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MG MGA - Vintage racing question

Hi All

Hoping to find some info on prewar racing car setups. I posted this on the prewar site also but as this is my "home" and the most active list heres hoping....

I am helping the family of a recently departed friend to dispose of his 1932 Alvis 12/60 and was curious about the shift setup. It is a right hand drive with a right hand shift. I was reading about another early British race car and the notes made a reference to this configuration as being a "race setup" rather than a "conventional setup" with left hand or centrally located shifter and right hand drive.

Not that you can speed shift your way thru the Alvis gearbox with double clutching and meshing the revs mind you. It is slow and painfull experiance at best compared to todays cars. I know why they are called "crash boxes"

Any help appreciated

Ralph

61 mga 1600
Ralph H .

Ralph,

I think the setup you are speaking of is fairly common to cars of the time. I've had experience driving a 30's Rolls 20/25 and also a 50 Bentley, both right hand drive and shift on the right. Makes getting in and out of the drivers door fun.

j
JohnB

Ralph, I've seen photos of cars set up as you describe, mostly 'performance' models from the thirties. You might get the information you want if you post a letter to Classic and Sports Car magazine. They have a good column each month with this type of question. http://www.classicandsportscar.com/
Bill Young

Just reading through some of my late Father-in-Law's motoring books, were these cars fitted with the Wilson preselector gearbox? It would appear that you pre-selected the next required gear by a lever either on the steering wheel or near the outside brake handle - according to one reference. At the appropriate time you depressed and released the left pedal (now the clutch pedal) to select the pre-selected gear. My book makes reference to 1930s Armstrongs.

Just Googled 'Wilson gearbox'. Masses there. Apparently also fitted to 1930s ERA racing cars. Also saw action in WWW1 tanks!

Steve
Steve Gyles

Ralph,

I believe all Frazer-Nash models of the 1930's had this setup. I have a friend in the U.K. who was gracious enough to allow me to drive his. The shifter was outboard of the body, and had a reverse pattern for the 4 speeds.

Then again, they were chain drive. Lots of fun on a roundabout! Can you imagine piching an expensive car into a normal traffic circle and sliding the tail out? That's what I was told to do, so I had to oblige the owner...
Tom Balutis

As I answered on the prewar section. Quality vintage and post vintage cars had the gear change on the right hand side as a standard feature on the touring cars. A couple I own have this feature, a 1927 Sunbeam 20.9 and an unrestored Crossley 20/70. The Sunbeam feels very natural to drive with the right hand gear change.

Many other cars used this, including Fiat, Vauxhall, Rolls Royce, Bentley etc.

Matthew

As an aside, Riley cars fitted with the preselect type gearbox have the change speed lever fitted to the column just below the steering wheel.
Matthew F.

If I'm not mistaken I beleve that MG K3's used the Wilson pre-selector box also and I'll bet they were found on the Q's and R's also.
gary starr

This thread was discussed between 02/08/2006 and 03/08/2006

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