The MG J-type is a

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

that was produced by MG from 1932 to 1934. This 2-door sports car used an updated version of the

overhead camshaft An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...

, crossflow engine, used in the 1928

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in th ...

and Wolseley 10 and previously fitted in the

MG M-type The MG M-type (also known as the MG Midget) is a sports car that was produced by the MG Cars from April 1929 until 1932. It was sometimes referred to as the 8/33. Launched at the 1928 London Motor Show when the sales of the larger MG saloons ...

Midget of 1929 to 1932, driving the rear wheels through a four-speed non-

synchromesh A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear changes ...

gearbox. The chassis was from the D-Type with suspension by half-elliptic springs and Hartford friction shock-absorbers all round with rigid front and rear axles. The car had a wheelbase of and a track of . Most cars were open two-seaters, but a closed salonette version of the J1 was also made, and some chassis were supplied to external coachbuilders. The open cars can be distinguished from the M type by having cut-away tops to the doors. __TOC__

J1

The J1 was the four-seat car in the range. The engine was the 847 cc unit previously seen in the C-type with twin

SU carburetor SU carburettors were a British manufacturer of constant-depression carburettors. Their designs were in mass production during most of the twentieth century. The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburettor ...

s giving 36 bhp. The car cost £220 in open and £225 in Salonette form.

J2

The J2, a road-going two-seater, was the commonest car in the range. Early models had cycle wings, which were replaced in 1933 by the full-length type typical of all sports MGs until the 1950s TF. The top speed of a standard car was , but a specially prepared one tested by ''The Autocar'' magazine reached . The car cost £199. The most serious of the J2's technical failings is that it has only a two-bearing crankshaft which can break if over-revved. The overhead camshaft is driven by a vertical shaft through bevel gears, which also forms the armature of the dynamo. Thus any oil leak from the cambox seal goes into the dynamo brushgear, presenting a fire hazard. Rather than hydraulic brakes the car has Bowden cables to each drum. Although requiring no more pedal force than any other non-power-assisted drum brake if they are well maintained, the drums themselves are small, and even in-period it was a common modification to replace them with larger drums from later models. MG J2 WH 4594 - 1933 (9086257917).jpg

J3

The J3 was a racing version with the engine capacity reduced to 746 cc by shortening the stroke from 83 to 73 mm and fitted with a

Powerplus supercharger The Powerplus is a design of supercharger that was used to boost the performance of car engines in the 1930s. It is a mechanically driven positive displacement pump, operating on the sliding-vane principle. MG cars Powerplus is best known th ...

. The smaller engine capacity was to allow the car to compete in 750 cc class racing events. Larger brakes from the L-type were fitted.

J4

The J4 was a pure racing version with lightweight body work and the J3 engine, but using more boost from the supercharger to obtain 72 bhp.

References

External links

www.mgjtype.com
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329043116/http://www.mgjtype.com/ , date=29 March 2012 J-type Cars introduced in 1932 1930s cars 24 Hours of Le Mans race cars