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MG TD TF 1500 - Your Scariest T Moment

Gentlemen,
Recently the recounting of my scariest moment with my antique cars with some friends
got me to thinking that just about everyone must have a tale to tell.
Mine occurred 3 days after taking delivery of my TF. I didn’t know the car’s limits at this
point. I hadn’t realized that removing the pedal extensions would allow my six foot two inch
frame to be able to get to the brakes and clutch, that the steering wheel could be moved out to
make room for my knees, and that drum brakes don’t have quite the same slow down ability as
modern discs. Not only that, but that the top of the windshield is dead centre through my line of
vision at certain angles.
Well, I’m driving through town, feeling great, the wind through my locks, and not a care
in the world, when I see two elderly women step off the sidewalk to cross the road half a block in
front of me. In a panic I realize I am not going to get stopped in time. Why would they cross in
front of traffic? The balls of my feet don’t land on the pedals, but my arches and heels do, and I
can’t get the pedals to the floor with any real force. The ladies are right in front of me INSIDE A
SIGNALLED PEDESTRIAN CROSSWALK, when I see the left oncoming lane is empty, veer
into that lane locking up the tires, and skid to a stop 8 feet past the crosswalk. My heart is
thumping in my throat, as I realize I never saw the red overhead signal light, because it was
hidden behind the top windshield frame.
The part that really hurt was when the one woman yelled out, “You’re a menace!”
I apologized profusely, explaining the windshield frame had hidden the red light from my
view, and sheepishly got back into my own lane and skulked away, heart still thumping, and
feeling much like a scolded schoolboy. I learned a great deal about the car that day. You don’t
drive it like you do your everyday driver.
What’s your scariest T moment?
Gene Burgess

Not the scariest moment, but the absolute worst moment in our TD was when driving down to southwestern Washington a number of years ago. We were just going through Olympia on I5 with the revs comfortably at 4200 when there was a loud BANG followed by one hell of a racket and the car filled with smoke. It was amazing how the road behind me and to the right just completely emptied in an instant and I de clutched and coasted to the shoulder. I got out and opened the bonnet to find the side of the sump shattered, all of the oil had been blown all over the exhaust head pipe (hence all the smoke) and there were bits and pieces of the engine were scattered all over the road.

After a ride home in a tow truck with the TD on the back and dismantling the engine, I found that the gudgeon pinch bolt had on the number 1 piston has broken and things had gone down hill from there. I was to learn later, from a friend that had been a race car mechanic that this was not a uncommon happening on the race tracks with cars that have split little ends on the rods like our XPAG engines have. He told me that most of the cause of breakage of the pinch bolts is from over torquing and further, it is usually the number 1 or 4 cylinder that break the pinch bolts.

I have since recovered, with a new engine and some VERY careful torquing of any of the internal bolts in the engine with a calibrated torque wrench.
Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Half an hour after taking delivery of the TD, when I removed the seat back and saw the state of the rear bulkhead and door hinge framing.


Jan T
Jan Targosz

Not mine but my younger brothers story. He had restored a TF shortly after I had done mine. Got it finished about when he turned 16 (1966). Not too long after while climbing a winding road uphill to our house the steering wheel came off in his hands! The car went off the road, negotiated a modest ditch and then stopped after going through a fence. I can only imagine his thoughts at the time. Repairs were minimal and I'm sure he tightened the lock nut on the steering wheel very carefully.
D Clark

I bought my TD as a 40th birthday present to myself from a fellow who had a warehouse of old cars andhia own mechanic to keep them up. It was my first antique car and I believed him when he said the mechanicals were in good shape.. I drove it home through the finger lake region of upstate NY,.... very hilly. I got it home inspite of 3rd gear popping out on the hills. Next day when I went to show it off to some buddies of mine, pulled out of the garage and tried to stop at the end of the driveway...no brakes!! Pedal to the floor and a very thumping heart!
I was an idiot to drive that car without carefully checking it out. To think that I had driven it about 50 miles the night before, on hills, in traffic and oblivious to the death trap I was driving in, still gives me the creeps today. Of course the mechanicals were shot and I did a total rebuild of everything mechanical on the car over the next 1 1/2 years.
Cheers, Rob
Rob Silverman

While returning from a family reunion one night, the headlights failed (Lucas strikes again). Mext morning, I left the house shortly before dawn to go to a meet. As I hadn't had the time to fix the heads, I was driving on the side lights and the very early morning glow from the east.

The first I saw of the deer was as its head struck the left front wing and its nose and teeth were illuminated for a split second by the side light. The impact spun the deer round and it struck my left elbow, which was over the top of the door, and dented the left rear wing causing it to rub on the tyre. The car swung wildly from left to right as I fought to bring it under control and only by sheer superior driving skill and nerves of steel did I prevent it from going off the road.

