16th Sep, 2009 13:00

The Pavilion Gardens

 
  Lot 77
 

1934/37 MG K3

Sold for £236,250

(including buyers premium)


Lot details
Registration No: JB 3180
Chassis No: K3015-2
Mot Expiry: Oct 2009

Although determined to extend MG's racing and record breaking activities into Class G (1100cc), Managing Director Cecil Kimber could not justify the production of a standalone competition model. Thus, when the MG K-series 'Magnette' range was announced at the October 1932 London Motor Show, it comprised the roadgoing K1 (four-seater) and K2 (two-seater) as well as the sports racing K3. Two prototypes for the latter were assembled over the winter of 1932 / 1933. The first ran on the 1933 Monte Carlo Rally smashing the Monte des Mules hillclimb class record in the process, while the second conducted an extended 'recce' ahead of a planned team assault on that year's Mille Miglia. Fitted with lower gear ratios, strengthened hubs / wheels and upgraded brakes, the first three production MG K3s started the legendary Italian road race in the hands of Earl Howe / Hugh Hamilton ('JB 1472'), Henry Birkin / Bernard Rubin ('JB 1474') and George Eyston / Giovanni Lurani ('JB 1475') respectively. 'JB 1474' was forced to retire but 'JB 1475' and 'JB 1472' finished first and second in the 1100cc class (and 21st and 22nd overall). As a result, MG became the first non-Italian manufacturer to be awarded the prestigious Gran Premio Brescia team prize.
However, it is rumoured to have been Whitney Straight's dominant win at another Italian event - the Coppa Acerbo Junior - which convinced Tazio Nuvolari to pilot a MG K3 in the September 1933 Ards Tourist Trophy. Aided by a handicap system, Nuvolari scored a memorable outright victory. Indeed, the Flying Mantuan's record breaking pace over the Northern Irish course is widely regarded as one of the reasons that supercharged cars were banned from the following year's TT. A few weeks later Eddie Hall's K3 took the chequered flag in the Brooklands 500 Mile Race with a margin over its nearest rival of twenty-eight minutes. While, the crowning glory of the following season was arguably Charles Martin / Roy Eccles drive to fourth overall (1st in class) at the Le Mans 24-hours; the best result ever achieved by a MG at the famous Le Sarthe circuit. Braced via a central cruciform and tubular cross members, the K3's open channel frame chassis was equipped with an underslung back axle, all-round semi-elliptic leaf-sprung suspension, Andre Hartford shock absorbers and 13-inch drum brakes. Featuring a balanced four-bearing crankshaft, crossflow cylinder head, single overhead camshaft, steel conrods and aluminium pistons, its jewel-like 1086cc straight-six engine was allied to four-speed pre-selector transmission and boosted by a Powerplus (later Marshall) supercharger. Credited with developing some 118bhp @ 6,000rpm, the diminutive MG was capable of over 120mph. Punching above its weight on numerous occasions, the K3 has long been regarded as among the greatest sports racing cars of the 1930s.
Little wonder then that keen amateur racing driver JHT Smith (John Henry Tomson Smith) chose to spend a substantial portion of his twenty-first birthday triggered inheritance on a K3 during late autumn 1934. Demonstrated to him at Brooklands by none other than Bellevue Garage's mechanical maestro, Walter E. Wilkinson (a.k.a. 'Wilkie' Wilkinson), 'JB 3180' arrived at the famous Weybridge circuit in the back of a MG Works van. Stripped of any roadgoing accoutrements and sporting a rakish pointed-tail body (complete with cowled radiator) that the Competition Department had fitted prior to loaning it to Major Goldie Gardner (May 1934 - October 1934), the K3 was unrecognizable as the Team Car which Giovanni 'Johnny' Lurani / Clifton Penn Hughes had piloted to eleventh overall (2nd in class) on that year's Mille Miglia. As he sat on a pair of folded overalls beside 'Wilkie' Wilkinson, it must have been easier for Smith to imagine Gardner's exploits aboard 'JB 3180' which had latterly included a fine third overall (1st in class) with Dr Dudley Benjafield at the Brooklands 500 Mile Race and first place in round two of the Kingston Senior Long Handicap held at the same track (October 1934). Though, he had already owned an Austin 7 Ulster and MG C-type Montlhery Midget, Smith took much of the 1935 season to adapt to the K3's greater power and turn of speed ignominiously spinning out of one race at Donington Park. Eager to do better the following year, he had a new larger capacity light alloy fuel tank and shallower radiator fabricated by Bobby Delaney which together with a lowering and slimming of its bodywork turned 'JB 3180' into a more competitive proposition. Finding time out from the Paddington garage business he ran in partnership with Martin Soames, Smith entered the MG for races at Brooklands, Donington Park, Southsea and Phoenix Park. Encouraged by a clutch of podium finishes, Smith and Soames decided to up the ante for 1937. Taking inspiration from contemporary designs such as the ERA and Maserati 4CM, they decided to transform 'JB 3180' into a single-seater.
