Lot Ended
Description
Uber-rare version of the world's oldest surviving MG model; one of
only around 400 made and perhaps a dozen surviving; early Bullnose
model; period LAP ohv cylinder head; in the current ownership for 38 years;
expertly restored over an 8-year period and in simply simply wonderful condition
throughout
A man of
enormous energy and creative flair with petrol flowing through his veins, Cecil
Kimber joined Morris Motors in March 1921, initially as a sales manager, but was
soon promoted to run The Morris Garages in Alfred Street, Oxford.
An autonomous part of the main Morris company,
Morris Garages was a retail sales and service centre, but under Kimber it became
something of a ‘skunk works’ department, specialising in modifying the standard
Morris Oxford/Cowley chassis, tuning up the engines and running gear and fitting
special lightweight coachwork.
Known as ‘Kimber
Specials’, they bore both Morris and MG badges and it wasn’t until 1928 that The
Morris Garages enterprise had become big enough to warrant a separate identity
from its parent company, becoming known as The MG Car
Company.
The first model to bear the MG octagon
badge is generally considered to be an open two-seater with a Raworth body
fitted to a modified 11.9hp Cowley chassis. Six of these were made in 1923/24,
retailing at £350 compared to £175 for the standard Cowley.
Before these Raworth cars were completed though, William ‘Billy’
Cooper, a famous car and motorcycle trials competitor well-known to Morris
Garages, placed an order for two four-seater versions – one for himself and the
other for Jack Gardiner, one of Kimber’s salesmen (the last photo shows Gardiner
in that very car).
Sharing stylistic and
technical cues with the Raworth two-seater cars, these rakish and elegant
four-seaters were so well-received that they were put into limited
production.
Originally named the MG 14/28 Sports,
they soon evolved into the MG 14/28 Super Sports, available in Four-Seater
Tourer, Coupe and Salonette variants. Built around a modified Morris Oxford
Bullnose chassis, lowered and lengthened by six inches, they incorporated many
upgrades to the brakes, steering and suspension to transform them into an MG.
The rear axle ratio was raised, a larger
radiator fitted, wire wheels replaced the standard artillery type, the battery
was relocated from the running board to under the front seats, the steering
wheel was lowered and featured three rather than four spokes while the 1,802cc
Hotchkiss engine was fitted with a free-flowing aluminium head and tuned to
maximise the revs.
The throttle pedal was also moved from the centre to
the right (soon to become standard practice among all makers) and the steering
box was moved from its mounting on the cylinder block to one on the chassis
which made the car much more stable and predictable, especially on bumpy
roads.
The coachwork was built by Carbodies and
featured a two-tone mix of blue painted steel and polished aluminium alloy over
an ash frame with a raked windscreen to accentuate the sporting lines, prominent
polished nickel scuttle vents, blue Morris Oxford MG Super Sports radiator badge
and brass MG kick plates on the door sills. A blue enamelled MG Super Sports
badge was also mounted on a polished alloy panel in the centre of the
dash.
When the demonstrator was tested by The
Autocar in May 1925, they declared it to be: ‘A sports model with unusually
attractive lines’ blessed with ‘a very lively performance and a higher turn of
speed than most drivers would care to use’, going on to record a top speed of
65mph with 0-50mph in 24 seconds.
The following
year, Billy Cooper won a Gold Medal in his own 14/28 Super Sports at the MCC’s
One-Hour High Speed Trial at Brooklands, earning the MG marque its first
competition success.
The Bullnose 14/28 stayed
in production until late-1926 when it followed suit with its standard Morris
sister car and adopted a rather less handsome flat radiator. Costing between
£395 and £475 depending on the coachwork (equivalent to the average house price
at the time), exact production figures are uncertain, but it is believed that
around 13 were made in 1924 and perhaps rather more in the next two years
before the flat-rad model took over in 1926 which was slightly wider, heavier
and slower than the early Bullnose cars.
By the
time it was replaced by the very similar 14/40 model in 1927, it is thought that
around 400 of the 14/28 models had been made in total, of which only around a
dozen are believed to survive today.
