the United States alone. Many of the dealers did not just sell MG's but a variety of Nuffield cars, other sports cars and even domestic automobiles.

British Motor Imports. A Honolulu, Hawaii MG dealer circa 1952. See the MG TD inside the window behind the men..

Billco Motors in Wexford, PA in 1951. Note that their landmark car was the Hudson but they sold sports cars too. You will notice a TD and and a Triumph in the window.

S. H. Arnolt

In 1950, Stanley H. Arnolt founded S. H. Arnolt, Inc. in downtown Chicago as a retail dealership for British cars including MG, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin. The dealership was located at 415 East Erie Street. Arnolt also supplied accessories through their company Autocessories Ltd. and was the Midwest importer/distributor for Nuffield cars.

Bell Sports Cars

See Richter Motors.

BillCo Sports Cars, Wexford, Pa

Billco Sports Cars was located in Wexford, PA. It was initially part of Billco Motors but it appeared in 1952 that they may have moved the sports car business away from the domestic Hudson dealership (see the picture above). Billco was not listed as an authorized dealer of Hambro in 1953. It was not unusual for a dealer to sell many different types of cars in the early 1950's. It was not until later in the decade that you started seeing dealerships that sold only one manufacture. In fact for MG's, it may have been that the local dealer only had one car in stock or perhaps just took orders. Later BMC and British Leyland became more focused and eliminated these 'sideline' type of dealerships eventually moving to a 'company store' like model in the late 50's and 60's.

Up until recently the Billco dealership was currently in business selling VW and Mazda cars. It is now Cochran VW and Mazda dealerships and I am not sure if either of the locations are the same as the 1950's sports car dealership or not.

See the right hand picture at the top of this section.

British Car Sales of Tacoma and Seattle

British Car Sales of Tacoma, WA 1951. Photo: Tacoma Public Library

British Car Sales had two locations in Washington state. One dealership was in Seattle (also known as Rowland Motors) and the other was in Tacoma. In April of 1951, British Car Sales, owned by J.M. Henderson and R.F. Snead, was housed in a one-story concrete block building set back from the road. Several British sports cars were displayed in front of their showroom on this sunny day. A sign in the window advertised Hillman, Austin, MG, Morris and the Jaguar Sports Mark V. A large garage door was open on the right side of the building for access to the service area. The buildings concrete blocks were made by the Holroyd Company, which created the photo as part of their customer portfolio.

Clayrich Motors

For some reason Clayrich does not show up in Hambro's list of authorized MG dealers of 1953, but they may have added the line after the publication was printed.

The first British car dealership in St. Louis was Clayrich Motors at 1043 Big Bend Blvd. (on the west side of Big Bend, ½ block south of Clayton Rd., near CLAYton, and in RICHmond Heights - hence the name Clayrich). Art Feuerbacher, President and George Cutter, Vice President, opened Clay-rich in 1948 as a Jaguar and Hillman Minx dealership. By 1953, they also sold MGs and Morris Minors. Clayrich had a small showroom which could hold just a few cars, three at best. The shop was below the showroom, accessible by ramp from the showroom/office level as well as through a drive-in door in the alley to the rear. There were two mechanics. Scotty, the head mechanic was from Scotland and Art Feuerbacher was the only salesman. Clayrich closed in 1958 and MG sales in St. Louis were supported by both Continental Cars Ltd. and a Chrysler-Dodge dealer in downtown Belleville, owned by Olive C. Joseph.

Davis Sales & Service

Davis Sales and Service

Davis Sales sold many different makes of foreign cars starting in the late 1940's. There was a TRIALS course located behind the business. They also held hill climbs in a small town to the south called Lowellville. The hillclimbs were referred to as the "Old Smokey Hillclimbs"

Denver Imported Motors

Denver Imported Motors, selling Jaguar, MG's, Porsche, VW, etc., was both an importer and dealership in Denver, CO during the early 1950's. Dick White, Dabney Collins, along with Kurt Kircher were the three original partners in DIM. It appears that Dick White may have been the financial source while Dab Collins was the service manager. Kircher was general manager and one of the partners for DIM and he was noted as a driver in a number of races at the time. The dealership closed in 1955. In 1954, Denver Imported Motors, along with Miller's Super Markets, gave away a brand new MG TF valued at  $2,345 in a promotional contest. There was a whole theme of market advertising using the MG TF silhouette as the basis of deals for chickens, plumbs, milk and other staples.

Grand Prix Motors

Grand Prix Motors was a dealer of MG's, Jaguars, Morris and VW on Long Island, New York in the 1950's. Note that Grand Prix Motors was listed in business in the 90's and even today but its not certain that there is any affinity with the original dealership.

Hoosier International Motors

Arnolt also established Hoosier International Motors at 2307 E. Center Street, Warsaw, In., a retail sales and service center for the world's largest builder of sports cars, British Motor Corporation. Hoosier International handled MG, Morris, Riley, Austin and Austin Healy cars. In addition to new cars, Hoosier also maintained a good selection of used cars of European make.

International Motors

International Motors was located at 5670 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Calif right next to Grauman's Chinese Theatre and also at 8670 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The dealership was owned by Roger Barlow, who was race car driver too, a great promotor of the sports car concept and a bit of a Hollywood personality of his own. They sold Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, MG, Riley. One of the largest car importers in the country. International Motors service manager was Ken Miles, and their mechanic was Phil Hill. They were very big on race promotions and in getting the sports car accepted into the fabric of the Los Angeles celebrity scene in the early 1950's. International Motors spun all sorts of other dealerships and performance tuning shops in Los Angeles, primarily because of the reported insincerity of its owner, Roger Barlow.

Another interesting offspring from International Motors was world renown auto sport photographer Bernard Cahier. He took a job at International Motors with Roger Barlow. It was while selling European sports cars to wealthy Americans that Cahier was able to mix into the thriving postwar sports car scene in southern California, and made the acquaintance of fellow salesman, Phil Hill, and the mechanic Richie Ginther. Cahier cut his teeth competing in an MG before he became involved in reporting on the sport. He and his new wife Joan moved to Paris in 1952 where he reported on the European racing events to many French and American publications.

Inskip Motors

The "Tiffany of Automobile Dealers", was the way one satisfied customer described J.S. Inskip, Inc., the New York based pioneer distributor of British luxury and sports cars owned by J.S. Inskip. Inskip was the premiere dealer and also the importer for the North Eastern United States. Inskip was a dealer of not only MG's but Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston-Martin and Riley automobiles. Not only did he sell these cars but was involved in making many custom made versions of these cars. The Inskip MG TD being one of them. Inskip opened additional sales office in Providence, Rhode Island and West Palm Beach, Florida during the 1950s.

Richter-Darwin Motors

Richter - Darwin Motors, 1951

Owned by Roy Richter, also the owner of Bell Auto Parts and managed by Thatcher Darwin. Also known as Bell Foreign Car Sales and Service Division. In January of 1952 it was advertised as Richter-Darwin Motors. In 1953 the dealership was only listed as Richter Motors. It was located at 2818 E. Gage Avenue in Huntington Park, CA.