Seeking inspiration and new parts, the Paddington garagistes journeyed to the MG factory where their idea was met with enthusiasm. As well as helpful advice from Cecil Kimber, Propert, Enever and in-house technician Reg Jackson, the duo left Abingdon with a new engine block, 'bronze' cylinder head, crankshaft, front axle and chassis frame. Whether Smith chose to replace his K3's original chassis frame because of the stresses and strains it had endured or was simply working on a 'newer is better' philosophy is unknown. The winter of 1936 / 1937 was a busy time for 'JB 3180'; 'Wilkie' Wilkinson was charged with overhauling its engine and installing a new Zoller supercharger (the original Marshall blower being kept as a spare), while Jack and George Grey were commissioned to craft a sleek, new monoposto body (the brothers' other customers included ERA). Smith and Soames built-up the replacement chassis with assistance from their recently recruited racing mechanic, Frank Wilcox. Debuting at the Cork Grand Prix on 22nd May 1937, the hastily finished MG single-seater took the chequered flag in a highly creditable fourth place overall. Among those to witness its fine performance was fellow K3 owner A.P. MacArthur whose 'AGO 507' machine had previously belonged to Eddie Hall. Once back in England 'JB 3180' contested numerous races at Brooklands, Donington Park and Crystal Palace including the July 17th 1937 London Grand Prix in which it finished fourth again (though, this time with Smith's friend Reg Parnell temporarily behind the wheel). Subjected to another overhaul ahead of the 1938 season, the MG was reunited with its original Marshall supercharger. Keen to benefit from 'Wilkie' Wilkinson's tuning expertise too, MacArthur accompanied 'AGO 507' to England and while his car was being fettled at Bellevue Garage convinced Smith to sell him the old chassis from 'JB 3180' as a spare. Thanks largely to improved reliability, 1938 was to prove Smith's most successful season with an outright win at the Sydenham Trophy Race (Crystal Palace, 21st May 1938) and the setting of an all-time Campbell Circuit class lap record during the BARC's Whitsun Brooklands meeting (June 6th 1938).
In the absence of Soames who had gone to work with Sydney Allard, the single-seater was treated to another revamp ahead of 1939. Though retaining much the same drivetrain layout as before (engine set back within the chassis, supercharger mounted behind the radiator, shortened propshaft, revised steering gear etc), 'JB 3180' was uprated with a special angular section beam front axle (ex-Reg Parnell who had converted his K3 to independent front suspension) and heavy-duty Girling hydraulic brakes which Smith had procured from White Mouse Garage where a similar set were being used to enhance Prince Chula's GP Delage. Re-engineered so as to dispense with a head gasket the MG also benefited from new lightweight shock absorbers, rear axle spring mounting points, Woodhead special springs and an even slipperier Grey Bros. body (their last monoposto effort being sold to a willing MacArthur). Run in just a handful of races before World War Two broke out, 'JB 3180' failed to recapture the glory of its previous season. The single-seater spent the early part of hostilities safely ensconced in High Wycombe but a move back to London saw it bruised on several occasions as bombs tore apart nearby buildings. Against such a background it is perhaps unsurprising that Smith - who was on active duty with the Royal Army Service Corps at the time - let his wife Muriel sell the K3 to Christopher Shorrock. The would-be supercharger constructor lost little time in moving 'JB 3180' up to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire where it spent some five or six years on display at the King's Road Garage operated by his friend, John Bradshaw. While, the September 1951 issue of Motor Sport magazine (page 447) carried a letter from R.G. Bracewell Esq of Belfast which read "having acquired the ex-Shorrock Marshall blown K3 MG Magnette. Seeks data about this type of MG", there is no other evidence to suggest that the single-seater journeyed to Northern Ireland post-WW2. If Bracewell did take physical possession then he relinquished it quickly for by the following Spring 'JB 3180' was stabled with Norman Hillwood. The son of a successful London jeweler and a true petrolhead, Hillwood purchased it for £500 (coincidentally exactly the same amount that JHT Smith had paid eighteen years earlier).
