Abingdon to Australia via Brescia: the story of the most original Magnette

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MG experienced unprecedented racing success when the K3 Magnette appeared. A class-winner in the 1933 Mille Miglia, the works put together three improved cars to contend the famous road race in 1934. This is the story of one of those cars, chassis 3016, as driven by Eddie and Joan Hall.

If you were to take a walk around the paddocks of Brooklands in the 1920s and '30s, somewhere among the chatter of drivers, mechanics, officials and enthusiasts, you would have encountered all sorts of accents, both foreign and regional, and among them the bluff Yorkshire strains of E. R. 'Eddie' Hall. Hall, loaded with new money from a successful life in business, first raced at Brooklands in 1923 and enjoyed a very long career lasting into the post-war years. Some of his most notable drives, however, were in 1933 and 1934 and they involved a certain wunderkind from Abingdon.

The MG K3 Magnette, with its 120bhp, Marshall-supercharged, single overhead-cam 1,087cc straight-six and Wilson four-speed preselector gearbox, appeared early in 1933 with the first two prototypes being respectively used for the Monte Carlo Rally and testing on the Mille Miglia course ahead of the race itself. Three improved cars were then produced for the actual Mille Miglia, to be driven by Earl Howe and Hugh Hamilton, George Eyston and Count Lurani, and 'Tim' Birkin and Bernard Rubin. Eyston and Lurani won their class, with the Howe/Hamilton car behind them in second. Between them, the three cars put in the best performance as a team and were thus awarded the Gran Premio Brescia, the Magnette being the first British car to win such an honour.

On the strength of this victory, further K3s went into production. Whitney Straight bought a K3 privately and out-drove Maseratis on their native ground at the Coppa Acerbo, and Tazio Nuvolari ran away to outright victory in the 1933 Ulster TT. A blown and unblown pair was built for the 1934 Le Mans. The blown car retired in an accident with a backmarker, but the unblown car finished a very impressive fourth overall.

Eddie Hall was among those who were very taken by the Magnette's capabilities and he bought one, thereby being responsible for its début at Brooklands in 1933, in which he finished second in the JCC International Trophy. Later in the year, he stormed to victory in the Brooklands 500-Mile Race with a superb average speed of 106.53mph. These achievements did not go unnoticed by Earl Howe, who was assembling the MG team for the 1934 Mille Miglia.

Abingdon prepared three cars specially for the Mille Miglia, chassis 3015, 3016 and 3017, each bearing consecutive 'JB' number plates. Certain improvements were made over the 1933 Mille Miglia cars, including lower exhausts (the co-drivers in 1933 had been deafened by the noise), rerouted fuel lines with armoured wiring conduits and an additional fog light. Hall and his wife Joan were allocated chassis 3016 - the car you see before you, as it is today - while the others were driven by Howe and his mechanic Thomas, and Count Lurani and Penn Hughes. Sadly, things didn't go so smoothly this time round. Howe crashed, Hall retired around half-way when a loose core plug resulted in water contaminating his engine oil, and only Lurani finished.

After the race, 3016 was placed on the market through well-known MG dealer University Motors, and sold in May, 1934, to G. W. J. H. Wright, a significant name in the story of the K3 as it was he who drove the prototype in the 1933 Monte Carlo Rally and set a class record at the Mont des Mules hill-climb. He seems to have kept 3016 just for road use, and sold it in 1935 to an Australian enthusiast, Lyster Jackson. He repainted it from its original green to the red it now wears, and enjoyed success in minor competitions, with a win and F.T.D. at the 1936 Victoria S.C.C. Hill Climb and an F.T.D. at the New South Wales Hill Climb later in the year being among his most notable results.

The Magnette was also driven in the 1937 and 1938 Australian Grands Prix, but the second of those is thought to have been its last drive with Jackson, as the engine failed and forced his retirement. Jackson still cared for it, however, and in 1940 fitted an unnumbered replacement cylinder block, which subsequently received a number from the Victoria Police Department, V40009P. Jackson sold it to one Bernie Hunt, who completely overhauled it mechanically, and then in 1947 it was bought by Otto Stone of the Day & Stone garage.

This was when 3016 really came into its own. At 13 years old, it was about to embark on the most active and successful phase of its life. Stone raced it continuously over a 26-year period, tuning and developing it along the way. He fitted a Laystall crankshaft with which 3016 recorded a 117mph top speed, hydraulic brakes and an L-type cylinder block. He would attend hill-climbs and race meetings most weekends during the season, often driving to them with a tank of petrol, swapping his carburetter needle, filling up with methanol for the race and then reverting to petrol to drive home.

Stone sold the car to Phil Vickery in 1974, and he to MG collector Rod Hiley in 1977. It was auctioned in London in 1999 and bought by the English K3 model authority Peter Green, who was impressed by its originality, and it changed hands again for the last time in 2003. Greatly impressed by its originality, the body appears never to have been removed or damaged and, most significantly, 3016 is the only one of the 1934 Mille Miglia cars to retain all its original special equipment - the low pipes, armoured fuel lines and auxiliary fog light. The Victoria Police-stamped K3 cylinder block still accompanied it, so the present owner went to work repairing, rebuilding and reinstalling it, and the result, as many marque authorities will tell you, is "the most correct and original" K3 Magnette still in existence.

Chassis 3016 is presently for sale with the the Polson Motor Co. Read more and see more photograps here.
 

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