Richter Motors was the original creator of the now famous Moss Motors pickup truck.

They sold MG, Morris, Riley, Austin Healy, and Jaguar.

Wells Motors

Wells Motors was a Nuffield dealer (Morris, MG, Austin, Jaguar) in the San Fernando valley. The dealership was owned by John H. Wells. It was located at 14550 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, California. They sponsored a weekly television show on KTTV every Sunday at 4 to 4:15PM called Sports Car News featuring Roy Maypole. Later they moved the show to KLAC channel 13 every Wednesday at 10 PM . This was also the dealership that sold our MG (TD19629) to my father brand new in September of 1952 with an November delivery. According to my father it was a converted gas station which is fairly normal for early Nuffield dealers.

England Delivery and Home Shipping

One of the options for export customers was a program offered by Nuffield and later BMC, to purchase your car in your home country, take possession of it from a local British dealer such as University Motors LTD., tour England and Europe and then have the factory ship your car to your home dealer when your travels were done.

The new owner would purchase their car from their local dealer who would work with Nuffield or BMC to arrange for the customer to pickup their car at the British dealer. The factory would have the car all prepared for the customer. I understand that some customers arranged a factory tour but that was not standard. When the customer was done with their tour they would return the car to the British dealer and it would be prepared for shipment just as it would if it had been exported initially.

The customer was responsible to return the car on the agreed to date and to remove any of their personal items from the car. It would then be loaded on a ship along with other cars destined for the same distributor. The local dealer they purchased the car from would then prepare it for local use (change the headlamps for example) and generally get it ready for its use in the export location just like they would with any other car from the factory. At this time any additional dealer options would be installed. It is assumed that the warranty actually started when the customer picked the car up from the factory but it is uncertain if the warranty was extended by the length of the shipping period.

 

Sports Car and Import Auto Shows

Automobile shows in the US were initially created to inspire the public to move away from horse and carriages and public transportation to their own automobiles. The first car shows were held in 1900 in New York and continued for a number of decades up until World War II in most major cities in the United States. When production of cars was halted during World War II the shows ceased. Then after the war car sales were booming so there was less of a need for the shows. However there was renewed interest in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles but driven mostly from the Detroit auto makers. Motorama (1949 to 1961) was the most notorious of these shows but shunned imports being sponsored by General Motors. In many of these shows import and sports cars were prohibited. This forced the the Nuffield organization and other import car manufactures to create their own shows in the early 1950's. It was not until later in the decade that foreign cars were even considered in the more significant auto shows. Often the synergies for these shows were interesting. For example at the Hampton Roads show of 1951 it seemed the reasoning was more to increase shipping through the port than to actually sell automobiles.

British Automobile & Motor Cycle Show

This event was held on April 15-23 in 1950 at the Grand Central Palace in New York, NY. The show featured British automobiles and motorcycles exclusively. This was because the Detroit based automobile shows refused to let the lessor engaged foreign automotive makers into the more popular shows. You can see the Nuffield brochure for the trade show on the brochures pages.

Hampton Roads International Auto Show

In 1951, looking to capitalize on the increasing interest in foreign cars nationwide, the Norfolk Port Authority organized the International Auto Show at the Norfolk Municipal Arena. The authority figured increasing regional sales of foreign cars would lead to increased shipments through Hampton Roads ports. Despite exhibits from Volkswagen, Jaguar, Ford of Britain, Renault, Hillman, Singer, Austin, MG, Nash-Healey, Sunbeam and others, it would be the last new car show in Hampton Roads until 1962. More on the Hampton Roads International Auto Show can be found here.

Import Car Show

This show was started in 1958 in San Francisco by Kjell Qvale to compete with the established domestic auto show which he felt treated imported car manufacturers unfairly. Ironically, the Import Car Show outdrew the domestic vehicle event forcing American manufacturers to go to Qvale and asked to be allowed to exhibit in his show. Thus the San Francisco International Auto Show was born and it is now the second major car show in the United States. The show was originally held at the Civic Center’s Brooks Hall and is now held downtown at the Moscone Center.

Imported Car Show

This event is not to be confused with the San Francisco Import Car Show, also originally held in 1958. This car show was in Los Angeles and also held in 1958. I cannot find the location nor can I determine if the event was ever held again. This may be the same venue as the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Los Angeles Auto Show

The Los Angeles Auto Show began in 1907 with ninety-nine vehicles on display at Morley's Skating Rink. As the auto industry grew, the auto show changed venues four times throughout the 1920s to accommodate the growing needs of vendors. In 1926, it took place at the corner of Hill and Washington where it stayed for the next four years. During the 1929 show, an smoldering cigarette or an electrical circuit near one of the airplane exhibits caught fire causing the entire show to go up in flames ending in more than $1 Million in damage. With the help of the community, the show re-opened one day later at the Shrine Auditorium.

After the war the show resumed in 1952 at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. There were 152 vehicles on display that year but now there were foreign cars from England, France and Italy along with the United States domestic brands. Previously there were no foreign cars shown in the last show in 1940. This was attributed to the strong interest in foreign cars in Los Angeles and the emerging sports car craze dominating the area during that time. During the decade over half of the shows cars were imports and at the end of the decade the show was displaying over 400 cars including seven foreign countries. Later in 1950 they added International to the shows title to reflect the strong interest shown for the European cars.

You can read about the history of the LA Auto Show here.

Peterson's Motorama

Held in Los Angeles from 1950 to 1955, the show mostly featured custom cars, local motorcycle and car accessory suppliers, dealers and clubs. It was originally to include aircraft and boats too but over time focused mostly on cars. It was not a manufacturer based autoshow like we know today. Interestingly Moss Motors was one of the few exhibitors in the 1950 event. The 1950 event was held at the Shrine Convention Hall and then in 1951 it moved permanently to the Pan Pacific Auditorium. The show had no affinity to the GM event (there was no GM Autorama in 1951). In 1954 it changed its name to the Motor Revue which included the Motorama. You can see all of the programs for these events here.

Parts Suppliers, Machine and Performance Shops

Probably the most influential aspects to the popularity of the MG T series in the early 1950's was the parts, machine and performance shops that popped all over the country to supply enthusiasts with both parts and camaraderie. Not only did they supply parts to enthusiasts who wanted to make car their cars unique and more competitive, they also filled an important social niche and provided a 'hang-out' where enthusiasts could mingle with their peers or emerging heros. The shops also provided advice and techniques to sports car owners who wanted to modify their cars beyond what the factory was willing to provide. In later years many of these shops became the only source of T series parts once the importers decided to no longer stock parts for the out of date models.

Bell Auto Parts

Roy Richter at the door of Bell Auto Parts, circa 1951

Bell Auto Parts was created by former animal trapper and fish cannery worker George Wight in 1923 at 3633 East Gage Avenue, in Bell, California. In the late 1930's Roy Richter built a race car from parts found in Bell's junk yard. Roy and his young friends often 'hung out' in Georges shop which they thought was a haven. On July 2nd, 1945, Roy Richter purchased Bell Auto Parts from George. Roy sold his race car and invested his life savings of $1,000 to go into the racing equipment and auto parts business (image of Roy Richter on the right behind the counter).