Enlisting the help of his friend Jimmy Brownsort, the young Londoner soon had the single-seater running again and even managed to wangle a couple of road tests up and down the A41 under police supervision! Campaigned at the likes of Castle Coombe, Silverstone, Crystal Palace and along Brighton's Madeira Drive, the K3 suffered the odd failure (supercharger drive, track rod, valve etc) but provided Hillwood with three memorable seasons' competition before being sold to Chiltern Cars. Bought from the famous dealer by Peter Westley in January 1955, 'JB 3180' was with him for less than a year and thereafter went to Frank Lockhart who took it racing once more. Competing against a variety of older and younger machinery and on fast circuits such as Goodwood, Lockhart was not always gentle with his charge. Repaired after an errant con-rod made a bid for freedom via the crankcase wall at Prescott during July 1958, the MG's engine let go again later on that same year. Partially stripped, the single-seater was advertised for sale in the March 1959 issue of Motor Sport where it was spotted by former Bellevue Garage mechanic George Coles who in turn alerted his old friend, JHT Smith. Pieced back together by its creator, the single-seater again spent several years as a showroom exhibit until April 1964 when marque enthusiast Michael Ellman-Brown acquired it for £600. Sold to Mel Jones some fourteen months later, 'JB 3180' then passed to Dudley Gahagan who together with Bill Boddy was responsible for organizing the Brooklands sixtieth anniversary celebrations. Gahagan invited Smith to participate in the event as a special guest and the two soon became friends. Unwilling to be separated from 'his' K3 again, Smith persuaded Gahagan to sell him a half-share in the car during August 1970 and as a sweetener set about a thorough mechanical restoration (replacement cylinder block / head and new Allen crankshaft etc). The subject of an article by Denis Jenkinson in the February 1978 issue of Motor Sport entitled 'A Special MG, JHT Smith's K3 Magnette', the single-seater remained in joint ownership until October 1984. Following the death of his father the previous year, Andrew Smith raised the £16,000 necessary to buy out Gahagan's interest. Despite being given a pedal car version of 'JB 3180' as a child, the younger Smith unsurprisingly lacked his father's ultimate connection with the car and by the late 1980s was resigned to selling it. Withdrawn from Sotheby's July 1990 Hendon auction at short notice, the MG was bought by the Old Timer Garage of Berne, Switzerland a year later and collected from a tearful Andrew Smith on 21st January 1992. A somewhat notorious figure, its next owner was Juerg Heer who amassed an eighty car collection whilst defrauding his employer the Rothschild Bank AG, Zurich. Reputedly Heer's final acquisition before his fall from grace, the single-seater was repatriated to the UK by Philip Walker via Sotheby's March 1993 Zurich auction. Suitably checked over, 'JB 3180' was driven at Santa Pod and Silverstone but otherwise little exercised.
Passing from Philip Walker to Peter Gregory during Easter 1995, the latter helmed the MG as time permitted with outings at Silverstone, Donington and Prescott. Put up for sale in 2000, the car's single-seater specification seemingly deterred a number of interested parties. As a result Peter Gregory set about restoring the K3 to 'slab tank' configuration; a homage to the car that Giovanni Lurani / Clifton Penn-Hughes had driven on the 1934 Mille Miglia. Rather than waste the special front axle, second Grey Bros monoposto body and heavy duty Girling hydraulic brakes which JHT Smith has so carefully assembled, Gregory incorporated them into a new single-seater which he based on a truncated MG KN chassis. Meanwhile, the original chassis utilized by 'JB 3180' had similarly been restored to 'Mille Miglia' specification. Although, this second