ROUND 2: Z-TYPE MAGNETTE vs STANDARD VANGUARD

There is a long tradition in MG circles of the company introducing a new model to howls of complaint from traditionalists, only for those same traditionalists to come round eventually, recognise the new model's merits and stop judging it in comparison with what went before. We'll see some more such models later in this feature for whom redemption has come arguably too late, but the Z-Type Magnette made the leap from 'not a proper MG' to a very desirable member of the family much more quickly because it was fundamentally such a good car.

Why the initial scepticism? Well, development of a successor to the Y-Type had been underway for some time and designer Gerald Palmer had come up with an Italianate monocoque body with far more modern styling and nicely flowing lines. This was originally destined to be an MG and have the Y-Type's XPAG engine, but late in the day that model was turned into the Wolseley 4/44 and shown in that guise at the 1952 Earls Court Motor Show.

1952 was also the year when the Nuffield Group (containing MG) and Austin merged to form BMC, and much as new boss Leonard Lord would have liked to sweep the Nuffield marques under the carpet, not even he could overlook the potential sales they offered. As a result, the MG Magnette appeared in 1953, looking for all the world like a Wolseley 4/44 with a dummy MG grille stuck on the front and an 1489cc Austin B-series engine stuffed under the bonnet.

It is hard to know whether the Austin engine, the badge engineering or the use of the old MG Magnette name on a saloon car upset the purists most, the majority of them conveniently overlooking the fact that none of this was anything new for MG. It also missed the point that despite the similar looks, a lot of detailed work had gone on under the skin of the new MG to make it a far more sporting car than its Wolseley stablemate. It was lowered by a couple of inches for one thing, and every panel except the roof, front doors and bootlid were altered in some way. The suspension was tweaked as well with a torque reaction arm for the rear axle, improved suspension mountings and more. Altogether, these changes gave it a far more sporty stance allied to excellent handling. The B-series engine also gave it decent performance to back up those looks, 60bhp translating into an 83mph top speed and 22 seconds for the 0- 60mph sprint. (In comparison, the Wolseley 4/44 posted figures of 72mph and 32.6 seconds.) To back up its credentials as a sporting saloon, the MG also got a floor-mounted gear change rather than the Wolseley's columnmounted wand. But as impressive as the performance figures were, the Magnette was a sporting saloon rather than a sports car, and to my mind all the better for it. It was as luxurious as the Y-Type had been, but all wrapped up in a far more modern and much more spacious cabin. And although the new car was longer and wider than the outgoing model, monocoque construction helped keep the weight penalty down to around 60kg, while drag must have been in a different league.

At the end of 1956, the Magnette was updated as the ZB, with extra power squeezed from the same B-series engine. Its new top speed of 90mph made it the fastest 1.5-litre saloon available in the UK at the time. There was also a Varitone option with (usually) two-tone paint and a bigger rear window, the opening for which had to be cut out at Abingdon into the ZB shells that had been supplied by Pressed Steel at Cowley.

Total sales of over 36,000 for the Z-Type Magnette was a magnificent achievement for a company the size of MG that still pushed its cars along the production line by hand and road-tested every one of them, and the Z-Type never really fell out of favour like so many others did before being rediscovered on the classic scene. Having said that, prices have really started to rise over the last few years. This can present a challenge for the unwary because a Z-Type Magnette is one of those cars that can look reasonable at first glance, but soak up an inordinate amount of time and money if you want to move it from 'reasonable' to 'excellent.' Interiors and bodywork are the key drivers to this expense, but it is also possible to get carried away with the mechanical upgrades. There are disc brake conversions for the front for example, and it is possible to fit a bigger 1798cc B-series engine from an MGB along with its overdrive gearbox, or to go down the Type 9 five-speed gearbox route. Either option will make for a long-legged cruiser, but we

have to say there is nothing wrong with a Magnette in standard trim.

Up against the Z-Type Magnette we have pitched the Phase 2 Standard Vanguard. As already explained, Standard had taken over the Triumph marque in 1944 and so for the purposes of this feature they can be regarded as fighting for the same camp. Perhaps throwing the Phase 2 Vanguard into the ring is a brave move, some might even say bordering on being foolhardy, because it was only ever a stop- gap model. But being current from 1953-56 it really was a contemporary of the Z-Type, and to our eyes a delightful contrast too.