In 1946, being concerned about the safety of the sport after a number of his friends die in crashes, Roy began to design and manufacture safer racing products. Roy also attended many races with spare parts and set up tents for shade for the contestants such as at the first Bonneville National Speed Trials held at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah in 1949. Bell begins manufacturing its first helmet - the '500' - in a garage located behind Bell Auto Parts. Several members of the Lincoln Team, including 1953 and 1954 Indianapolis 500 winner Bill Vukovich, wore the helmet during the Carrera Pan-American road race in Mexico.

A good chronological account of Bell Auto Parts and Bell Helmets can be found here.

British American Motors

British American Motors specialized in speed tuning for MG's and Jaguars. BMA was located at 122 S. Hollywood Way, Burbank, California. This was at the Warner Brothers studio. The shop was run by Tom Bamford and Keenan Wynn.

Competition Engineering

In 1952 J.S. Inskip opened a satellite operation in Providence, Rhode Island which sold cars imported or distributed by the Inskip Motor Company in New York City, New York . In 1954 the son-in-laws of J.S. Inskip decided to change the name of the competition department of Inskip Motors to Competition Engineering. Soon after a separate building was opened to specialize on race car preparation and sports racing prototype development and testing.

The original Competition Engineering is a contract research and development company that was started in 1954 as an offshoot of the J.S. Inskip-Brewster Body Company of New York, NY, and the Charles Wear Automotive Company of Boston, MA. Competition Engineering began as a race prep shop for imported sports cars. These included MG, Austin , Lotus, Healy, Aston Martin, Formula and Sports Racing cars. Winning regional, national, and international driver's and constructor's championships with people like Sir Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, David Fenton, Jim Clark, Mark Donohue and other noted sports car drivers.

Competition Engineering became one of the best-known race shops in the Northeast Atlantic states in the early 1950s through the 1970s. Competition Engineering is also the oldest performance automotive consulting firm in the U.S. Competition Engineering is still in business today.

More about Competition Engineering can be found here.

Competition Motors

Secondo Guasti, from a family of California vintners, persuaded John Von Neumann to join him in a partnership on servicing imports, and they opened Competition Motors in North Hollywood. Prior to this John worked for Roger Barlow's International Motors where Guasti was not receiving the best service. Beyond fixing MGs, the store then sold them, along with Simcas, and after von Neumann bought one from Max Hoffman and raced it, Porsches. Being a savvy businessman, von Neumann used his MG TD Special race car as a promotional tool for his dealership.

Ernie McAfee Engineering Company

Owned by Ernie McAfee, a racing legend in the early 1950's and leading mechanic of hot rods and later Ferraris. The shop was located at 8363 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. While most of the company was involved in Ferrari's, they would also do special tuning on MG's, especially in the early days. Ernie was killed during the 1956 running of the Del Monte trophy (Pebble Beach Road Race), after colliding with a tree. Photo copyright Charlie Beesley.

Judson Research & Mfg. Co.

From www.vwjudsonregister.tripod.com

Since 1880 the Judson Family have been involved in some form of mechanical and electrical engineering. its a story of enterprise and innovation, from farming machinery through to electronics for the defence and automotive industries. Of course stationed along the route was the Judson Supercharger, a product that was a natural spin-off from a small interest in producing custom-made racing superchargers.

The supercharger manufacturing unit was part of Judson Bros. of Collegeville PA,- who made farming machinery- this company was absorbed into what was to become the parent company, Judson Research & Mfg. Co. of Conshohocken PA. in the early 1950s.

Production superchargers were developed shortly after this amalgamation, starting with a sliding vane supercharger for the Flathead Ford V8, followed quickly by a supercharger for the for the popular British MG TD sports car.

In the mid 1950s the supercharger operation was relocated to 541 E. Hector Street, Conshohocken (pictured right) and it was from here most of the Judson Superchargers were made and despatched.

Moss Motors

Al Moss's first shop, which he shared with Jack Gilchrist at 3200 West Olympic Blvd in Los Angeles opened in 1949. Al was unemployed at the time and had gained considerable experience performing "exploratory surgery" on his own MG. He sold import parts and gave advice to fellow Southern Californians where were disenchanted with the local dealers. Lacking a sign to advertise the business, he simply parked his MG outside on busy Olympic Boulevard. Al Moss and Moss Motors soon became an integral part of the Sports Car scene in Southern California. Jack and Al were selling Allards during the early 1950's. Ken Miles, who worked at Gough Industries, authorized Al's shop as the first MG Service Dealer which enabled Al to purchase parts at a discount, do warranty work and receive service bulletins.

In 1952 Al moved his operations to Pico Boulevard, however, he soon outgrew this location and moved again, this time to Venice Beach, just west of Los Angeles. By this time Al had ceased selling new cars and exclusively sold parts and serviced foreign sports cars, especially MG's.

Al moved his shop to Goleta, CA in 1961 where he dedicated his operations to selling parts and accessories for MG cars.

A good history of Al Moss's early years and Moss Motors can be found at their website here.

Parkhouse Motors

Parkhouse Motors, located at 181 South La Brea Blvd., Los Angeles, serviced MG and other British cars during the 50's. The service center was owned by Jan and Bruce Parkhouse and catered to not only MG's but Jaguar, Hillman, Riley and Singer. Parkhouse was one of the first factory authorized and trained repair facilities in the United States and featured a full machine shop on site. Their claim to fame was that they used genuine, British mechanics that had that "touch" that American mechanics did not possess. They could handle up to sixteen cars at a time in their shop. They were also a official service depot for Lucas.

You can see a brochure for Parkhouse Motors on the Brochures pages.

Speedcraft Enterprises

A sports car dealership and performance shop in Exton PA started by Otto Linton, an early member of the SCCA, that he helped create in 1948.

The Sports Car Center

Bill Breeze opened The Sports Car Center (SCC) near the Richardson Bay Bridge in Sausalito in 1950. The SCC employed several talented individuals including Bob Winklemann, Mogen Skov, Jack Dalton and a very young Peter Brock. SCC also worked closely with master fabricator/car builder Nadeau Bourgeault who had a shop nearby. Along with Breeze, all these individuals would leave their mark on the local racing scene. Breeze's Sports Car Center played a vital role in the growth of sports car racing in Northern California. It offered a professional, knowledgeable business where racers and would be racers could get advice, parts, service, race-preparation or even a race car. The Sports Car Center was the forerunner of the many shops that would spring up around the San Francisco Bay Area, and included two young mechanics, one named Bob Winkleman, who later built the Winkleman Formula Fords and another named Peter Brock, later of Cobra and Datsun racing fame. The logo for the SCC was inspired by Alfa's double overhead cam logo: From Joe Breeze: "My mom said dad thought highly of Alfa's DOHC design."

Accessory Manufactures

MG TD's and TF's were basic cars with few frills and little options to purchase from the factory. In the early 1950's, and even into the 1960's, this created a huge demand and an opportunity for enterprising individuals who had an idea for a performance or aesthetic accessory for the cars. Almost anyone and everyone started making and selling various add ons for the cars but a few companies provided accessories to a much larger audience, even worldwide. This section describes some of the more notable MG TD and TF accessory manufactures.

Autocessories, Ltd.

S.H. Arnolt realize that American MG owners needed quality accessories for their vehicles so he established Autocessories Ltd. to produce or procure them. The line included Shorrock Superchargers, Vokes filters, Borrani wire wheels, dashboard assist grips, mirrors, ashtrays, Arno-Lite driving lamps, racing radiator caps, aluminum valve and side covers etc. Arnolt also made a sports car heater with a 12 volt electric fan using piped radiator water.

Autocessories Ltd. was a division of the Arnolt Corporation of Warsaw, IN at E. Jefferson and Eastlake Dr.

 

 

H-C Products Company

H-C Products Company was located at 1634 South Flower, Los Angeles. H-C delivered custom made accessories for the MG T's. These included custom made tonneau and spare tire covers, badge bars and lamps, a foldable luggage rack that fit against the spare when not in use but otherwise sat above the spare tire like the factory rack did. They also sold car covers. Another novel item were custom bumpers that extended beyond the car and had a different profile than the original bumpers. Additionally they sold air cleaners, valve and inspection covers, side mirrors and dash grips. You can see additional H-C Products items in the Aftermarket and Dealer Add Ons pages.

Raykraft Sports Car Accessories

Raykraft Sports Car Accessories was located at 5344 Caheunga Boulevard, North Hollywood, California. They sold MG accessories during the early 1950's.

Runyan

Runyan was an sports car accessory manufacture located at 819 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California. They also advertised a mailing address at 7966 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Runyan was one of the more prolific accessory manufactures. They sold full tonneau covers, both soft and hard tops, spare tire covers, foldable luggage racks, luggage boots or lockers, arm rests, ash trays, wire wheels, wheel covers, valve covers, wind wings, grills, air cleaners, steering wheels just to name some of their line. They would also custom make tops, tonneau and spare tire covers at their locations for those who lived in the LA area. Runyan sold the Doretti line of accessories too.

SIMZ Company

The SIMZ Company was located at 2818 S. Robertson Blvd in Los Angeles. The made accessories for the MG T's that were a bit novel for the time. One of their specialties was using Lucite for not only windwings but for hand grips as well. They also sold and oversized rear view mirror and a custom upholstered radio box that fit on top of the transmission tunnel.

Key People

The following are key persons that were involved with the development of the MG TD and TF in North America during the early 1950's. Some were race car drivers, dealers, importers, mechanics, accessory manufactures or combinations of these. This list is not all inclusive and individuals will be added as their stories are identified.

S.H. Arnolt

Born Stanley Harold Aranoff in 1906 to wealthy Hyde Park, Chicago, bookbinders. He took college engineering courses with the goal of working for a car company, despite the Great Depression. He changed his name to the more easily pronounced “Arnolt” in 1932 when he couldn't find an auto company job and looked around for business opportunities.

Arnolt Corporation was founded in 1932 by Stanley H. Arnolt II (1906-1963) in Chicago with three employees, manufacturing automobile lubricating devices. During that time Arnolt developed an inboard marine engine called the Sea-Mite, which was one-third lighter than other engines of equal horsepower.

On a thick foggy morning in September 1938, with one of his engines affixed to a 13-foot boat, Arnolt left St. Joseph, Michigan and headed for Chicago. Fighting waves and fog, he made the trip in four hours. Boatmen along Navy Pier shook their heads in disbelief, stating that he had more nerve than they did. He was greeted through the still thick morning fog with, "Hallo there, Wacky!". The headline of an article that day in The Chicago Daily News read, "Wacky Comes Through in Fog; Crosses Lake in 13-Foot Boat" ... and the nickname stuck. Thereafter, he was known as "Wacky" Arnolt.

Arnolt became a Chicago industrialist, who began importing foreign cars in the 1950s to the United States. From a start with one product and a handful of employees, Stanley Arnolt built a far-reaching company that made components of products as diverse as defense equipment and dinette sets. It also owned parts of enterprises as varied as a newspaper and a coconut plantation, both in Mexico.

In addition to being an industrialist, Arnolt was also a designer, builder and driver of racing cars. He designed a car, which he named the Arnolt-Bristol, with a Bristol 404 chassis and an exclusive Bertone of Turin coach works body. The Arnolt sports car was introduced in 1952 in a race at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and premiered at the International Motor Exposition in London in 1953.

Wacky Arnolt was a vibrant, dynamic industrialist with a vision far ahead of his time. An unidentified newspaper article states, "While he was an engineering, sales and organizational genius - a serious-minded businessman who built an international industrial and sales empire, he never lost the boyish enthusiasm, the flair of showmanship, and the daring to try the unknown."

Stanley Arnolt was known for his sports-car racing. But his wife was a race-car driver in her own right, taking her MGs out to Elkhart Lake, Wis., and other sites. Ghean Arnolt was a woman in a man's world she had never sought out, thrust into it by sad circumstances. When her husband, Stanley "Wacky" Arnolt, died in 1963, she found herself in charge of S.H. Arnolt Inc., a Chicago-based foreign car importer and distributor, and Arnolt Corp., a large components manufacturer with operations in Chicago and Indiana. During Mrs. Arnolt's tenure, the firm became more centralized and focused on making the tailhooks that allowed airplanes to land safely on aircraft carriers, her son said. She sold the companies in 1976, and they were later resold and dissolved, he said.

David Ash

David Ash was a prolific race car driver at Linden Field, Watkins Glen and other notable tracks in the early 1950's. He was a regular and distinguished competitor at Sebring, America's premier race. David began racing at Linden Field in 1950 when he jumped into a MGTD and joined the race because the car's driver was underage and too young to be in the race. His second race was in September of 1950 at Watkins Glen which he also raced in a TD. At one point David wrecked his TD in a race at Watkins Glen and he could not afford to replace it so he had Motto of Italy put a body on it. It turned out to be such a great car that they built two more just like it. John Thornley got Sid Enever to create two new EXP 1500cc engines for the cars. It is rumored that the blocks and heads of these engines actually had separate cooling systems. David also raced MGTFs at Sebring in 1955.

Between 1952 and 1957, David earned the title of "Mr. MG'', as the only driver to start and finish five twelve-hour-long endurance races at Sebring in five tries. He also set numerous "land speed" records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1957. David later pursued a career in automotive journalism. His pieces appeared in "The New York Times,'' "Argosy Magazine'' and "Esquire Magazine.'' - See more about David here.

Roger Barlow

Settling in Hollywood after the war, Roger Barlow founded International Motors, Inc. importing the first generation of post-war foreign sports cars in the U.S.. International Motors was located in Hollywood California where Roger was quite active in sports car amateur racing (CSCC, SCCA) with his "Barlow Simca's", which were very pretty, and fast cars. Ken Miles (his later Service Manager), would beat them every time though.