First
registered in Wiltshire in June 1926, this wonderful 14/28 Super Sports was
supplied new via Skurrays of Swindon to first owner Mr Humphrey Cottrill of
Lambourne. A horse-breeder and jockey, he bought the car as a reward for himself
after enjoying a big win at the Ascot races, as he related to the current owners
when they visited him in a nursing home shortly before he died. He used the car
extensively until 1930, a buff logbook showing that it then had four further
owners in quick succession, the last being a Mr F Edmunds of Brighton who
acquired MR 7058 in April 1934.
The subsequent
history of the car has been lost in the mists of time, but in the mid-1980s it
was discovered by an Oxfordshire-based MG enthusiast languishing in a wooded
area behind a timber yard in Mere on the Wiltshire/Somerset border. By this
stage the MG was in a fairly derelict state (as shown by photos on file) but the
chassis and drivetrain were still complete and in place although the bodywork
was beyond saving.
Apart from recovering the
car, the MG enthusiast didn’t really do anything with it and in c.1988 the
current owner and his brother succeeded in buying the car for the princely sum
of £100. Serial Vintage car restorers, historians and collectors, they set about
a meticulous restoration to return MR 7058 to her former glory, a project which
was to take around eight years to complete.
Although there are no invoices to detail the full extent of the work
carried, rest assured it was a labour of love with no corners cut and no expense
spared and the finished car speaks for itself – just look at it! It is nothing
short of outstanding.
The body and firewall had
to be made from scratch, using drawings made by copying the body fitted to
another 14/24 Super Sports belonging to David Potter, the fabrication work being
carried out by a Mr Pitney of Wokingham. The side panels would originally have
been polished aluminium but the thought of keeping these shiny was too daunting
to contemplate so they were painted in Lotus Silver which complements the Oxford
Blue upper and lower panels beautifully.
The
original cylinder head was ditched in favour of an LAP overhead-valve
conversion, a period modification offered by Lago Automotive Products of London.
Developed by none other than Anthony Lago (who went on to found the Talbot-Lago
marque in France), the LAP ohv conversion was aimed at well-heeled Morris owners
who could afford the £24 price tag (ten times the average weekly wage at the
time).
Lago’s ads boldly claimed: ‘Enormously
improved acceleration, greater speed on hills, more hill climbing in top, far
less gear changing, cooler running, higher speed and reduced petrol
consumption’.
The reality was perhaps not quite
as sensational, the owner of this car observing: “What the ohv conversion
supplies is bottom-end torque, not speed. So there is hardly a hill that is not
passable in top, saving recourse to the rather archaic three-speed
gearbox”.
Since the restoration was completed in
1996, the MG has been extensively used throughout the UK and France, attending
many shows where we are told that it always attracts a great deal of attention.
In June 2018 it was the subject of an eight-page feature in The
Automobile magazine, the writer singling out the car’s ride and handling
for particular praise:
"It feels stable and predictable, tracking true
even when the steering wheel is momentarily released. A corner looms. Some speed
is shed, but perhaps not as much as I would have liked. The 14/28 then does what
all good members of its octagonal clan should – it flies through the bend with
minimal roll and even less fuss. I’m genuinely astounded by this Vintage
machine’s prowess."
The owner also takes the wheel and bowls along at
55mph, saying: "When we did a Bugatti rally several years ago, I must say we
showed several of the attending Bugattis a clean pair of heels. These cars
are made for using. You can see how Kimber got away with charging a vast amount
of money over the standard Oxford price."
As you can see in the photos, this expertly restored MG is in
spectacular condition throughout and has been starting on the first press of the
button and running beautifully as we have moved it around on site, with
healthy oil pressure.
It comes with the original aluminium cylinder head
(see photos), a period jack in the tool box on the running board plus a wealth
of useful technical literature to assist in keeping it in tip-top running order
for many years to come.
None of the six
original Raworth-bodied two-seater Morris/MG specials survive, so the 14/28
Super Sports is effectively the oldest surviving MG model and certainly the
first to achieve success in competition.
Vanishingly rare, historically important and eminently usable, MR
7058 would grace any discerning collection. We could only find a record of one
other 14/28 Super Sports being sold at auction, a 1927 flat rad four-seater
tourer which made $77,000 at RM Sotheby’s in America in September 2022. Arguably
more desirable, this gorgeous Bullnose looks mighty attractive at the enticing
guide price suggested.
Consigned by James
Dennison – 07970 309907 – james.dennison@brightwells.com