1933 M.G .L1 MAGNA

THE PROPERTY OF JOHN FIRTH SMITH

The famous M.G. sports car originated in 1923. Cecil Kimber was appointed General Manager of Morris Garages in 1922 and soon had designed special body-work for the Morris Cowley, the main stay of William Morris’s production. Initially two-seater bodies were commissioned and mounted on a lowered Cowley chassis, later cars being built on the Morris Oxford chassis.

In 1928 the company introduced the first M.G. Midget, this was the M-Type, based on the O.H.C. Morris Minor This car had a very light two-seater body with a pointed tail and was put on the market for £175, becoming an instant success.

In the early thirties there was a definite gap in the M.G. range with the 8 horsepower Midgets selling well and at the other end of the scale the 18/80 range which appealed to the more wealthy M.G. fraternity. With the demise of the old side valve cars, Cecil Kimber had to produce something midway between the Midgets and the 18/80s. The Wolseley Hornet was introduced in the 1930 and was powered by a delightfully smooth 12 horsepower, 6 cylinder engine.

The first and the most popular Magna was the F type which had a production run of 1250 cars. The car was basically a C type that was stretched by 10” in length and it was powered by an M type engine that had two extra cylinders ‘tacked’ on. The hefty power unit was derived straight from the Wolseley Hornet but was cunningly camouflaged externally by M.G. engineers, and it was on this engine the Magna was based. It was introduced in 1931, followed by the L-type Magnas in 1933, which had important innovations including the new cross flow cylinder head with six ports on each side; this boosted the power to 41bhp at 5500rpm. The L types were genuine 75mph motor cars and were considered better than their predecessors.

Imported into Australia in 2008 this superbly original car was previously in the possession of noted U.K. M.G. collector Geoff Radford. It has not been the subject of any major restoration work over the years giving the car a lovely patina. It is fully registered in NSW for the next 12 months.

As well as being a very notable Australia artist, John Firth-Smith has been a discerning collector of all things M.G. for many years. His style has become increasingly abstract since 1968, and he has won many important art prizes, and has a long history of teaching. His work is represented in many state and regional art galleries and he is currently working on several projects.

CHASSIS NO: L0327

ENGINE NO: 588AL

REGISTRATION NO: 090999 (NSW NON-TRANSFERABLE. NEITHER PHYSICAL PLATE NOR THE RIGHT TO DISPLAY THIS REGISTRATION IS OFFERED FOR SALE WITH THIS LOT).