car had not existed as a going concern / complete entity for over sixty years, its owner felt just as entitled to the registration number, and so identity of, 'JB 3180'; a situation which placed the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in a quandary. In Mr Gregory's favour was the fact that he retained the original buff registration book detailing the issuing of 'JB 3180' on 28th February 1934 and which had been handed over to JHT Smith when he became the car's first private keeper. Smith may have sold the original chassis to MacArthur as a spare during the late 1930s but he kept the buff logbook so as to preserve the single-seater's identity. After careful deliberation the DVLA sent the following letter to Mr Gregory:
"Following our recent correspondence, I am writing to let you know the Agency's decision in relation to the two MG Magnette Cars laying claim to the registration mark JB 3180. I can only apologise for the length of time that this matter has taken. However, as I am sure you will appreciate, two pristine cars having conflicting claims to the same mark, the Agency has been faced with a very difficult dilemma to resolve.
Although there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the two claims, clearly both cars cannot be entitled to display the same mark whilst being used on the public road. On this basis the Agency will have to allow one claim, or on the grounds of scrupulous fairness, disallow both.
The agency has sought advice on the identity of both vehicles and it has been decided that because of the well-documented and continuous history of your vehicle, the registration mark JB 3180 should remain with your vehicle on a non-transferable basis".
The DVLA also saw fit to allocate the chassis number K3015 to Mr Gregory's vehicle even though those digits were not visible on its replacement chassis frame. The second car which laid claim to the registration mark 'JB 3180' was issued with the registration mark 'CAS 398' instead. It should be noted that the MG Car Club Ltd's Triple M Register which caters for MG Midgets, Magnas and Magnettes 1929 - 1936 disagrees with one of the DVLA's conclusions. Namely, the Triple M Register records the chassis number of 'JB 3180' as K3015/2 so as to differentiate it from the chassis number K3015 which they consider should still reside with the car built up using the original frame that JHT Smith sold off as a spare during the late 1930s. Potential purchasers are encouraged to contact the Triple M Register for clarification on this matter and might find the 'K3 - reasonable estimate?' thread to be found within their website's General Discussion Forum (www.triple-mregister.org) an interesting read.
Since entering the current ownership in October 2004, 'JB 3180' has become the subject of limited edition book. Written by the vendor, 'Magnette-ised - The Pedigree of MG K3015-2 from 1934 to 2007' details its history in a far more comprehensive and better way then we could ever hope to. Much admired at the VSCC's July 31st - August 2nd 2009 Prescott Meeting during which it both graced our stand and took to the hill, the two-seater is a fine testament to Peter Gregory's skill as a restorer. It may be a flawed analogy but the relationship between a vehicle and its registration document has been likened to that between a property and its address. A property can be dismantled brick by brick down to its foundations and rebuilt elsewhere but if another structure is put up in its place and the address thus maintained then the original property is no longer '11 Downing Street' for example but rather becomes the house which first (or once) stood on the site of '11 Downing Street'. For all that 'JB 3180' is arguably the antithesis of a 'matching numbers' car, we believe it to possess continuous history as a MG K3 and a rather fascinating one to boot. Described by the vendor as being in "very good" condition with regard to its engine, pre-selector transmission, electrical equipment, interior trim, bodywork and paintwork, its history file includes the original buff logbook, numerous period race programmes and a wealth of documentation.
 

All successful bids must be paid in full by midday the day after the auction at the latest.

You can collect your new pride and joy from our venue until 1pm the day following the sale or our partners are on hand to help arrange safe transportation:

               

Auction: The Pavilion Gardens, 16th Sep, 2009

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