BRITAIN’S BUSIEST ONE-MAKE CLUB
The MG Car Club is close to unique in UK racing as a single-marque club putting on several race meetings a year with a variety of its own championships. Graham Keilloh investigates how it does it
When scanning a UK national racing calendar, the events held by the MG Car Club may not necessarily leap out. But those meetings hold a significant distinction. As a singlemarque club that puts on multiple race meetings, MGCC stands largely distinct.
MGCC vice president and former chairman Ron Gammons tells Motorsport News: “One of the other [single-marque clubs to host a meeting] must be Bentley Drivers Club, which has a single event normally at Silverstone in August, but I can’t think of many others.
“You think of Jaguar, Triumph, Austinhealey, and the older marques, even
Mini and so on, don’t run their own race meetings. So I suppose we are a bit unique.”
MGCC organises six racing championships plus a series, and these together form the backbone of its race meetings. Usually it holds six meetings a year, though like everyone else its 2020 schedule has been impacted by coronavirus.
So what explains MGCC achieving such a rare feat? The club’s race competitions secretary Mark Baulch tells MN: “Racing is in the very DNA of the marque. That’s why it was set up in the first place, to convert Morrises into sports cars.”
MG’S heritage is long – this year it hits its 90th birthday – and its heritage for holding its own competition events is lengthy too. “We started running race meetings back in 1950,” Gammons notes. “One of the very first race meetings [was] at what was then the new Silverstone, and the story is that the MG car company helped [track owners] the British Racing Drivers’ Club with some funding for the circuit and so on. So we’ve had a long association with Silverstone.”
But, of course, it takes more than long heritage to be achieve the rare feat described at the outset. The diversity of MG cars is crucial too. Baulch says: “It’s one of the widest ranges in motorsport because we have everything from the pre-war Triple Ms right up to the current MG3. I don’t think anybody else has that range.”
The MGCC’S racing categories incorporate, among others, the rearwheel-drive MGA, Midget, MGB GT and V8, the front-wheel-drive MG 1300, MG Metro, MG Maestro, MG Montego, MG ZR and MG ZS, as well as older Rover models such as the 216 GTI and
220 Tomcat Turbo.
The diversity also is reflected in the range of MGCC championships. There’s the MG Trophy for MG ZRS and the MG3, and which has British touring car star Jack Goff among its graduates. There’s also the Midget & Sprite Challenge, the MG Metro Cup, as well as the north-westbased Cockshoot Cup that incorporates various sports and saloon machines. And there’s the Triple M Challenge for the prewar MG Midget, Magna and Magnette.
And many of the MG and Rover machines are eligible for the diverse MG Cup, now in its 32nd year. MG Cup chairman and competitor Peter Burchill tells MN of this category: “It’s the mix of cars that really makes it. It’s about close, competitive, safe racing. I don’t think anywhere else you see front-wheel drive versus rear-wheel drive versus turbo versus normally-aspirated cars all in the same classes where pretty much anyone can win a race.
“One of the most enjoyable things last year was that a Metro Turbo undertook a Tomcat Turbo and both were ex-production cars from Rover. I like the mix of the old versus the new. We’ve even had a new driver resurrect [for 2020] a 30-year-old championship car, from the 216 GTI that he originally built 30 years ago, he’s bought the car back for his son to race to make his racing debut.”
As well as MG cars’ diversity, the race club has another boon. Gammons says: “We had the advantage of sufficient vehicles out there. For instance, there were half a million MGBS made, so there’s a reasonable number there. MGAS, over 100,000. Even the T-types, there was in excess of 50,000 of those made overall.
“They weren’t Lotus in road holding, they weren’t Ferrari in performance, but it was the sum of all the parts which everything it did pretty well and that’s why we’ve got so many people still on the grids with the cars, they don’t cost a fortune, they’re good, solid and reliable.”
Burchill notes too: “I have loved hunting out people with old one-make cars, it’s great to give them a home.”
It’s something noted also by James Wheeler in his own MGCC championship, the long-established BCV8 category for MGBS, MGB V8s and MGCS, for which Wheeler is a competitor and chairman. “The MGB itself and MGC itself, very popular cars in their times, still are very popular cars in the classic world, and there’s still quite a lot of them about so therefore they’re not stupid money to be able to buy them to come out and race with the BCV8S. That’s why it does so well,” Wheeler tells MN.
And this aids participation, as it means a range of entry options for differing drivers and budgets. Wheeler adds of BCV8S for one: “You can race anything from pretty much a standard MGB with a rollcage in it and a few tiny modifications right up to full-blown modified BV8 allsinging, all-dancing, quickest thing that you’ve ever seen on a track almost, all in one championship. So it literally fits every budget and fits every style of driving for speed.”
The diversity among MGCC competitors is noticeable. “We’ve got from the youngest driver to the oldest driver nearly 60 years between them,” Baulch notes. “That is again incredible, most things that you will go to you will find certain generations are involved. But with MG it’s not in any way exclusive.”
Attachment to the MG brand attracts drivers too. “I think it’s 50-50,” reckons Wheeler. “Some people have got an MG link or they generally like the MG cars. Myself it’s because my dad’s a massive fan of MGS, always has been since a kid, his dad was a fan of MGS, and then therefore I’ve fallen into it that way.
“But you have got some people that are just interested in motorsport, they go and have a little look at a club meeting, may happen to turn up at an MG Car Club meeting, see the BCV8 going round and enjoy the fact that it looks really competitive and no matter which class you’re in you can have a competitive race, in a car that’s reasonably affordable for the speeds you can go.”
And, Gammons reckons, it is participation that’s at the root of MGCC’S success. “You’re asking why were we successful when others weren’t, that is because, by whatever means, we’ve managed to attract sufficient competitors into the various races,” Gammons says.
