An MG TC in New Hampshire
Readers of these posts might recall that that we’ve been working with Larry Perry to get his second MG TC roadworthy, this second TC coming roughly 60 years after his first.
Around 1950 a precipitous drop in price resulted in Larry and his wife emptying their bank account and ordering a Shorrock supercharger from the emporium of S.A. “Wacky” Arnolt of Chicago, Illinois, an MG dealer with his fingers in a whole lot of pies. What had once been the cost of a replacement TC could now be had for $300.00 in Truman era dollars, and the now supercharged TC gave them a number of years of mostly trouble free service.
Larry & David discuss the finer points of TC top fasteners
About a year ago, give or take, Larry pulled the trigger and bought a very well presented but also very normally aspirated TC and had it trucked up from Virginia, and late last fall another Shorrock, this one from Novi, Michegan fell out of the sky, so to speak, and landed in his lap.
MG has a long history with what is known as ‘Low Pressure’ supercharging. In the Pre-War era, Marshall, Arnolt, Shorrock and others were manufacturing a panoply of forced induction systems, which with boosts of under five pounds or so did not void the MG factory warranty. Shorrock survived into the ’60s, producing lots of units for Volkswagen owners for whom 36 horsepower just wasn’t enough, and as the evidence shows, for the british car aftermarket as well.
Supercharged & about-to-be supercharged TC's
Larry’s supercharger appears to be in good nick, although with a few parts missing, not a daunting problem really when you have the resources. What we didn’t have were the patterns, but “one hand washes the other” as the farmers say, and Friday night I trundled up to Peterboro and “borrowed” a Shorrock blown TC needing to be ‘got running’ again. This will work out to the mutual benefit of both parties, so stay tuned for the emerging story. Mary White photos
