PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Steve Shultz Tooling down the road the oth- er day, I saw an MG. Back in the 80s when I was in high school and generally aware of cars, such an occurrence would not rank as anything particular- ly notable. MGs were, at the time, fairly common. I believe we had three or four Bs in the Cary High parking lot, a man- ageable number to eyeball when a part would disappear (which happened on at least one occasion to a marker light cover) since it would usually reappear on one of the other cars in short order. Seeing an MG on the road in 2015 may not be as common as it once was, but our little British cars seem to be more common than vehicles from another of the great British marques affectionately known within MG circles as “The Dark Side” (a.k.a Triumph). It seemed to me that I see MGs about twice as often as TRs, with the possible excep- tion of one attractive purple TR-6 that seems to follow me. Or maybe I’m just paranoid. So I got to thinking (not always, or even often, a good thing) and decided to try and add up how many of each type of British sports car rolled out of the Triumph and MG factories from the period of roughly 1950 to 1980. I added up the models I could think of, focusing mainly on the two-seat sports cars. I may have unintentionally left a few out, for which I apologize in advance. I suspect I’m not breaking new ground here and that there is already some reference out there, but I actually looked up each model and then added up the production figures. Note that values for some models may not match your: a) memory, b) book, c) friend’s recollection, or d) reality. There seems to be some fudge factor in the actual num- bers of cars produced, and some sources include pre- production models, etcetera. Plus one can’t believe every- thing one reads on the Interweb. Yes, I know that comes as a shock. But without further delay, here are the results of my re- search: QUADRIGA NEWS Monthly Newsletter of the North Carolina MG Car Club September 2015 I was shocked (well, that may be a bit strong of a word… I was mildly surprised) to see that the number of Tri- umphs is reasonably similar to the number of MGs, so the perception of seeing twice as many MGs began to make less sense. I was also surprised (yes, mildly) that the number of wedge-shaped Triumphs (the 7s and 8s) ex- ceeded the number of TR-6s, considering that most of the Triumphs I see tooling around are of the 6 variety and the 6s are older than the 7/8s. If I recall, no wedges were pre- sent at the car show this spring, and I have to wonder if someone is quietly buying up all the un-rusted cars …. (Continued on Page 3) IN THIS ISSUE Officers & Committee Chairs Page 2 Club Affiliations, Noggins & Natters Page 2 Birthdays, New Members, Page 3 Natter Chatter, Club Elections Page 3 Lake Tour, Mountain Tour Page 4 Archive Quiz Answers Page 4 Vineyard Tour & Poker Rally, Good Eats Page 5 B-Stingers Update, Club Recipes Page 6 Classifieds, Events Page 7 Calendar Page 8 Years Built Model # Built 53-55 2 8,638 55-62 3 78,269 61-65 4 40,253 65-67 4A 28,465 66-73 GT6 40,926 67-68 5/250 11,427 68-76 6 94,619 75-81 7 143,729 62-80 Spiire 314,332 Total 760,658 TRIUMPH Years Built Model # Built 50-53 TD 29,664 53-55 TF 9,602 55-62 A 101,081 62-80 B 514,703 67-69 C 9,002 61-79 Midget 226,427 Total 890,479 MG
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QUADRIGA NEWS€¦ · Sep. 2 Steve Bohuczky Sep. 18 Sep. 2 Sep. 18 Randy Laxton Sep. 2 Sep. 19Rick Scott Sep. 2 Steve Shultz Sep. 4 Julie Williamson Sep. 12 Terry Jones Sep. 13 Candy
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Transcript
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Steve Shultz
Tooling down the road the oth-
er day, I saw an MG. Back in
the 80s when I was in high
school and generally aware of
cars, such an occurrence would
not rank as anything particular-
ly notable. MGs were, at the
time, fairly common. I believe
we had three or four Bs in the
Cary High parking lot, a man-
ageable number to eyeball when a part would disappear
(which happened on at least one occasion to a marker
light cover) since it would usually reappear on one of the
other cars in short order.
Seeing an MG on the road in 2015 may not be as common
as it once was, but our little British cars seem to be more
common than vehicles from another of the great British
marques affectionately known within MG circles as “The
Dark Side” (a.k.a Triumph). It seemed to me that I see
MGs about twice as often as TRs, with the possible excep-
tion of one attractive purple TR-6 that seems to follow
me. Or maybe I’m just paranoid.
So I got to thinking (not always, or even often, a good
thing) and decided to try and add up how many of each
type of British sports car rolled out of the Triumph and
MG factories from the period of roughly 1950 to 1980. I
added up the models I could think of, focusing mainly on
the two-seat sports cars. I may have unintentionally left a
few out, for which I apologize in advance. I suspect I’m
not breaking new ground here and that there is already
some reference out there, but I actually looked up each
model and then added up the production figures. Note
that values for some models may not match your: a)
memory, b) book, c) friend’s recollection, or d) reality.
There seems to be some fudge factor in the actual num-
bers of cars produced, and some sources include pre-
production models, etcetera. Plus one can’t believe every-
thing one reads on the Interweb. Yes, I know that comes
as a shock.
But without further delay, here are the results of my re-
search:
QUADRIGA NEWS Monthly Newsletter of the North Carolina MG Car Club
September 2015
I was shocked (well, that may be a bit strong of a word…
I was mildly surprised) to see that the number of Tri-
umphs is reasonably similar to the number of MGs, so the
perception of seeing twice as many MGs began to make
less sense. I was also surprised (yes, mildly) that the
number of wedge-shaped Triumphs (the 7s and 8s) ex-
ceeded the number of TR-6s, considering that most of the
Triumphs I see tooling around are of the 6 variety and the
6s are older than the 7/8s. If I recall, no wedges were pre-
sent at the car show this spring, and I have to wonder if
someone is quietly buying up all the un-rusted cars ….