Roger Barlow was a documentary filmmaker with connections to the Hollywood insiders and a very early promotor of MG's in the US. In 1948 he made a trip to Europe to visit the MG Car Company and Zagoto of Italy in order to create a new custom made car with an special purpose MG chassis (based on Y or the new TD) and hand crafted Italian coachwork by Zagato, Castagna and Farina in both two seater and four seater coupes. The cars were to have a Shorrock supercharger later added by Al Moss and retail for $4,250. His target was the Hollywood types in Los Angeles. Rumor has it that the cars were a bit clunky and its uncertain if the supercharger was ever added and if it made a difference. Shortly thereafter Barlow was selling Jaguars and other higher performance and luxurious sports cars to his celebrity clientele.

According to Steve Laifman, Editor - TigersUnited.com "During the mid fifties he began taking deposits for the promised introduction of the Mercedes 300 SL. International Motors was also a distributor for Mercedes Benz and Jaguar. As the story goes, Roger skipped off to Mexico with the deposits. I could never understand why he would leave a gold mine agency for some deposit money, but it was the case. If he were an employee, instead, he was stealing the owner's and customer's money. After his flight the agency shut down. If he were only an employee, then the business insurance would have covered the loss, and the true owner could remain in business."

Bill Breeze [1910 - 1980]

Excerpts from the SCCA website.

Bill Norwood Breeze was born in San Francisco four years after the great earthquake of 1906. He began his relationship with automobiles at the early age of fourteen when he purchased an old, open-top touring car with a friend. Breeze was initially employed by Crocker Bank in San Francisco but with his interest in all sorts of mechanical things, he decided to change careers and became a machinist, a job he kept through World War II. After the war, with his enthusiasm for cars undaunted, he became friends with Kjell Qvale. Naturally Breeze bought an MG-TC and joined the MG Car Club which subsequently led to his becoming one of the first members of the newly formed San Francisco Region of the SCCA in 1948. From this point forward, Breeze would become an active racer and club official whose guidance and influence would help spur the growth of sports car racing in the area.

In the spring of 1949, Bill Breeze won a car race in his MG-TC on the oval track at the San Jose Speedway and, while not a road race, it was the first organized race won by a sports car in the area. Breeze was actively involved in club planning and helped organize and participated in what is recognized as the first road race in the Western U.S. at Buchanan Field in November, 1949.

He continued to participate in club races and rallies whenever possible and also was elected to the position of the SCCA Region’s Activities Chairman. With the success of the first two races at Buchanan Field, there was a desire to add more events to the schedule so Breeze and the SFR Board organized the first race held at Pebble Beach on November 5, 1950. Breeze was elected to the position of Regional Executive in 1951 and 1952 and it was under his leadership the region staged the most successful sports car event on the West Coast for years to come, the races in Golden Gate Park.

Also in 1951, Breeze had an accident while driving a Jaguar XK120 at the race in Reno. He suffered a broken arm and with four small children and a wife at home, the decision was made to retire as a driver. However, this only shifted his involvement in racing from being a driver to a businessman. Breeze had already opened The Sports Car Center (SCC) near the Richardson Bay Bridge in Sausalito.

Floyd Clymer

Floyd Clymer was a auto enthusiast and a publisher based in California. Floyd and his publishing company, Floyd Clymer Publications, cranked out hundreds of cheap automotive related titles in the 1950's and 60's that were quickly consumed by any and all who seeked out information on the sports car movement and automobiles of the era. He single-handedly help promote the idea that a common person could be engaged in the trendy movement just by reading his publications. He was probably the most prolific publisher of automobilia of his day.

He published literally hundreds of these titles every year for many years. A lot of them were repair manuals for various old cars. He was a salesman, and he was extraordinarily famous all over the United States and much of Europe, for his hundreds and hundreds of titles.

More about Floyd Clymer can be found here.

Thatcher Darwin

Thatcher Darwin was an early hot rod and racing pioneer in Los Angeles in the 30's. He opened a MG/Morris/Austin foreign car import business (Bell Foreign Cars more commonly known as Richter/Darwin Motors) with Roy Richter in 1952. Thatcher was also the general manager of the dealership. Thatcher built a custom hot rod known as the Darwin special that won a lot of races and is still around today being entered in vintage events (see photo on the right).

Thatcher was a long time secretary of the SCTA and other racing groups and was instrumental in protecting the hot rodding culture from prohibitive political actions that would have restricted land speed racing and hot rodding in California.

Right after the war, the California legislature was considering statutes that would make hot rodding illegal. He traveled to Sacramento by train, standing up most of the night, in order to get there to defend hot rodding. The motion was going to pass when comments were invited. He stood and addressed the committee and told them about the contributions that hot rodders had made during WWII, how they extracted performance out of their machines, and repaired machinery under wartime conditions, making the difference in winning the war. They listened to his story and tabled the motion. I think Thatcher found out about the motion and Wally Parks sent him to the capital. He was a good friend and built a really fun car.

Dave Seely, Cannon Racing

Gus Ehrman

Gus Ehrman was the Providence, RI service manager for J.S. Inskip. A former RAF fighter pilot, Gus was the 'man to beat' on the North Eastern SCCA circuit. Much of his spare time was spent at the wheel of an MG TD with #27 painted on the door. Ehrman, who left Inskip in the early 1950s to join BMC importer Hambro, also raced Austin-Healeys at Sebring. He was a member of the three man team who, in 1959, established a number of FIA records with MG EX219 on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Gus Ehrman rejoined the Inskip organization in late 1964 as the corporation's final and only non-family member President.

The MGTD Mk II of Gus Ehrman took the first win of the SCCA Collier Brothers Memorial Trophy Race in 1954. Gus was a renowned Sebring racer during the MGA period.

 

Charlie Ellmers

Charlie Ellmers of the Funny Face Auto Racing Team wins the MG race at Put-in-Bay in 1952 and stops to pick up the checkered flag for the victory lap. His #3 MG-TD has a masking tape number and competition windscreen (Ruth and Charlie Ellmers collection). Charlie Ellmers was a Navy combat veteran of both WW II and the Korean war before he got into sports cars. When he was released from the service he had some money saved and thought it would be good to buy a car and drive it home. Originally he was thinking about buying a Studebaker but then thought about checking out the new MG TD.

"I was discharged from the Navy after my stint aboard the Essex," Charlie said. "I had some money saved up and thought I would buy a new car and drive it home. I was considering a Studebaker but thought I would check out the new MG TD. The TD was $2020, about the same as the Studebaker. The guy at the MG dealer's wouldn't let me drive one of the MGs in the showroom, but he did take me for a ride in his TC. That cinched it."

Ellmers joined the Cleveland Sport Car Club in 1951. He was an excellent driver and won the first race, the first year at Put-in-Bay in 1952, in his black MG TD. He also drove the TD at Put-in-Bay in '53 and '54, and drove at Elkhart Lake and Lockbourne Air Force Base. "He raced it at Watkins Glen," notes Ruth Ellmers, "and blew up the engine. He was so disgusted he sold it on the spot. Besides, he didn't have a tow bar."