“A lot of that’s down to the enthusiasm, the support that the individual coordinators give to their own championships. They put in an enormous amount of effort and time to make the championships a success.
“You’ve got to fill the grids somehow with the cost these days. At Silverstone, for example, we worked out it was so many pounds per second. Within MG Car
Club we’re under a strict regime that every meeting has to wash its face and in recent years they have done.”
The on-track action is good too. “You get some really really close racing,” says Baulch. “Every time they go out there’s something exciting is going on, and the class structure means there’s lots of little battles.”
And over and above all this, there’s a little bit of magic too, as noted by Baulch: “Also for me being involved at all levels of motorsport everything from karting to club racing right up to Formula 1 and then across things like banger racing, stock car racing, the one thing about MG Car Club is the family feel to the paddock.
“I do not believe you can get any other motorsport where you get that feeling in the paddock of it being very much a family of racers. I mean that in both senses of the word, ie actually having relations there but also if you see the way the drivers interact with each other, there’s a real family feel to it. I’ve come across that a little bit in some other places, stock car racing when I used to do that there was a little bit, but I’ve never come across it at the sort of level that you see in an MG [paddock].
“One story that I remember most fondly, James Dunkley in the Midget & Sprite Challenge won his very first race at Silverstone, and as he came up to collect his trophy, as he turned around from collecting his trophy he walked up to his then-partner and went down on one knee and proposed to her. Again it goes back to it being such a family event.”
And MG Car Club is soon back racing after the enforced suspension, at Donington Park on July 11 and 12. Thanks to Wayne Stirling Parker who provided some of the research for this article. He also races in the MG Cup.n
L‘A good oil can lower the risk of mechanical problems’
ubricating oil is to an engine what blood is to the human body. If it is too thick it can cause the engine’s oil system to clog (think heart attack); too thin and you risk uncontrollable wear. The more viscous (thicker) the oil is, the more fuel (energy) it takes to pump. Selecting and maintaining the correct viscosity (thickness) of oil for the type of vehicle is key, especially in performance cars.
All cars, whether old or new, need the correct oil in their engines and working parts to help keep them lubricated. The correct quality engine oil ensures optimum fuel economy and reduces CO² emissions into the atmosphere. The correct engine oil also prevents surface friction and combats water ingress which can cause internal rust, both of which will lead to expensive repairs and breakdowns.
Racing drivers and teams across the world are constantly changing the oils after each event.
You can see when rebuilding the components there are huge differences between the parts if you have used the highest quality oil or a lowergrade option. Using the correct lubricant lowers the risk of retirement from a race. For teams and drivers, it is vital that cars go out for every single lap without any defects and not having any issues, to ensure team can score points at all opportunities throughout the season
What makes a good oil?
The world of lubricants can be confusing when trying to select the correct fluid. The performance of an oil is shaped by the technology that goes into it. Specific formulation packages that go into oil can vastly improve performance of the vehicle. Oil formulators and thereafter blenders and manufactures carry out many checks and tests to comply with the optimum road and race specifications, OEM requirements, emission legislation. Tests within a standard formulation include the measurement of evaporation loss caused by heat, the oil’s stress yields, its ability to flow at high and low temperatures, its chemical compound footprints, and residual ash levels.
Modern engine oil contains high levels of detergents and dispersant additives. Detergent additives are required to keep the internal components of the engine clean whereas dispersant additives are there to ensure combustion residue (sludge) is managed. Lubricants are now required in some on road vehicles to endure poisonous exhaust gases being fed back into the system rather than being expelled through the exhaust through EGR (exhaust gas recirculation).
What are oil specifications?
The two most recognised major industry specifications are ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) which issues European specifications and API (American Petroleum Institute) which issues US specifications.
Both bodies issue, maintain and police their references to specifications and have a diverse membership, including the major vehicle manufacturers, lubricant additive suppliers, and base oil producers.
ACEA specifications are prefixed with an alphabetical letter and then a number, for example you may see in a vehicle handbook a phase like “ACEA A3/B4”. The prefix ‘A’ indicates that the specification is designed for petrol engines, and the prefix ‘B’ indicates a diesel engine. Many modern engine oils are capable of meeting multiple petrol and diesel ACEA specifications in one oil. The following number – ‘3’ or ‘4’ – demonstrates the category the oil is designed to and will have very different physical and chemical limit characteristics.
API uses the prefix ‘S’ for petrol engines and prefix ‘C’ for diesel engines. The higher the second letter the later the improvement to the specification of the oil. For example, in a petrol engine application: API SN to SJ are for the more recent car engines. API SA to SH are for the older cars.
Oil viscosity explained…
The viscosity of an oil is simply the measurement used to determine the thickness. Viscosity in its rawest form translates to the fluid’s resistance to flow.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) established a numerical system for grading oils according to their viscosity characteristics.
For multigrade oils, you will see displayed two numbers and a letter which indicate the oils viscosity (eg 5w/40); for monograde oils you will see only one number.
The first number in a multigrade oil classification refers to its cold weather viscosity. The lower this number is, the less viscous the oil will be at low temperatures. For example, a 5w oil will ‘flow’ better at low temperatures than a 10w oil. The ‘w’ stands for winter.
The second number describes the viscosity of the oil at the engine’s normal operating temperature.
The optimum is to have an oil which is thin enough to flow at low temperatures but thick enough to perform satisfactorily at high temperatures. The starting viscosity would be different depending on whether you are living in a very cold climate (0w/ or 5w/30) or a very hot climate (10w/ or 15w/ or even 20w/).
In conclusion, using the correct oil quality coupled with the optimum viscosity will without doubt help lower the risk of your retirement whether on the track or on the road.