America's Sports Car Sweetheart.(MG TC)

Byline: JOHN F. KATZ

Experts may argue whether it really was the MG TC that lit America's fire for imported sports cars. After all, few TCs were sold here, compared to the substantial number of TDs that followed. But this TC was present-and at the heart of the matter-when the love affair began.

MG began building the TC in October 1945; not surprisingly, it was essentially a prewar TB, widened four inches in the cockpit and simplified by swapping the TB's sliding-trunnion front suspension for a proven solid axle and leaf springs. Exactly 10,000 were manufactured in a four-year run, with 2001 of those exported to the United States.

Road & Track associate editor John Bond bought this 1947 TC in 1949 and on Valentine's Day presented it to Elaine Williams, an amateur race driver and his bride-to-be. Later Bond and Williams would buy the foundering magazine and steer it toward success. Retired from racing, Elaine parked her TC in Road & Track's lobby, where it came to be regarded as a minor landmark.

Restorer Mitch Leland acquired the MG in the early '70s and totally rebuilt the car. Leland made improvements as well, including some better-than-stock components in its worm-and-sector steering. He had the cylinders bored 0.020 inch over and the head ported and ground 0.100 inch under. But Leland had barely bolted it all back together when Chicago collector Ben Rose offered him $5,500 for his effort-an offer too good to refuse.

Around this same time Road Test magazine produced a poster featuring the ex-Bond MG as a giveaway with a year's subscription. (It hung in this humble scribe's bedroom throughout high school.) Current owners Dennis and Ann Marie Nash bought the TC in 1997.

The seatbacks adjust fore and aft, but the seat cushions don't, forcing shorter drivers to sit on the front edge of the cushion. The footwells are long and narrow, with the gas, brake and clutch pedals positioned perfectly for anyone whose left leg is 12 inches longer than his ...