Above taken from They Started in MGs: Profiles of Sports Car Racers of the 1950s By Carl Goodwin.

A.T. Goldie Gardner

Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Thomas Goldie Gardner OBE MC (31 May 1890 - 25 August 1958) was an English racing car driver who was awarded the BRDC Gold Star three times. In 1939 he was the first to exceed 200 mph in a light car. In the 11 peacetime years between 1936 and 1950 he set over 100 international and local speed records throughout England, Europe and the USA.

In 1951 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, with his supercharged MG streamliner EX-135 car he obtained 6 international and 10 American records in the 1,100cc to 1,500cc engine class. In 1952 he returned to Bonneville with the MG EX-135 car and set 21 speed records in the same engine class as the previous year.

In 1952 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was forced to retire from motor sport.

Cal Gleason

Cal Gleason got his start in MG's with MG TC's. In a few races he used borrowed MG TD's. He raced a number of them until about 1953 or 54 when he decide to switch over to Porches. He was under the impression that the Porsche cars were indestructible but after the Hirth crankshaft went out he decided to go back to MG's and picked up a '54 TF. While other drivers trailered their specially tuned, and probably street illegal cars to the races, Cal drove his. He drove back and forth to the 1954 Watkins Glen race. "I started on the grid in 10th place and I finished in 10th place, but I passed a few cars and was passed by a few to get there". In 1958 he moved over to Jaguars until he finished racing in 1963. (Picture to the right of Cal Gleason at the 1954 Watkins Glen race. photo: Cal Gleason).

Phil Hill

Born in Miami, Florida, Phil Hill was raised in Santa Monica, California, where he lived until his death. He studied business administration at the University of Southern California (USC) from 1945-47 where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Hill dropped out to become a mechanic's helper at Roger Barlows International Motors dealership in Hollywood and later, after he became locally famous as a sports car racer, selling cars for Roger. In 1947 Phil acquired an MG TC which he modified himself and began racing. In 1951, after both his parents died and left him money, he bought a 2.6-litre Ferrari and raced it with increasing success. By the mid 1950s he had become America's best sports car racer.

In 1959 MG took the the EX181 back to Bonneville with Phil Hill as the driver. The engine had been tuned slightly higher and now produced 300hp. Phil Hill took the car to a top speed of 254.91 mph (410.23 kmh), easily breaking MG’s own record from 2 years previously of 245.64mph (395.31 kmh) set by Stirling Moss.

Phil Hill has the distinction of having won the first (a 3 lap event at Carrell Speedway in a MG TC on July 24, 1949) and last races of his driving career, the final victory driving for Chaparral in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch in England in 1967. Following his retirement, Hill built up an award winning classic car restoration business in the 1970s called Hill & Vaughn with business partner Ken Vaughn.

More about Phil Hill can be found at this website.

You can see Phil Hills MG racing record at the Racing Sports Cars.

See a video of Phil Hill breaking the land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats in 1959 here.

Phil Hill did a vast interview and narration for Sports Illustrated in 1961 that can be found here.

J.S. Inskip

John S. Inskip (1885-1961) was named after his grandfather, John S. Inskip (1816-1884), the famous evangelical Methodist preacher and founder of the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness.

Inskip was the major importer of MG's during in the 1950's for the Eastern United States through Inskip Motors, Inc.. Inskip started Competition Engineering as the performance arm of Inskip Motors. All through the 1950's, J.S. Inskip and his associated companies proposed, promoted, designed, and helped organize and build some of the earliest race tracks in the US.

Curtis E. LeMay

Curtis E. LeMay was a general in the US Air Force and the head of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in the early 1950's. General LeMay collaborated with the SCCA to utilize many of the US armed forces air bases for sport car races. The first such event was held in October 26th of 1952. This began a two year agreement between the SCCA and the US Government. The idea was that the SAC was in need of funding and using the recently passed Air Force Organization Act of 1950, LeMay sold the idea that the racing event's profits could be used to bolster up the SAC's Airmen's Living Improvement fund. They used volunteer labor from the Air Force and the thought was that having the event at the air bases would help them promote new recruits. At the time re-enlistment in the armed services was declining. The program was short lived but it provided the foundation to help the SCCA move from road racing (which was being shut down almost everywhere do to safely issues) and also change the public's impression of sports cars and sports car racing as elitist and only for the wealthy. While the “SAC era” lasted a brief three years, it came at a crucial time for the SCCA as it transitioned itself to newly-built racing facilities. For his contributions, LeMay was presented the SCCA Woolf Barnato Award in 1954.

Otto Linton

Otto started his own business as Speedcraft Enterprises in 1948 in Exton, Pennsylvania and built new facilities in Devon, Pennsylvania in 1966. Racing was good advertising for his sports car and performance business. Otto sold MGs, Austin Healeys, Rileys, Mercedes, Porsches, BMWs, Lancias, Jaguars, and other odd makes which Max Hoffman and Tony Pompeo imported.

 

 

Ernie McAfee

Ernie was a prolific hot rod and sports car mechanic and driver. He gained fame as a dare devil and the breaker of many speed records in the 1930's, 40's and early 1950's. He established and owned Ernie McAfee Engineering Company. Erine was killed in a crash at the Pebble Beach Road Races in 1956. The picture to the right is of Ernie McAfee (left) who did the modification work for John Edgar on Edgar's MG-TC. It was the car that Bill Pollack drove at the first Pebble Beach Road Race (Photo: Edgar Collection).

Tom McCahill

Thomas Jay McCahill III, whom like to be referred to as "Uncle Tom" was born in 1907. Uncle Tom is recognized as the father of the automotive road test. The generations of automotive journalists that have followed him in the business of reporting on cars will likely never match the zany, outrageous prose that became his trademark. McCahill, who died in 1974, was a correspondent for Mechanix Illustrated magazine, which ended its run in the 1970's. During his tenure, which began in 1946, he performed more than 600 road tests. He was idolized by car buffs across the country when Hot Rod, Motor Trend and Road & Track were just regional periodicals.

McCahill relied only on his stopwatch and measured miles he'd staked out in New Jersey, Florida and California, marking them only with splashes of paint to keep their locations secret. He was the first automotive writer to record the now-standard 0-60 mph acceleration time.

Don Chaikin, now automotive editor at Popular Mechanics magazine, was a McCahill contemporary early in his career. As he remembered, "At his peak, his stuff was brilliant. Mechanix Illustrated never publicly acknowledged his death, because his name was synonymous with it, he was the franchise, and they didn't want to admit he was gone. For a while, they ran a column called Tom McCahill Reports that was ghostwritten by his stepson.

Much of the above appeared in the October, 2005 issue of Hemmings.

McCahill Drives the New M.G.

McCahill Breaks Two More Records

Ken Miles

Ken Miles worked for Gough Industries of Southern California during the early 1950's. (At that time, Gough was the leading importer of MG's.) Ken Miles was a famed early race car driver and engineer. In 1953, he had won 14 straight victories in SCCA racing in an MG-based special of his own design and construction and was later a member of the Shelby/ Cobra race team of the early 60's.

