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MG TD TF 1500 - James Dean & MG connection

Just finished reading Bill Bast's book Surviving James Dean (2006). He mentions that Dean had a yellow (likely ivory) MG circa 1954 before his first Porsche, a 356 Speedster. I expect Dean bought the MG new so that would make it a TF. Likely obtained from International Motors at 8670 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, the same place I believe he bought his Porsche, or their other location at 5670 Sunset Blvd. Other likely sales points would have been Brentwood Motors in Santa Monica, Mack Motors in Burbank or John C Mehan Company in Studio City. Has anyone tracked down his MG over the years? Wonder if it still exists somewhere.(dealer info from a January 1953 Hambro Trading Co list of distributors and dealers)
John Quilter (TD8986)

Wiki says he got a red 53 TD in April 54 which he traded for the Porsche at Competition Motors in Hollywood March 1955.
M Magilton

Spotted this on the net.

M Magilton

In the book 'Jimmy & Me" by Lew Bracker. Mr. Bracker says that " Jimmy had bought a red 1953 MGTD in May" He said that Dean bought it because "Jack Warner won't let me ride my motorcycle or be on anyone elses bike until the end of my contract"

I have not seen any released pictures of Dean in his TD. There is a picture of him at a race track with a T type in the background, but no indication it is his.

The book says Jimmy concluded a deal with Competition Motors in November of 1954 to trade his MGTD on a deal for a porsch super 1500, but he would have to wait until February 1955 for delivery"

This would indicate Dean owned the TD for 20 months.

As far as I know, no one has come forward with any information on what became of the TD.


Bruce Cunha

In reading the book again, that would have been May of 1954. So he had the car for 9 months.
Bruce Cunha

Will I guess his friend, Bill Bast, who wrote the book got the color wrong. If it was the Competition Motors location at 8670 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills it's now a modern three story glass building, Specialty Surgery Center. The other Competition Motors location at 5670 Sunset Blvd is now a spacious Shell station across from a Home Depot.
John Quilter (TD8986)

The movie of his life used a red TD.

Look at 0.48 on the clip


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPKq9q2Cq8E
Bruce Cunha

Unfortunately the movie industry is not known for absolute fidelity (and some).
Dave H
Dave Hill

A few facts to ponder:

* 1953 MGTD's were on the lot new in 1954 and 1955. They were not selling all that well then.

* Competition Motors was not a licensed MG dealer in 1953, but they did sell MG's

John Quilter has the 1953 dealer book
https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/mgtd_documentation.htm

* The whole MG authorized dealer thing did not really show up until BMC was created. Prior to that anyone who could snag a new car would sell it. People were selling them out of houses, by mail, you name it.

* I am not sure how repair shops that were not "authorized" dealers got compensated from the factory if they performed repairs on warranty cars. Perhaps they did get compensated and just had to fill out a form with the car number and repair order. Things were much different then wrt warranties, OEM's etc.
Christopher Couper

I once heard a talk by Kjell Qvale at an MG gathering on Jack London Square in Oakland and he explained how he got into the MG business in the San Francisco Bay Area. There was essentially no franchise agreements back in 1948, you just wired money to MG in the UK and they sent cars, 12 at a time he said. The Hambro Trading Company of America booklet I have does list the two locations of International Motors in Los Angeles as MG sales points. I mis-spoke earlier referring to this as Competition Motors however.
John Quilter (TD8986)

I did some additional looking. Here is a video supposedly taken by Dean at presumably a Santa Barbara race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz7D5Djc1Nc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCsFwXvvHjs

Dean is racing a 1955 356 Porsch
In this article. It said dean traded the 356 for the Spyder.

https://www.thoughtco.com/james-dean-dies-in-car-accident-1779341

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/428334614533487616/?autologin=true


Bruce Cunha

This thread was discussed between 21/07/2019 and 23/07/2019

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