"90 Years of Storm" Part 3: How much is 50 gold coins?

The success of the first event gave Thornley a lot of confidence, and the feeling of showing off his talents was stronger than when he was an intern at an accounting firm.

About 2 weeks later, maybe just 1 week, he called Harold and said: Should we consider doing a racing event? Should we meet and plan it out?

Harold recalled: Thornley was a really passionate person. As an editor for a car magazine, racing events are certainly on my radar. So I asked Thornley: What do you think?

Thornley said without hesitation that he would find a track at The Chilterns that reflected the joy of driving.

The Chilterns is a mountainous area between London and Oxford, from the Thames River north to Hitchin. This area has beautiful scenery and diverse terrain, including mountains, river valleys, There are also beautiful countryside, and it is still a famous national protected nature park in the UK.

Harold said: No problem. I will find some suitable mountain roads, then string together a race route and make a set of race rules. Don't worry.

Thornley said: Great. You do this first, and then we will conduct an on-site inspection together.

One month later, the New Year is approaching. Thornley made an appointment with Harold, Norman Eames, a member of the club's management committee, and Ernest Wood, who was in charge of the club's events, to go to Chilterns to scout the road. Just after many consecutive days of rain, the roads were muddy and the entire survey process was extremely embarrassing.

After that, they went to the King's Arm Hotel for a drink. Harold said:

The five of us were covered in mud, and we were all worried that we would be kicked out by the hotel waiters. Thank God, the hotel was kind enough to accommodate us.

In the hotel, we were still very excited because we discovered the "sadness of small-displacement cars" during our exploration. This sadness is like the feeling of powerlessness we have when facing the deserted dusk. At one point our car screamed and couldn't move as it got stuck in the mud. We used a lot of effort to make him turn around, but found that he still couldn't get away, neither up the mountain nor down the mountain, making it difficult to move even an inch. We "gloated" and wrote it into the game route...

Thornley said: This will be very interesting!

The competition is being planned, and the club’s first-ever annual meeting comes first.

On January 9, 1931, the annual meeting was held at the Mecca Hotel on Ludgathill Road, London. The Earl of March was the special guest of the annual meeting. Now he is the Duke of Richmond. The most important person in the event. However, what made the car enthusiasts even happier was that Mr. Kimber also came and gave an exciting speech.

The 18/80 SIX is our first car with the MG badge. Of course we have produced the 14/40 before, but the Midget M-Type is our first car to be updated. A sports car that many people love. So far, our MG has sold about 1,000 cars, of which M-Type has about 500, accounting for half. The other third is brought by SIX, which is our competitor with Bently. The remaining part is contributed by the now discontinued 14/40.

The M-Type is small and flexible, with good control. It is very suitable for racing and is also in line with our slogan, Safety? Fast.

Just now, Thornley told me that the MGCC, which has only been established for three months, already has 200 members. Everyone likes Social Run very much and also likes racing (Trail), which is a very interesting competition. Under planning. I think this is exactly the fun that our MG sports car wants to bring to everyone.

Here, I would also like to tell you that we are continuously increasing our investment in researching the fun of racing. Hubert Charles has officially joined MG as chief engineer, as well as Gordon Phillips and Syd Enever. Join the development team. All of them are talented automotive engineers and racing enthusiasts. We will definitely bring you better sports cars.

Also, I would like to announce that Captain George Eyston has officially joined MG. Together with this talented racing driver and automobile inventor, we will develop faster racing cars and continue to set new speed records. ...

The cheers were thunderous and lasted for a long time. Young car enthusiasts saw warmth in Kimber, the same heartbeat, and shining eyes, like a spring breeze.

Captain George Eyston is a benchmark British racing driver. He was born in 1897. He studied at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Oxford. After World War I, he returned to Trinity College to study engineering and graduated. He was a motorcycle racer during college and was also a famous Trinity boatman. Captain of the boat club!

After graduation, he entered the field of racing and quickly achieved a series of good results, especially driving a Bugatti to win the 1926 French Grand Prix.

After George Eyston joined MG in 1930, he drove the Magic Midget and later the K3 Magnette in British and Continental racing, and achieved very good results. In 1931, he drove a special model of M-Type, the EX120, to the Montlhery circuit in Paris and achieved a speed of 103.12 miles per hour.

George Eyston was also an automotive technology inventor. He brought supercharger technology (Powerplus supercharger), making MG the first brand in the world to use this technology.

Five years later, George Eyston embarked on the road to pursue the world's fastest land record. He and his "eight-wheeled monster" Thunderbolt successively set the world's fastest land record between 1937 and 1938. He set three world records of 312.203 miles per hour, 345.489 miles per hour, and 357.497 miles per hour, becoming one of the greatest British racing drivers.

After everyone calmed down, Kimber finally said:

Our MG company will fully support the development of MGCC. Here, I personally donate 50 gold coins (Guineas) to the club.

Another burst of cheers

At that time, the price of an M-Type was 175 pounds, and 50 gold coins were equivalent to about 60 pounds.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.