Upon getting out I saw the deer lying in the road and approached it, meaning to kick the hell out of it, when it got up and ran into the forest. The damage was one dented front wing, a door panel, a rear wing and an elbow which was numb for a week.

I was lucky not to have struck the deer an instant later as the beast would have come over the top and probably de-capitated me, the more so as I was running with the windscreen flat and just a Brooklands in front of me.

I have now taken up hunting whereby I can exercise my superior markmanship and I am looking for a flat nosed deer which has no teeth.

G.E. Love

Many years ago I was cruising in one of my TDs (RHD), having had a great meal at Captain Bill's in Glouschester, MA, when while passing the lot at Captains Courageous, a monstrous Buick emerged from the lot, with a Blue hair at the controls. I just managed to get my arm inside the line of the door, as she struck the front fender and proceeded to graze the entire side, finally lodging in the rear fender. No injuries, but a Buick grille is very intimidating from 6" away.
Paul
Paul

In 1961 my first 1953 TD and I were stationed in central Illinois and had a weekend habit of hanging about the university campus at Champaign. They had an active sports car club and some members were co-eds. "A good thing". While participating in a hare and hounds rally I drove into a new subdivision (yes they had them even then) on a street that turned out to be a dead end. Of course no street lights and at dusk the MG's head lamps revealed little. I was just noting to myself how dark it was directly in front of the car when I drove into an open cellar excavation, off the high side. Hitting bottom was accompanied by a tremendrous thud, much snaping and crackeling from the plywood floor boards and an immediate stop. After a look around I could not find anything amiss and determined that the excavation had been made with a dozer and had two slanting ends. Drove up and out with no problem. Upon returning to the base and using the lift at the auto hobby shop I found the left rear spring had a cracked leaf which I repaired with two muffler clamps. The drivers seat always sat a little lower after that; or maybe it was me. It was an experience I don't want to repeat ever.....

Jimbo6

1953 MD TD (not the same one)
J. M. Haskins

Just a few months ago my daughter and I had the TD out for a nice warm fall drive. We came up over the hill of a small rural road that T'd into a larger road. Just as we were approaching the T a large pickup truck with two teenagers was coming off the larger road. They were looking at each other and not in the direction their truck was headed. They were completly on my side of the road. I swerved off the road, into a drainage ditch that luckely had rolled sides and no trees, went up the embankment and then eased it back to the road after the truck passed.

I am sure they never saw us. I was looking staight in line with the passenger before I left the road. I missed their front quarter by about 6" and was really surprised that we did not roll it going into the ditch. Of course they never even stopped or slowed down. I am lucky to be alive.

Chris
Chris Couper

About 35 years ago I had a TC that I was sort of restoring. I had removed the rear hubs from the diff and when I replaced them I inadvertently swapped them over.

Consequently this had the effect of loosening the spinners instead of tightening them when driving. I went out that day for a drive and after about 20 miles or thereabouts one back wheel came off and passed me when the car dropped down on to the brake drum.

There were no serious misshaps from this and looking back it was all rather humourus.

Anyway all you wire wheel car owners take note. Don't mix your hubs up.

Cheers,

Paul.
Paul van Gool

I had just brought home my newly purchased TD. After removing the tow bar and lights, I took a quick ride around the block to test out the new "wheels". I parked the car in the driveway which has a downgrade.

I was walking into the garage when for some reason I looked back at the car for a second, only to see the car rolling down the driveway backwards. I started to run down the driveway and glanced over at the other side of the street where a fully restored Pontiac Firebird was parked. I jumped on the running board and pulled up the emergency brake lever at the same time. The MG came to rest less than a foot away from the Pontiac.

My neighbor was watching this whole scene, so I sheepishly climbed into the car and drove it back into the garage. I realized that I had left the car in neutral and only set the parking brake. Never again!
R. Challberg

I have never had a bad time in my TF.



Well,
maybe except for the time I was 'parked'
with my girlfriend and she complained
about the sharpness of the handbrake.

:)
B J Simpson

No T-owner myself but I did meet a married couple ones who had identical scars on their foreheads as a result of a scary T Moment.....
Willem van der Veer

I came home from school on break, got the TD out from the garage distant from the house and with youthful exhuberance drove toward the house. The brake pedal went to the floor, I grabbed the handbrake and skidded, narrowly missing dad's car. What dad would have done if I had smashed two of his cars was the scary part.
George Butz

"Scariest T Moment 1".....wife looking in checkbook day after I purchased the TF!
"Scariest T Moment 2".....dodging a wild eyed buck at 70MPH in Ohio ...I think he was running "cross-country"...had "PA" plates on it!
Cheers,
David 55 TF1500 #7427
David Sheward

My father bought the TD that is now under my care in 1971 when I was sill in high school. Shortly after the acquisition, he departed on a business trip, leaving the TD with me--I was taking an auto shop class and was to give the car a tune-up. Over the course of a long weekend, I put signigicant dents in three of the four fenders in stupid mishaps, none of which occurred while actually driving the car. Scariest moment was my father's return and first sight of his injured pride and joy. For reasons I can only understand now that my own daughter is about to be married, he took it all with great calm--at least on the outside...

