Triple-M Yearbook ’22

The 104 page Triple-M Register 2022 Yearbook includes contributions from the Editor and the Register’s Chairman, as well as a detailed illustrated account of the racing, trialling, speed and other events in which Triple-M cars took part during 2021. The Register’s President, Mike Allison, also reflects on the hundredth anniversary of the production of the first M.G. car.

In addition, there is a wide-ranging collection of articles chronicling the development of the J Type Midget in all its variants which celebrated its ninetieth anniversary in 2022.

• The editor, Simon Johnston, provides the background to the development of the four-seater J1 and two-seater J2 models as well as recounting the tale of the last cycle-wing J2, originally owned by his father and back with the family after being lost for many years;

• Very few of the four-seater J1 models survive in running order and Cathelijne Spoelstra tells the tale of one of them which arrived in the Netherlands over sixty years ago and which, like many, seemingly disappeared from view only to resurface in recent years.

• The supercharged J3 Super Sports is the rarest road-going production M.G. with only twenty-two being built. But it’s much more than just the supercharged J2 that many people take it for. Australian M.G. enthusiasts Tim Jackson and Ed Taylor explain just how different the J3 is from the J2 and go on to recount the tale of the J3 that competed in the Monte Carlo Rallye in 1933;

• The J4 Racing Model is, of course the rarest J Type with just nine examples built. Karl Wiessmann takes us through the complex history of the model, often referred to as too fast for its chassis, and Teifion Salisbury tells us of the many successes of his famous example – J4002 – driven with great success by Ulsterman Hammy Hamilton, not least to second place behind Tazio Nuvolari in an M.G. K3 Magnette in the closely fought 1933 Ulster TT;

• While J2 Midgets are highly sought after today, fifty or sixty years ago they were just cheap transport for young chaps wanting a sporty looking car. Some of these former owners have recounted in humorous terms the trials and tribulations they faced in those long lost days;

• As the editor says in his introduction in the Yearbook, no paean to the J Type Midgets would be complete without an article by the late Mike Hawke, one of the founders of the Triple-M Register, who did more than just about anybody to promote the merits of the J2. Here is reproduced an article by Mike from the late 1970s or early 80s that compares the J2 with its younger T Type siblings. No prizes for guessing which came off best!

For many years, the Register’s Competition Secretary, Mike Linward, rounded off the Yearbook with a finely illustrated and detailed account of the many racing, trialling, speed and other events in which Triple-M cars were active during the year. Sadly, Mike died earlier this year before he could complete the 2022 Competition Report but his good friend John Reid took over the reins and finished the Report just as Mike would have done.