MG SA review - the pre war 1930s sports saloon time forgot

This car was kindly lent by Bidding Classics, who are selling it on their brilliant new website - https://www.biddingclassics.com

Sorry if by the time you watch this video the car is sold. New cars appear on their website every week (I keep checking, they're all awesome) so perhaps contact them if you're looking for a classic car and want something tip top and ready to roll!

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MG SA Charlesworth

With only 2,738 of the SAs ever built, it’s a car that sometimes is mentioned but not seen and with the help of the MG Owners club, I’ve got a bit of history on this model.

The SA was launched in 1935 and was the first model to be launched after the merger with Morris Motors, which had happened early in July of 1935. It was part of a trio of new models which also included the PB Midget and the revised N Type Magnette.

The new car drew mixed reviews with many saying it wasn’t a real MG because it was so different to the cars before it, it was the largest MG to date and although some of the early Magnettes weren’t small, some buyers just immediately took a dislike.

It was a funny time to launch a new luxury sports saloon, but 1935 was a big year for MG and things were changing at an incredible pace. Leonard lord was appointed as MD and almost instantly, all the racing activity and development ground to a halt.

Cecil Kimber who remained in the company and had some level of influence managed to gain enough support to persuade Lord a sport saloon was needed and with that, the MG SA came to fruition.

Whilst Lord would’ve been happy to whack an MG badge on an old Wolseley super six shell, Kimber wanted more and designed a new body for the existing super six chassis and priced the car at £375.

Whilst it was priced well, it came up against a few challenges in the fact customers weren’t entirely convinced and for a few key reasons. The use of the super six chassis meant the old MG chassis was no longer used and the engine they were familiar with, an overhead camshaft engine, was done away with in favour of the super six 2 litre pushrod lump.

The cable brakes of old were replaced with Lockheed hydraulic type brakes, much to the displeasure of Kimber and various other tweaks and endless fiddles and last minute adjustments were amended and rejigged, making it an incredibly fussy operation for what could’ve been a very simple car.

And in fact, these changes led to delays which led to the ultimate kicker: 10 days before launch, SS Cars of Coventry announced they were launching a new sporting saloon. The Coventry company produced this new car, the first to be badged jaguar and were quick to make decisions and stick by them.

This meant that whilst 1936 loomed and MG were still quibbling and amending, the all new Jaguar was there and ready and 500 customers who had waited patiently suddenly switched to the big cat over the new SA.

In fact, it was the Jaguar which pushed some of these last changes, because their new motor had been announced with a 2663cc engine and MG then had to work to up the 2062cc to a 2288cc to try and keep up.

Further changes were implemented including going from all crash box to part synchro on later cars and a final upgrade to engine power, taking late cars up to 2322 cc.

All in all, a rather lacklustre success story for a car which deserved so much better and deserved a much bigger footnote in the history of classics.

Now That’s a brief history on the model, but this particular car has an exciting history of its own!

There are only three owners from new and the first owner was Hollywood stuntman Gerald Gordon, who was apparently a stand in for Tarzan AND an olympic swimmer.

Mr Gordon shipped the car to America, whereby he went on an adventure and covered off over 19,000 miles; with one particular adventure allegedly nearly hitting 100 on the speedo. Needless to say, we’ll be daring if we hit half that today!

After a life well lived, Mr Gordon came back to England with his trusty MG and there’s a hefty pack with the car containing photos of all of this plus other notes and documentation.

But who owns this car now and why would they sell? I thought I’d catch them and ask a little about this very lovely MG SA.