The Phase 1 had been a huge gamble for Standard in 1947, with all their proverbial eggs being thrown into the one automotive basket. Brand new from end to end and styled on a contemporary Plymouth, its tiny 94in wheelbase was specified by Sir John Black, and it endowed the beetle-backed Vanguard with distinctly odd proportions. Needless to say, stylist Walter Belgrove was not impressed with his boss!

However, the new Vanguard proved to be a rugged beast that was popular around the world, as well as in the UK. It also introduced the now legendary wet-liner four- cylinder engine (initially slated to be 1849cc, but having grown to 2088cc by the time of launch) that would go on to power the first three generations of Triumph TRs. Many people claim that it was also used in the tractors that Standard built so profitably for Ferguson, but although those two units are related, they are far from the same. Bear that in mind the next time you tell a TR driver his car's powered by a tractor engine!

The Phase 2 of early 1953 had the same running gear, the same unfeasibly short wheelbase and essentially the same front end as the Phase 1, but with a new three-box saloon body. The vital stats were 68bhp, 81mph and a 0- 60mph time of 20.8 seconds, unless of course you ordered the UK's first domestically produced diesel car, which was so painfully slow that acceleration times were measured in days rather than seconds. Many petrol engined Vanguards were ordered with the optional overdrive, and this is certainly a useful addition. The Phase 2 was replaced by the unitary construction Phase 3 in 1955, with radically different styling by ex- Loewy Studio designer Carl Otto and a wheelbase stretched to a more balanced 102in.

For the purposes of this battle, we have confined our monthly sales figures to the saloons, but it is worth noting that Standard also offered the Phase 2 Vanguard as a pick-up, estate and van. In truth, the Vanguard still wins the battle of the production numbers thanks to the might of the Standard-Triumph operation compared to the MG minnow, whether you include these other variants or not. As for surviving numbers, sadly no Standards are listed on HowManyLeft, but as Standard historian Phil Homer commented: 'The best I can do is say that there are currently 205 Phase 2s of all variants on the Standard Motor Club's database, meaning they must have joined the club some time in the last 30 years or so as that's how long the database has been populated. Very many of them must no longer survive of course, not least because only 32 of them said that they were condition 1 at the time. I have to admit that these cars are not particularly desirable today and the figures reflect that. I suspect that far more MGs will survive as a percentage of the build.' Anyone who knows Phil's passion for Standards will accept that it is safe to take his advice in this regard and award the survival point to the Magnette. As for current values, that point must also go to the MG, making it another 2-1 victory for the MGs from Abingdon.

And now at last we get to the first of the sports cars for which these two marques are so justly famed. This will potentially favour MG over Triumph, not least because sports cars tend not to sell in the same volumes as saloon cars and so Standard-Triumph's greater manufacturing capacity will not be so decisive. I am getting ahead of myself though, because I am genuinely compiling this feature fight by fight and have no idea myself who will ultimately emerge victorious.

The MGA was famously the car that MG wanted to put on sale in 1953, but Leonard Lord had just signed an agreement with Donald Healey to build the new AustinHealey 100 sports car and didn't want the in-house competition. That's why the essentially pre-war T-Type had to soldier on for two extra years, from 1953-1955, as the TF. And much as we all love it today, can you imagine how the poor old TF struggled for sales against cars like the brand new TR2?

Still, the MGA 1500 when it arrived in 1955 soon made up for lost time, selling as quickly as MG could build them. At launch, the 1489cc engine from the Z-Type Magnette was carried over to the new sports car and endowed the graceful and slippery MGA with a top speed of 95.1mph. That was raised to breach the magic ton when the engine was enlarged to 1588cc to create the MGA 1600 in 1959, with the addition of disc brakes to this model helping slow things back down again. However, there had already been a couple of additional models in the meantime – a closed Coupé from 1956 with far more civilised interior fittings than the Roadsters, and the potent-but-flawed Twin Cam from 1958. The Coupé was inevitably heavier than the Roadster and so slower off the mark, but it was also more aerodynamic and was clocked at speeds of up to 100mph by Autosport. As for the Twin Cam, this offered 108bhp, a 113mph top speed and a sub-10 second sprint from 0- 60mph, but only when it was working! Sadly this DOHC development of the B-series engine proved troublesome in service, and only 2111 were built before MG pulled the plug. As is so often the case though, a car which proved so troublesome when new is now the darling of the classic car fraternity and prices have rocketed skywards. Fortunately for Triumph, really and truly they fall outside the scope of this comparison. Besides, as we said at the outset, our default position for price comparisons is to select the highest spec car available from the first year of production, and Twin Cams were only built from 1958 to 1960. Not that regular OHV MGAs have been slow in coming forwards, and cars that only a few year ago could have been found for £15,000 are now more likely to be knocking on the door of £30,000.

