1466cc Inline 4 Cylinder
5 Speed Manual Gearbox
Front Engined Rear Wheel Drive
Hydraulic Drum Brakes
65 bhp 76 lb-ft
Exterior Metallic Royal Blue Interior Tan
Although the MG TC is often considered to be the car that introduced Americans to European sports cars, by the time the MG TF came out in 1953, it was the second facelift of the MG TC’s prewar design and was looking very dated. The TF did make some cosmetic changes, introducing a more slanted radiator grille, integrating the headlamps into the wings, and reshaping the back end to make it a bit sleeker looking. Although the TD, which preceded the TF introduced front independent suspension to the design and various other upgrades over the TC, it left the drivetrain more or less the same, aside from changes to the rear axle design. It wasn’t until 1955 at the end of the TF production that the pre-war XPAG 1250cc engine used from the TA of 1937 into the MG TF, was upgraded to the new XPEG 1466 engine which slightly raised horsepower, but more significantly, a 17 percent increase in torque this example was restored locally to a high standard with just about
everything rebuilt and we saw it for the first time when the shop that rebuilt the drivetrain was doing the final tuning on the freshly completed car. The owner at the time was a woman who had owned the car for years and had commissioned the restoration. Unfortunately, shortly after, she fell ill and several years later she had passed away and the car came up for sale, having hardly been driven since we had seen it last. Both of us had fallen in love with the beautiful color combination and execution of the restoration on this car, so we opted to buy it to replace a driver level MG TF 1500 we already had in the collection. With its lightweight and the extra power of the later engine, this MG TF 1500 is a surprisingly sprightly vehicle to drive. After buying it we opted to retrofit a 5-speed gearbox to the car, which allows the car to make the most use of its extra torque and makes it very comfortable to drive over longer distances at higher speeds.