Ken Miles: MG Special Miles R2 "Flying Shingle" -- Torrey Pines, 1955. Photo Bill Tibbetts One of Ken Miles' lasting legacies was a MG-based special car he designed and raced in. its name was the MG R2 but it was nicknamed the Flying Shingle. Built in 1954 the car had many MG components, such as the gearbox and 1466cc MG XPEG engine. The space frame chassis was constructed from one-inch steel tubing which was lighter than its predecessor, but still retained the structural rigidity. The car was narrow and low, which meant changes were needed to fit all the engine components in the engine bay. The MG intake manifolds were installed upside down which allowed the carburetors to be angled and fit under the hood. The design of the vehicle was similar to the MG TF. This was done for brand recognition and to help promote the MG line of vehicles. The car was finished in British racing green. Its inaugural race was in 1955 at Willow Springs in which it failed to finish. But in later races it just about dominated the competition having first place finishes at both Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines.

You can see a video of the MG R2 Flying Shingle here.

Ken Miles' life came to a tragic end on August 17th, 1966 while driving a Ford J-car prototype. The car was traveling at 175 mph on a back-strech. Ken began preparing for a corner, slowing the vehicle down, but it went out of control and over an embankment. Ken was thrown from the car as it spun and went end-over-end. This tragedy brought an end to a brilliant career that began during the very early 1950s.

E. Alan Moss

Most people who read these pages would think about Al Moss's parts business, whenever we talk about MG T's. In actuality Al was much more than that. He started his sports car life with a MG TC that he bought from a lady who won it in a promotional contest in 1948. Al Moss was a pivotal member of the MG sports car scene in Southern California in the late 1940's and early 1950's. His first endeavour was working with Jack Gilchrist in a repair shop on West Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles. Jack and Al imported Allards into Southern California. Later Al branched out on his own, creating Moss Motors, and became the first Rootes Group dealer in Los Angeles selling Hillmans, Humbers and the Sunbeam-Talbot lines. He'd never really enjoyed the new car sales end of the business, and so he sold the distributorships in order to concentrate on the service and parts work he loved the best.

Al not only sold and provided parts to Southern California enthusiasts of the period, but he was actively involved in promoting the sport of car racing and generally just having a good time with MG T's. Al started the Moss Motors Luncheon & Bench Racing Society in his service and parts shop where enthusiasts would hang out on Saturdays. Soon they just closed up shop and went out for driving events in the afternoons.

Al also had a brief stint at racing too. He had an Allard that he raced at Carrell Speedway in Gardena. One race the course was so wet from the prior days rain the clay surface was soft and gooey. Al got a jump at the start but in the first turn the "The Allard front end bit into the mud", according to Al. It then rolled over three times trapping Al underneath. He was not seriously injured but after that he swore off serious racing and left it to the professionals. Years later Al did race in vintage sports car races but he generally came in a conservative last place understandably.

Al was good friends with Ken Miles who helped get Al authorized as a legitimate dealer in order to sell MG factory parts. Ken had a job at Gough Industries and was also their racing lead so he had some influence. This probably started Al off on the MG parts business in a bigger way as later he would go on to buy all of Goughs spare T parts as well as those of the Northern California importer, Kjell Qvale of British Motor Car Distributors. In 1961 Al moved Moss Motors to Goleta California and the rest as they say, 'is history'.

A more complete story of Al Moss by his friend Art Evans can be found at the Allard Register web pages. In addition the GoF West published an excellent set of stories about Al Moss here. And a good summary of Al Moss can be obtained at the Moss Motors site as well. And Moss Motors provided a nice obituary of Al here.

Stirling Moss

When one thinks of car racing and Moss, its generally Stirling Moss. While Stirling does not have a strong affinity to the MG TD and TF in the Americas he was a renowned racer of this era in Europe and his fame was well known in US racing circles. When the MG Factory wanted to try to beat some land based speed records in 1957, they naturally thought of Stirling Moss to be the one who could do it for them. They arranged for a special version of an MG based on the MGA, the EX 181, to be driven on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Stirling came through handsomely for them shattering the previous record of 203 mph set by Goldie Gardner just before WW2, at 245.64 mph. The record was broken just two years later in the same car, slightly modified, by Ken Miles. This rocketed the sale of the MGA at the time and was a very smart move on MG's part.

See Stirling Moss break the land speed record at Bonneville in this video.

See a picture of Sterling Moss visiting Hollywood in 1955 here.

Kjell Qvale

Kjell Qvale (pronounced Shell Cavalli) was a sports car enthusiast and an importer of MG's in Northern California from the late 1940s. Born in Norway, Kjell Qvale came to this country as a boy on the eve of the Great Depression and achieved the American Dream. An entrepreneur and a pioneer in the automotive industry, he has sold millions of imported automobiles, becoming one of the first to bring the Volkswagen Beetle to America as well as Jaguar and MG. He has also manufactured the Jensen Healey and other cars, built race cars that have run at the Indianapolis 500 and other prestigious races, started and run companies, and owned champion thoroughbred racehorses. His import company, British Motor Car Distributors, which he established in 1948, provided MG's to Northern California dealers exclusively, most of which he owned. By 1951, Qvale had 24 privately owned dealerships in the West. Kjell organized the San Francisco Import Car Show in 1958 when the domestic car dealers refused to allow the imports into their show. In order to help promote his growing import-car business, Qvale engaged in a variety of activities, including helping to organize the San Francisco Region of the SCCA and the Northern California MG Car Club in 1949.

He promoted sports cars by sponsoring rallies, time trials and other competitions. In 1949, he organized the first postwar sports car race in the West at Buchanan Field in Concord, Calif. The next year, he was chairman of the first sports car race in the forest at Pebble Beach, Calif. He was the organizer and race chairman from 1950 to 1956. To accompany the race, he proposed a show of classic cars; it became the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the top events in the world for car collectors. In 1956, when the Pebble Beach race moved to nearby Fort Ord, home of the Laguna Seca Raceway, Mr. Qvale contributed to the design of its famously treacherous corkscrew at turns 8 and 8A. Kjell was also the organizer/race chairman for the races in Golden Gate Park from 1952 to 1954.

Kjell was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2008.

A nice remembrance of Kjell Qvale can be found at the Sports Car Digest.

Roy Richter

Roy was a wining driver and an accomplished chassis and body builder. He built some of the most beautiful midgets, sprints, and champ cars. He won the National Championship with his "Richter Streamliner" (Rail and Tether Cars) that he manufactured and sold before the war. He already had a strong reputation in racing when he purchased Bell Auto Parts from George Wight's widow in 1945. In 1951 Roy started a foreign car dealership for British cars, Richter-Darwin Motors later named just Richter Motors.

Dale Runyan

Dale Runyan was a Hollywood entrepreneur that dealt with custom cars in the late 1940's and early 1950's. He started with an upholstery shop and soon branched out to creating and fitting custom accessories for the cars of the period. He was often enlisted by custom car builders to create interiors for their cars and soon after the MG T's started to arrive in Southern California he found a willing audience for his services. MG's had notoriously poor tops and did not come with a full tonneau cover so those were some of the first accessories that Dale provided in his shop. Naturally he did not just make them as the factory did, but provided them in different colors, with contrasting piping, bigger windows and better materials. He catered to what his customers wanted and did not sell off the shelf products.

