Seaman MG resurfaces

A reader who owns the F-type MG Magna with which Richard Seaman began his motoring career in 1932, including driving it in that year’s Alpine Trial, is seeking the car’s history. He has had the car (JW 1139) since 1972, when it was in pieces, but had no idea it was the ex-Seaman car until 18 months ago. Domestic affairs postponed the rebuild until 1990, although the engine rebuild had started in 1976. The MG passed its MOT test in 1993 and is in use again.

The MGCC has provided some of the car’s early history. it was bought by Seaman from a Mr J Spence of Stourport and was returned to the works at Abingdon six days before the 1933 Alpine. New piston rings were then fitted at 4443 miles; some rather acrimonious correspondence followed that events, when the engine was rebored, the bent front axle replaced, and the mudguards straightened!

Some evidence of this work appears to be still visible on the chassis. The MG has been painted Cambridge blue, and its present owner would like to learn more of its past. Was it, for instance, the MG Seaman used at Brooklands in 1933? Letters can be for warded.