Scott
Scott McCoy

Dear Gene,
Interesting thing about this thread is the names of people responding that I have not noticed before (about half).

JOhn
John Redman

We all know how tempting it is to do a little windy road driving - correct? Well, a few years ago I drove over a really nice back-country road that had just enough turns to give the TD a work out.

I was having a great time when I took one turn to find a cow dead center in the road. Almost no time to do any breaking, I aimed for the right side hoping I could squeeze the litte car between the cow and the ditch on the side.

I made it, but to this day believe the cow got a yellow paint stripe added. My pants got a brown stripe added.

God has ways of reminding us to be a bit more careful.
Bruce Cunha

One fine day during the first summer after my father and I had "mostly completed" (more on that later) the restoration of my TD, I had gotten the car out to clean it up for the Memorial Day parade the following day.

While wiping it down in the driveway, a young fellow in a safety orange hopped up Camaro stopped and went wild over the little TD. I guess he'd never seen anything like it, so I offered to give him a ride. He was ecstatic.

So off we went around town having a great time. The brakes seemed a little stiff, but I didn't think too much about it at the time.

As we came down the first real hill, I realized I was not going to be able to stop at the red light at the bottom. Here's where the "mostly completed" part comes in: I hadn't yet adjusted the emergency brake NOR had I connected the horns! So...no wheel brakes, no emergency brake, no horn. And I was fast approaching a five-way intersection with a total stranger in my car!

The only thing I could think to do was WHISTLE REAL LOUD (pefected during high school football games) while looking in all directions for oncoming cars! I sped into the intersection, turned the wheel hard to one side and spun the rear around to stop the car, all the while WHISTLING REAL LOUD! Luckily there was no one in the intersection at the time and no one was hurt.

Now my new buddy and I were both white as sheets and we didn't say a word to each other as I SLOWLY drove the car back home.

That day I learned first hand about the water absorptive qualities of glycol brake fluid and its effect on TD brakes. Mine were almost completely frozen. That night my father and I dismantled all the wheel cylinders, honed them out, reinstalled everything, and bled the system.

The next day while driving in the parade, I saw my new buddy on the sidelines. We waved and I offered him another ride. He laughed and said "No that's ok." Never did see him again.

A few weeks later I switched over to silicone brake fluid and have never had sticking brakes in the 25 years since.

B Sieling

John,
I agree with your assessment. While a great many readers may not have input they feel is appropriate for a great deal of the technical threads of this forum, threads on the T driving experience always gives many a place to jump in and share. I personally follow 5 car forums for each of the 5 cars I own (all different makes), and I can say without a doubt...this forum is the best by far, and a lot of it has to do with the personal and fun factor each respondent adds. I have been amazed at some of the tales on this thread. Some are down right frightening, and others so hilarious that my laughter has had my wife questioning what all of the noise is about.
Gene
Gene Burgess

Some of you have heard it before but for those who have not.....this should have been my "Scariest T Moment" but as I was only 3 I was not scared and it is actually what started my love afaire with the TF.

It's 1955 and dad had just purchased one of the few new cars he ever actually bought & tittled to himself. (he ran a small car lot selling mostly used sports cars).He left me in the passangers seat of a Black TF1500 w/bisqite interior with 500 miles on the clock whilst he went in to get some beer for a day of boating. I kicked the car out of gear and rollled out the parking lot across a very busy road and standing on the seat watching the trees go by past the bonnet backwards while turnning the wheel sharply from left to right through the woods on my way to the river. Here is the part nobody (including yours truly) has yet to understand...somehow I managed to yank up the parking brake just short of "launtching" the MG off the dock. Not a scratch on the car they tell me (I don't remember) I said "that was fun...I gonna own one of these someday". First car I ever "drove" and, with luck the last one I drive will be a TF also! It took over 40 years (more than a few of those trying to find "that" TF) but that was what started it ....I "scare" easier now than I did back then!
Cheers & Safety Fast (even backwards)
David 55 TF1500 #7427
David Sheward

Although I have owned my TD since 1968, my scariest moment in it was in July 2001. I was driving around the north section of the M25, which is the motorway going all the way round London, England. According to the driver of the car following me, first the rear right "knock-on" came off (the car has wire wheels), then the wheel came off. The car rolled twice, once sideways, and then head over heels, ending up the right way up. I was still inside most of the time, although I was thrown out at the last minute with my various body parts still attached, and just a few broken bones. The car was an insurance write-off, although it has since been rebuilt; I have never worked out why the wheel came off, as it hadn't been removed for at least a month before the accident. I washed my pants several times, but eventually had to throw them away.
Roger Wilson