Later he started to sell other custom interior fittings to his customers such as arm rests, lockable boots, hand brake covers and just about anything that could be make from fabric or vinyl material. His customers were ecstatic and wanted more so Dale added items such as spare tire covers, hard tops, luggage racks, ash trays, wind wings and grab handles to name just a few items. Soon Dale started an accessory business he simply named Runyan. He advertised heavily in the periods automotive magazines and sold his accessories all over the United States and beyond.

Dale really catered to the Southern California car enthusiasts and filled a great void that the factory failed to capitalize on. Very little is known of Dale today other than remnants of his advertisements in old magazines and the period accessories he made that still garnish surviving sports cars of the era. If you wander through the accessories pages of this website you will find all sorts of Runyan products.

John Von Neumann

John Von Neumann in his supercharged MG Special ( Photo: Qvale Collection) John Von Neumann (1921-2003). John came from a famous Jewish family (distantly related to the Harvard mathematician). He father was a well-known surgeon in Berlin. But when Hitler came to power, the family fled to Austria and then to the U.S. Young John attended New York University and later transferred to the University of Southern California. During WWII John enlisted in the Army and took basic training at the Torrey Pines Army base (where he would later race). After the war, he made his home in Los Angeles, became interested in sports cars and was one of the three founders of the California Sports Car Club.

John burst onto the racing scene at that first Southern California event at Palm Springs on April 16, 1950. He entered the car that he raced at the first Pebble Beach Road Race but blew its head gasket in practice. So he borrowed a Riley for the main event, but ran out of gas.

John von Neumann found himself selling Healeys, MGs, Jags, and other badges for Roger Barlow's International Motors. And what may have been interpreted as mismanagement at the top, von Neumann left International Motors to capitalize on its customer service shortcomings. To fill that void, John started Competition Motors, an automotive service shop in North Hollywood. Competition Motors began selling MGs as a sub-dealer through Barlow as well. To advertise his company's preparation abilities, he began racing an supercharged and highly modified MG TD (von Neumann had raced a TC since 1948). Never resting on his laurels, von Neumann would additionally add the two German marques, Porsche and Volkswagen, to his newly formed Competition Motors Distributors, Inc. in 1952. John hired Ken Miles to drive for him in many early 1950's races. Ken has worked with John at International Motors. John was selling his TD in the mid 1950's for $3500. The car is currently owned - and raced - by Don Martine.

Gordon Whitby

Gordon was a 16-year employee of the Los Angles BMC distributorship as well as the only American race mechanic for BMC's 1950s record speed runs at Bonneville Salt Flats. A British emigrant to the USA, arriving in the USA in 1952, Gordon began working as a mechanic with the MG-Austin distributor Gough Industries in Los Angles, the Nuffield Car Company distributorship. This was an era when all import car sales combined were tiny compared to domestic car production.

Kjell Qvale, owner of British Motor Car Distributors of San Francisco, bought the Compton distributorship from Hambro in 1964, at which time Gordon became General Service Manager.

Gordon's memoirs are recounted in his autobiography Earning The American Dream.

Hangouts

First of all I need to define what I mean by a Hangout. Its a gathering place for like minded individuals where they can feel comfortable with each other and share stories or exchange ideas. The most widely acknowledged hangout was the local parts store. Here you could find like minded individuals and not be judged by others who did not feel as strongly about sports cars as you did. In this context we will not include parts stores or shops as they are covered well above. Note we will not include dealers either as these were generally not considered hangouts once the cars started selling in quantity. In fact car dealers did not want 'non buyers' hanging around their lots 'kicking tires' as they thought it would scare the legitimate buyers away. This was a very strong factor that helped independent parts dealers, like Moss Motors, come into vogue. They not only sold parts but they encouraged, and even tempted, to get people to hang out at their shops and bring their friends too.

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle, a restaurant at 623 South Western Ave. in Los Angeles, CA was a hangout of sports car racers in the 1950's and early 1960's.

Camer-Inn

Cameron Cooper and William N. Branch Jr. built a club house located at 3603 Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance-Walteria dedicated to sports car enthusiasts. Read about their adventure here. It actually was advertised in the racing program of the Bakersfield car races in 1953.

Oct. 8, 1953 TORRANCE PRESS

The even provided the facilities for the Pacific Sports Car Club's 1953 Halloween party.

Few of our residents had a wonderful time at the Pacific Sports Car Club's annual Halloween Party Saturday evening at the club's "Camer-Inn" which is owned and operated by Bill Branch and Cam Cooper. The 101 Highway club 'near the Torrance Municipal Airport was filled with cavemen, babies, pirates, and Scotchmen. "Madam Ferrari" told fortunes.
Nov. 5th, 1953 TORRANCE PRESS

Grand Prix Restaurant

The super active Sports Car Racing community in Southern California would hang out at the Grand Prix Restaurant at 8204 Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood. The restaurant was owned by Mary Davis (top contender in the Ladies Races). Bobby Drake was the host and bar tender at the Grand Prix.

Mulholland Drive

Once Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood became an epicenter of sports car enthusiasm in the 1950s, Mulholland Drive became a destination for everyone with a snappy new car from Europe. A nine-mile section of road between Cahuenga Boulevard and Beverly Glen Boulevard that was a popular street racing site in the 1950's populated by such people as Phil Hill, Dick Guldstrand, Dan Gurney, and Ken Miles. Actor James Dean bought a Porsche 356 Speedster from Competition Motors, then drove it back and forth on Mulholland between his home in the San Fernando Valley and his studio in Hollywood.

Mulholland Drive | Photo courtesy of Eric Demarcq, Flickr

Tiny Naylors

From Alison Martino's "Vintage Los Angeles"

Tiny Naylors opened it 1958 on Sunset Blvd and was one of California's original googie-style restaurants. It was founded by W.W. Tiny Naylor. Naylor who got the nick name Tiny because he was 6'4" and weighted 320 lbs. His first restaurant was called Biff's - named after his son, in 1948. The Tiny Naylor chain started in 1957 at Wilshire and Virgil. Tiny Naylor died in 1959. The Naylor family also founded Du Par's which it still owns and operates. The architecture for Tiny Naylors was designed in 1949 by Douglas Honnold. Until its demolition in 1984, Tinys was known for its curbside service - girls on roller skates, T-shirts, and and skimpy costumes. Different for those days. Teenagers cruised here. Women used to come there in carloads. It was a big place for everyone. Northwest corner of Sunset and La Brea.

At one time Tiny Naylors had the Moss Motors pickup truck that they used to service the vending machines in their restaurants.

Acknowledgments

In addition to the acknowledgements above the following references provided information for this document.

• Early American MG Motorsports; By Gary Horstkorta
• Runways & Racers: Sports Car Races Held on Military Airfields in America; By Terry O'Neil