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 Competition from the MG SA and MG WA

Cecil Kimber never permitted either his MG SA or WA models to be road tested by The Motor or by The Autocar so we can only extrapolate figures from the power, torque and weight of the cars.

Fortunately we do have an Autocar road test for the Wolseley 18-80 which used the same engine as the MG SA and had similar running gear. The Wolseley was slightly lighter than the SA but was probably slightly less aerodynamic. Also we do have a contemporary acceleration test figure from an SA owner who achieved  0 - 50 mph in 14 seconds based on the dashboard speedo reading.

Michael Sedgewick in "Cars of the Thirties" claimed that the WA could out run the SS Jaguar 2½litre and give the SS Jaguar 3½litre a run for its money. I suspect that the large P100 headlamps did cause the SS to be less aerodynamic than the MGs so it is possible that the WA might have out run the SS  2½litre although with 10 bhp less I suspect the WA would not be ahead by much.

Looking at the power and torque ratios it seems rather unlikely that either MG would better the SS Jaguar 2½litre in acceleration.

The estimates of MG top speed are taken from the BHP Required graph and using the curve for the SS100 which has a much lower frontal area than the SS Jaguar saloons. As a check we also have a measured top speed of 76mph for a 1½litre MG tourer with its hood up which probably had similar windage to the SA and WA. The tourer achieved this with 54bhp which does follow the SS100 curve reasonably well.

 

    Wolseley 18-80   MG SA  SS Jaguar 2½litre  MG WA
Power to weight ratio  52.5 bhp / ton  51.8 bhp / ton  63.7 bhp / ton  58.7 bhp / ton
Torque to weight ratio  74.7 lb-ft / ton  73.7 lb-ft / ton  83 lb-ft / ton  75.4 lb-ft / ton
 0 to 30 mph   6.7 secs  ~ 6.7 secs  4.7 secs  ~5.1 secs
 0 to 50 mph   15.3 secs  ~ 15.3 secs  10.6 secs  ~11.6 secs
 0 to 60 mph   24.4 secs  ~ 24.4 secs  17.0 secs  ~18.7 secs
 Weight  29 cwt 36 lbs  29 cwt 77 lbs  32 cwt  32 cwt 41lbs
 Top Speed  75 mph  ~85 mph  87 mph  ~92 mph
 Price  £320  £389  £395  £450

The figures for the MGs in the table are simply extrapolations.