British-Cars.net

Welcome to the DMR Site for British Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.


MG TD TF 1500 - 1951 Right Hand Drive EXR

My 1951 TD has Car No. TD/ 9747 with a suffix EXR.
Where would these cars be exported to, and were these cars with the EXR suffix likely to have remained in Britain? The car still has the original British Tag, LTR 806. Can the original owner be located by the license #?

The car was built on Aug 24, 1951 but not imported to the states until around 1975.
Anyone have any information about this car?

Under the scuttle, the car has original paint... a lighter metallic green. Were any of these cars two-toned?

Sid Orr, Woodstock, Ga
Sid Orr

RHD Export cars were mainly sent to the British Commonwealth countries like; Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Over 1,000 TFs have been sent to Australia, but not sure how many TDs. I am not sure why you car would have British plates, maybe it returned to the UK at some stage?
Your metallic green sounds like Almond green which was used on the TDs and TFs. Not aware of any factory two tone paint jobs.
Matthew Magilton

Sid

My RHD '52 TD MKII, TDC17198, went to Hong Kong and then was 'imported' to England in the 60's. Acquired a British plate, 575EXE, before being sent to the Colonies in 1970 and sortly thereafter to me.

Paul
Paul Gaynor

Sid, I bought my '53 TD EXR in Jan. 1962 in France from an American soldier. I could not trace its earlier ownership but I was told about two different possibilities.
One was that Denmark originally had Left Traffic like England and the car could have migrated down to France. The second scenario was that some British business men bought a RHD and kept it in France when they traveled on business. They didn't have to switch hands for shifting gears and the car was cheap. To this day, I dunno.
Jim Merz

Sid;
I lived in France for 5 years.1958-63. During that time Sweden changed from driving on left to driving on the right. They were a strange bunch as they first tried changing on weekends only.That created a real schmozzel I think it was 1959 when they finally changed to RH side permanently.
Sandy
Sandy Sanders

Jim,

Sweden was RHD after the war until the 60s but Denmark
was RHD as long ago as 1929, as per my Michelin Guide for that year!

Cheers, John.
J.C Mitchell

Now I am beginning to wonder if Sweden AND Denmark have good auto registration records from the 1953 to 1961 time frame. Anyone know a Swedish or Danish MG owner who would do some research or have ideas about how to go about checking on my own?
Jim Merz

Jim,

Apologies and correction, should have read 'Denmark was LHD as long ago as 1929'. Presumably you can now rule out the Denmark connection?

Sorry about that, best of luck with your research.

Cheers, John.
J.C Mitchell

Jim,

Its still unclear because of my use of the confusing terms LHD & RHD! What I meant to say was,

'Sweden drove on the left after the the war until the 1960s, but Denmark drove on the right as long ago as 1929....'

Hope its now clear!

Cheers,John.
J.C Mitchell

Thanks for the clarification John. I don't know how I got such erroneous information. I will forget about my car having been shipped to Denmark when new.
Jim Merz

As far as I know, all TD's exported to Switzerland were righ-hand-drive, though it's a l.h.d. country. I assume the British in their wisdom assumed we were part of their empire.
Denis L Baggi

Denis, thank you for that information. When I bought my RHD TD in France, the rear registration (licnse) plate was on the left. I thought that was strange. Normally, according to the parts manual, the RHD cars had the plate mounted on the right rear of the car. LHD's have a different part number for the plate mounting bracket on the left rear.
Since Switzerland is much closer to Nancy, France than Sweden, maybe my car was originally exported to your country. Can you tell me where I could write to check for any possible registration there?
Just out of curiosity, why were only RHDs exported to Switzerland?
Thanks again.
Jim Merz

OK you guys.

I own couple of a McLaren F1s with the driving pos'n in the centre.

Problem solved.

gac
(a consumate liar)
Gordon A. Clark

To Jim: the plate support in my car is on the right, not on the left. I think that's true for all r.h.s. cars, but correct me if I am wrong. So yours must have been modified, maybe because of some French law.

I don't know why Switzerland got r.h.s. cars. I conjecture it may be because, unlike the rest of Europe, our trains run on the left as in England. Also the law was, years ago, that if you cross a postal bus on a mountain road you have to go the edge of the cliff while the bus gets close to the mountain, no matter which side the bus or you are. Now, what this had to do with mg td's I do not really know. However, I don't mind having a r.h.d. car, allows me fast riding close to the right wall. Lot of fun.
Denis L. Baggi

Again to Jim: there must be a place which records which cars were imported when, but I would not know where to start since registration is at the state (canton) level, like in the US, and not in a state office as in the UK.
Denis L. Baggi

This thread was discussed between 06/05/2008 and 09/05/2008

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The live forum is active now.