Roger,
I believe you are in "1st place" ...yikes!
Sounds like maybe some work had been done on wheel hubs...they got reversed so the knock-off unscrewed itself when you started driving it! I almost made the same mistake....noticed when putting knock off's back on that I had one of ea. "undo" on each side of the car....instead of same way on left & right side of the car. After hearing this sure am glad I caught that one in tyme.
Cheers,
David 55 TF1500 #7427
David Sheward

This one - NOBOODY would forget.

I am the only Register member to come across Frank Churchill's accident, just after it had happened.

GAC

Gord Clark

Going over the pass into Yellowstone, road reduced to mud by a recent landslide & heavy snow...going was VERY slow. Looked to my right from my RHD TD and spotted a mother Grizzly & 2 cubs 20 feet away!! As I didn't have in the sidescreens, the only thing between her & me was ...well, 20 feet! I couldn't have outrun her in the muddy conditions if I tried, I just prayed she didn't feel threatened! Not a secure feeling being that far from a Grizzley & her cubs!
Robert Dougherty

About 25 years ago when Bucks County Pa. was much more rural than it is now I was out driving with my 5 year old son. We were on Wrightstown road that split a large farm in half. The farmer used the road to transfer cows from one grazeing area to an other . We had the luck to get stuck in the roadway during one of the migrations . Here we are sitting very low to the ground , top down in a car that is about half the size of one of the critters slowly passing by us on both sides looking down at us drooling and grunting and snorting and stinking . One stopped just next to the passenger side and I saw it start to lift it's tail two feet above us and two feet to the right , I thought OH NO !!. We could not move as there were approx 70 or 80 cows all around us and here it comes ,flop plop flop plop with my son stareing in horror as the cow did it's thing right next to him . All the way home I dont think he as much as blinked once .The TD only needed a minor hose down .
A.L. Gerstle

This story is one that my old man told me years ago when he owned a TF - this was in Adelaide in the late 50's or early 60's and occured after his motorbike accident. He used the payout of that accident to buy the TF.

Anyway, as I recall, he was heading back to Adelaide from the Barossa Valley in the late afternoon and as you do on a quiet country road, he decided to wind it up a bit. As he approached the top of a slight crest in the road he noticed with some horror that there were sheep on the road. He didn't have time to brake but as if by divine intervention, the sheep just parted just as he drove through. I think that was his scariest moment in a T Type.

Cheers,

Phil
Phil

My scariest T moment involves Chris Couper, frequent contributor to the BBS, but, he certainly has forgotten about his involvement in my adventure.

While in High School in the mid 70’s, I worked for Jim Bigler at Commonwealth Classic Cars in Fullerton, CA. Chris worked there at that time also. Jim asked me to go with Chris and retrieve a TC that was in the San Fernando Valley. It never dawned on me to ask about the condition of the TC.... I was young and foolish, and, Jim must have believed I was expendable. We get to the TC, it was a complete piece of junk. Chris tells me to hop in and he would follow me back. Well, driving a TC on I-5 for 50 miles in pre rush hour high speed LA traffic would be semi scary with a nice TC. But, this particular TC had bad (spongy) brakes, extremely loose steering (even by TC standards), did not track straight, and had no brake lights. I had a few close calls, was terrified the whole time, but did make it back ok. The car was such a piece of junk that Jim had me part it out the next week.

Safety Fast!

Mark
Mark Hovda

I have a question for Gord Clark; you mention an accident involving Frank Churchill, but do not give any details. For the non-USA readers, would there be a problem supplying a few details?
Roger Wilson

Mark: I must admit I don't remember that event at all. I am sure I was cozey in the TD pickup. I probably just told you thats the way TC's are and keep on driving :-)

Chris
Chris Couper

In 1978, my dad acquired his 1st TC - it was located about 200mi (4hr drive) away and one weekend he, his brother and I drove out to collect it.

We planned to drive it back home.

TC came with twin spare tyres... but all 6 tyres were a good 20-30 yrs old. (Rubber also perishes faster in tropical heat/humidity!)

Within 50mi... the TC had suffered its THIRD blowout - a combination of old tyres, older tubes and rattly spokes loose enough to poke thru too far.

TC's vague steering is bad enough when one's got 4 operative tyres, unimaginably crazy when there's a tyre blown.

What with the tyre changing 3x then waiting for a tow truck, the journey home took over 16 hrs.
Will

This thread was discussed between 10/02/2005 and 20/02/2005

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