On Mon, 7 Nov 1994, Stan Fickes wrote:
> There may not be a 4-seat MGTD...
There is; the so-called "Inskip TD". These began life as a normal TD,
but were stretched here in the U.S. to acommodate a rear seat.
> ...but there is a drophead MGY! The MGYT is a
> 4-seat open top car, with adequate room for small people (more than a BGT,
> anyway!) With some minor mods to the powerplant, it would be a nice
> driving car. Just don't try climbing hills in a single-SU XPAG! (Long
> story here, involving a Y, a Sprite, several TDs, and a Ferrari/Dino...)
The MG YA (from which the YT was derived) and the YB had only a single SU
H2 carb and produced 48 HP, but the YT had two H2's and produced 52 HP
just like the TD. Those 52 horses had to pull a much heavier car in the
YT, though!
I've never had a YT, but owned a YA for about 70,000 miles. The Y-Types
are not sports cars in any sense of the word, but you can get decent
performance out of them if you know how. You have to keep the revs high
and try not to think about mundane things like piston speed and weak
crankshafts.
I'm reminded of a trip Len Renkenberger and I made from Maryland to
Connecticuit in my YA about 15 years ago, to attend a NEMGTR board
meeting. Renk had a horrible cold and was trying to drown it with beer,
so he wasn't really paying attention to the traffic on I-95 as we headed
north. Some time after we arrived and were in the midst of the
festivities, Renk sort of jerked awake and said "Holy cow, I just realized
nobody passed us all the way up here - we passed everyone else!"
All it takes is a willingness to drive at 4500 RPM for mile after mile,
listening to that little XPAG sing...
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Chip Old 1948 M.G. TC TC6710 NEMGTR #2271
Cub Hill, Maryland 1962 Triumph TR4 CT3154LO (daily transportation)
feold@umd5.umd.edu
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