What that buys you in standard trim is a decent performer in its own right, one that perfectly embodies the MG slogan of Safety Fast. An MGA 1500 in period would sprint from 0- 60mph in just 15 seconds for example, and it flattered the novice driver with a controlled and predictable breakaway if you did take too much speed into a corner, all in a manner that invited easy correction. Competition success for the Works team probably encouraged such rowdy behaviour, but the MGA also has a delicate curve to its flanks that means you don't have to be pushing on to enjoy being behind that big wheel. These days you can have almost as much fun just running your hands along those curves and polishing the paint. Almost as much...

The TR3 in contrast is a little bit more of a brute, though I mean that in the nicest

possible way. There are still those exquisite 1950s curves with a wing line that rises over the front wheel before dropping away dramatically through the door to make a natural place to park your elbow when cruising, or to make room for it when spinning the wheel with vigour. It is a similar aesthetic to the MGA, only more so and slightly slab sided, if you see what I mean. To my mind there is a little more ruggedness to the Triumph and a little more visual delicacy to the MG, though both of them proved their worth on the toughest rallies back in the day, so this must be a styling trick rather than an inherent characteristic.

There is no denying though that the TR3 has more grunt from that wet-liner four-pot. So whereas a 1956 MGA 1500 had 77lb.ft of torque to get the show on the road, a TR3 of the same vintage enjoyed 117.5lb.ft from its 1991cc. Absolute performance figures are not vastly different to those of the MGA, but still an improvement with a 0- 60mph dash in 12 seconds instead of 15 and a top speed of 104.57mph compared to 95.1mph. Mind you, the later MGA MkII from 1961- 62 had an engine enlarged to 1622cc, and one of those could boast figures that were closer to the TR3 at 90bhp, 100lb.ft, 0- 60mph in 13.7 seconds and 102.3mph.

'Hang on,' I hear you cry, 'what's all this about 1991cc? We thought the wet-liner four was 2088cc.' Well yes that's right, but Triumph had no recent sporting pedigree in 1953 to support their new TR and they were very keen to get cars out and about in competition to prove their performance and their reliability, so new liners and pistons were added to the engine to bring capacity down to 1991cc and make it fit in the 2-litre racing class of the day. It worked too, and privateer as well as later Works success did the new model a power of good in showrooms up and down the country.

However, it could all have gone so very badly wrong, and Triumph might never have gone on to build the TR3 or TR4, let alone TRs 5, 6, 7 and 8. When work started on a new Triumph sports car in 1951, the aim was to produce something that slotted between the MG TD and the Jaguar XK120. The first attempt was the 20TS, a simple but competent design that featured predominantly single skin panels without complex curves in a bid to keep the cost down. The rear end styling was a little more doubtful with an exposed upright spare wheel, but that could have been worked on. The real problem was that underneath this body sat a leftover pre-war Standard Flying Nine chassis, modified to take the Mayflower's IFS but dynamically a disaster.

Fortunately test driver Ken Richardson pointed this out in no uncertain terms to the ST management following a test drive soon after the prototype had been exhibited at Earls Court in 1952. Sir John Black and his minions could easily have ignored Richardson's advice as they were not used to being called out in this way, but instead they took it on board, went back to the drawing board, and even employed Richardson to help. The tail was duly tidied up, the chassis re- designed and the resulting TR2 appeared in 1953 as a much improved car. It was not an instant success, but it started off solidly and sales grew steadily at first. They tailed off in 1954, but the Triumph designers responded to the challenge and in the autumn of 1955 the TR3 took over and revived sales. The TR3 had an egg- crate grille to close off the smallmouth radiator opening which had been deeply recessed on the TR2. From 1956 it also had disc brakes on the front, something that the OHV MGAs would have to wait for until the MGA 1600 arrived in 1959.

The new TR3 really hit the market's sweet spot and sales soared ever upwards. The TR3A followed, with a full-width grille that was designed with the US market in mind – the so- called 'dollar grin.' That was meant as a derogatory term, but we think it is better looking than the earlier cars. (It is a TR3A that is pictured on these pages.) The TR3A lasted until the TR4 took over in 1961, but in 1962 there was a short-lived TR3B for the American market, whose dealers feared the TR4 would be too complex and too expensive for their customers. They were wrong, and the sidescreen TRs finally bowed out in 1962, the final batch of TR3Bs getting the bigger 2138cc engine of the TR4.