Re: On and on and on with matching #s

[MikeMarjot@aol.com]

Allan,

TAs, TBs and TCs each started at chassis 251. (This was the telephone number
at Abingdon!)

TBs were the first to have the XPAG engine. The MPJG engine and the XPAG
both started at number 501. Thus TB 251 had the engine XPAG 501. However though
MPJGs started at 501 the earliest number I have a record for is TA 264 with
MPJG 536. So already there is no sensible correlation. The engines were
pre-numbered before reaching Abingdon. They were it is believed stored in a large
shed (certainly earlier MG engines were) with many engines being held there at
any one time. While it was probably a case of first in first out in
principle, simple logistics meant hey were NOT taken out for installation in the
quite the same order they went into the store. So, except for most TBs, there was
no direct correlation between a T type chassis number and the number on the
engine installed. Also engines were quite often replaced very early in the
life of the car (under warranty presumably) so my TB for example has a
replacement engine but it is still in the range of the early XPAGs installed in TBs
(i.e. engines between 501 and 882). My engine came out of another TB which had
also been re-engined early on so presumably I got that one back as a
refurbished engine once its original fault was fixed.

The last engine fitted in a TB was TB 629 with XPAG 882. The date I have is
19/10/39.

The first engine installed in a TC, TC251 the TC prototype, was possibly
XPAG 883 (the next in the XPAG sequence after the TB) though I have no certain
information. Certainly TC 252 had XPAG 884 and appeared in September 1945.
After that any kind of sensible relationship between the engine and chassis
(even allowing for an offset in numbers) quickly disappears.

As Stewart Penfound says there are no cars where engine and chassis match
number for number, and if there were it would be pure fluke.

Now body numbers are another story .....


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