Wonderful, simple cars you could get to know intimately. Unlike the impersonal monstrosities we must use today.

Mine was a 1953 model, distinguished by the wiper motor's central location above the windscreen, and the round tail lights. I owned/was owned by it for five years, and knew every nut, bolt, piece of metal and wood. Did a blueprint job on the engine, installed a Judson supercharger, watched it get totaled by a drunk driver who couldn't miss it as it was parked by the side of the road. Sigh.

What a charmer! Wonderful, fun cars. One of the reasons to explore around on Shorpy is to come across pictures like this. Memories of a misspent youth all come rushing back.

I remember that "Seven-Seas" Navy/Marine Corps store in San Diego. Had one of these on display in their store. That would have been in 1954. I wanted one so bad I could taste it. The price tag was $9xx, a full year's pay for me as a PFC.

It was a Red 53TD. That summer I drove it up to Boise to an Air National Guard encampment. On a trip to town the police pulled me over to find out what kind of car it was. I offered to let them to drive it and both officers did. After work they bought me a beer. Let's hear it for Boise!

-- Dick

I was busy putting the top up - or down - on this little black beauty. I forget who was helping me but later on whenever I looked at this photo I always thought of Robert Blake in "In Cold Blood" based on Truman Capote's book.

Dick, what colour was the MG? Racing green or red, or something else?

My father's easy chair was always surrounded by Moss Motors MG parts catalogs. At one time or another he had two TDs, a TF, and I drove a '61 MGA in high school....needless to say we went through a lot of Lucas fuel pumps (the weak link in the MG fuel system).

The '54 TD in this photo was perhaps the longest MG restoration project in history. When we disassembled the TD we put the tiny parts in my then-baby sister's empty baby food jars. When my Dad finished the project my baby sister was in law school!

This cellphone photo shows my son behind the wheel in Austin, TX.

Wow - only a year before my Uncle Albert was doing this in his MG farther up north in San Francisco: