Subject: MGA numbers
Hello Carl,
I'm not expert at this, but I'll give it a try.
I would have expected your car number to be: HMT 43/36955, are you sure it's
HTM?
The H is for MGA; the M is for Coupe; and the T is the colour, in this case
light green (Tyrolite, Island, or Ash [I don't believe they ever used
Tyrolite green on the 1500 Coupes]). You can check under the instrument
panel for the original colour. 4 is for left hand drive, North America
export, and 3 is for the paint, which was nitro-cellulose lacquer. The
number 36955 suggests construction around Sep-Oct 1957.
I would have expected the engine number to be 15GB-U-H 27070. 15 is for
displacement; G is for MG; B is for 1500 series; U is for center gearshift
placement; H is for High compression (L is for low compression, but I've
never seen that listing in an MGA engine number); and 27070 is the engine
serial number. The 1500 engine numbers lagged behind the car numbers by
about 10,000 or so. That is because they started the car numbers at 10101,
as was their wont. The engine numbers started from 101, so your engine is
probably the original unit that came in the car.
There is also a stamped body number affixed to a (painted) tag on the engine
side of the bulkhead behind the heater housing. It will differ from the
other two numbers. The body number is just a batch number and doesn't really
mean much.
Let me know if any of this makes sense. My references are Clausager, Neil
Cairns' "Engines for MGs After 1935", the Moss catalog, and personal
observations. Hope I didn't screw anything up.
Regards,
David F. Darby
Hercules Wilderness, Missouri
USA
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