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MG MG Y Type - Factory records

Hi, I read somewhere that someone has the old factory records that say when a car left the production line and where it went. How can I find that out re my car?
Marc Hanson

Hi Marc

Before the factory closed, a guy called Dick Knudson who is a highly respected MG guy over here visited with John Thornley who gave him unfettered access anywhere and everywhere. Dick also is a former Y owner and part of what he did was to take a copy of all the factory ledgers. These he kept and when the building was torn down in the 1980s after the auction and all the records were "lost" but he still had his copy.

Dick is now my good friend and as he is getting on in years and retiring out of all this stuff I bought his copy from him and so I now own them. They have been used as one of the primary sources of information by me when I pulled together the information that now consitutes the on-line database. Why is this information on-line some may ask? Well, the answer is easy - so that you can check it out. There is little if any personal information showing - namely the last known owner's last 3 letters of the last name (in your case that would be SON*), the last known location to county/state and country, and a link to Ys on Parade if you have your car there. The rest of the information is all about the car. These links to you are in the first instance abbreviated so that only you can figure out that SON* are indeed your last 3 letters and that you live approximately where listed so that if you as an owner feel that this is wrong you can update me with current details. True, if you are on Ys on Parade you can then get a full name but this would probably only worry you if you are paranoid as in all cases participation in Ys on Parade is completely voluntary and at your discretion. The goal of the on-line access is so that you can get the full enjoyment from your car and can also check to see where other cars are near by for friendship etc. Sure there is a potential dark side ... but then there is to everything and always has been, but that is just a fact of life.

So, how do you access it? Go to www.mgytypes.org and click on the database icon. When you are redirected to a new window you can enter either directly by licence plate or chassis number or you can do searches by model and/or country. If any of the information is incorrect or missing, you can send in an update form and I will ammend.

Cheers

Paul

Paul Barrow

Thanks Paul, neatly answers my question as to build date.
Marc Hanson

I glanced at the details of my YT on the database.
A couple of points are at odds with my submission to Y's on Parade.

The database mentions that the YT was possibly imported via Canada in 1950. That's interesting news as I was led to believe that the car had been imported into New York State in early 1950, following a build date of January 1950. Which is correct and if there is information suggesting an alternative route into the US then I would be keen to see it.

A minor point but one which is again metioned on YOP was that I imported the car into Southampton in January 2010. In fact it was December 2009.

If the facts have been submitted to YOP then they should be checked and confirmed with the owner before releasing then on to the web. This would have saved a lot of aggravation and indivdual owner's would have been able to agree to the details whilst placing on the information that they would happily agree to.

Sincerely

Jerry
J P BIRKBECK

Hi Marc,

Glad that you found your data illuminating. Happy to have helped you.

Hi Jerry

Many YTs were exported to Commonwealth countries. Compared to the total number of YTs built, YT/EXUs are a small minority. The majority were EXRs (I am sure David Pelham could quote the statistics to us). Although Canada was and is a Commonweath country it does drive on the left. The supply of Right Hand Drive cars might seem somewhat at odds with this, but when there were fewer cars on the roads it probably wasnt such a big deal ... especially if it meant the difference between you getting the car you really wanted ... or missing it because you were not prepared to wait for a Left Hand Drive EXU. I personally know of 3-4 YTs that were Right Hand Drive originally exported to Canada and ended up South of the border in the US. In your particular case, that piece of information (about it going via Canada) was on John Lawson's database records that he kindly sent me a copy of. He previously supplied a copy of these to Jack Murray of the MG Car Club Y Type Register too, together with all his support paper files, so the basis for this claim you would have to check out with JAck.

I have corrected your import into the UK date as advised and my apologies for getting that wrong - that was my fault. As you can hopefully realise, the odd slip like that may have happened as I was combining databases from about 8 different sources, some of which did contain conflicts which our various International Representatives are trying to resolve for us. So, faced with 8,336 cars 8 different databases (none compatible with each other) and an array of fields for each record, some errors of transposition may have occured. That was pointed out in the News on June 1 2010 as follows: "Please try the database and look up your car. If you do not see it on there, or the information we have is incorrect, please click the Update Details button on the record card page and send me the corrections on the online form." Ys on Parade was just one of the many different sources. Again - my apologies for my human error.

Your other comment is being discussed in another thread, so I wont pass comment on it on this one as that would not be appropriate.

Regards

Paul



Paul Barrow

Thanks Paul

That is interesting! I recall that when I posted the details on YOP you mentioned that the car was probably registered in June 1950. Is that also on the records that John Lawson supplied?

I'll have a word with Jack.

Sincerely

Jerry
J P BIRKBECK

My car has changed its licence number since it was registered in Ys on Parade. I go to the database, click "update" and am confronted with a blank form ! I don't want to register, just update ! How does it work ? For updating, my present data should display, but they don't.
Remo Peter

Remo

Because we have your details already all you need do is complete the details that have changed or are missing (such as the full number on the Nuffield Metal Products plate for instance - this is usually 3 digits that are stamped into the plate, then some letters and some more numbers that are embossed/standing out from the plate) and send it in. I will then enter the details onto the database and upload a new copy.

I will also see if I can find out why your car's picture is so big - it should be contained in a box on the form!

Jerry, I'll get back to you on your issue. I have just walked in from a busy tiring day and it is 1:45am here.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Remo

I have now fixed the issue with your picture so you can see the rest of the notes now on your car.

Cheers

Paul
Paul Barrow

This thread was discussed between 09/06/2010 and 18/06/2010

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