304 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
Wilkinson and the Evans brothers proceeded to race the modified
Magnette with some success during the 1937 season. In August
of that year the MG was advertised for sale in ‘The Sports Car’
magazine and by 1939 had been acquired by Charles Mortimer, an
established Brooklands competitor on both two and four wheels,
who refers to the car in his books ‘Brooklands and Beyond’ and
‘With Hindsight’ and who again competed at Brooklands with
success. Mortimer sold the car during the war, and it then passed
through the hands of Frank Kennington and John Marshall.
The next known owner was Basil de Lissa, who competed in the
MG energetically between 1948 and 1950, including the first ever
Goodwood race meeting in September ‘48 and again in 49 and 50,
the Leinster Trophy meeting, the Manx Cup and the Stanmer Park
hill climb. During de Lissa’s ownership the car was looked after by
the well known racing car constructor/driver Paul Emery, originator
of the ‘Emeryson’ marque, who fitted it with a supercharger in 1949
and a more modern radiator cowl. De Lissa sold the car in 1950 to
the MG specialist dealers Toulmin.
In the 1960s the car was acquired by a Mr H H Garrett of Birtley,
County Durham. When Garrett sold it to Norman Hart in 1972, an
inelegant two-seater glassfibre body had been fitted. Norman Hart
corresponded with the MG Car Club and previous owners Wilkie
Wilkinson, Charles Mortimer and Basil de Lissa to establish the car’s
history. In 1975 Norman Hart commenced its restoration, which
included returning the MG to its pre-war specification complete with
a replica offset body made by David Royle at Vintage Motor Car
Restoration. Wilkie Wilkinson was reunited with the now-rebuilt MG in
October 1981 when he drove it at the Croft circuit near Darlington,
and again in 1982 when he drove it at the Brooklands Reunion.The current owner purchased the car from Norman Hart in 2003,
undertaking a complete restoration over the next two years in
conjunction with marque specialists Baynton Jones. In the course
of his original conversion, Wilkinson had fitted MG K-Type axles and
K3 brakes, to which end both axles had to be narrowed. The front
axle was cut and re-welded to achieve this, and during the rebuild
was found to be sound. Nevertheless, it was deemed prudent to
replace it with an exact copy. The car has alternated between the
standard N-Type gearbox and a pre-selector during its career, and
is currently fitted with the manual ‘box.