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HomePick of the DayPick of the Day: 1950 MG YT Tourer

Pick of the Day: 1950 MG YT Tourer

The British convertible is a bigger, 4-seat version of the MG TC sports car

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While the MG TC went down in history as “the sports car America loved first,” the automaker also built a range of small 4-seaters that brought forward pre-war British styling and agility.

The MG YA was a traditional sedan (or saloon, as the Brits call them) while the MG YT re-created the TC magic on the bigger Y touring-car platform.

The similar look is easy to spot, with the traditional flared front fenders (wings, the Brits say), upright grille and cutaway doors. Scant weather protection also follows the TC roadster style, with such things as side curtains taking the place of rollup windows.  

The Pick of the Day is a 1950 MG YT Tourer (Brit for convertible) in classic British Racing Green with saddle-leather interior and tan top. The MG has been totally restored, according to the Canton, Ohio, dealer advertising the car on ClassicCars.com.

MG tried with the YT to re-ignite the pre-war popularity of small 4-seat convertibles, but times had changed and the market for such cars had dropped.  As a result, just 904 MG YT tourers were built for 1947-1950, compared with more than 10,000 TCs during the same period, despite the sports cars being essentially a continuation of the pre-war Midgets.

While the YTs were considerably more agile than American cars of the day, benefiting from such features as rack-and-pinion steering, they were also considerably slower.  The 4-cylinder engine displaces just 1,250 cc and generates a whopping 54 horsepower. That was just about enough for the tiny TC but underpowered for the bigger and heavier YT.

Yet the convertible is a classy ride, totally drivable as long as you don’t need to go too fast.  The dashboard is made of wood with a full lineup of sporty gauges and switchgear, all of it appearing to be nicely refinished in the photos with the ad, although the right-hand-drive steering wheel looks like the well-worn original. 

Although rare and attractive, MG YTs have faded in value in the collector car market, with this nice-looking example priced at $22,995.

To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day

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Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen is a longtime automotive writer and editor, focusing on new vehicles, collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle. He is the former automotive writer and editor for The Arizona Republic and SPEED.com, the website for the SPEED motorsports channel. He has written free-lance articles for a number of publications, including Autoweek, The New York Times and Barrett-Jackson auction catalogs. A collector car enthusiast with a wide range of knowledge about the old cars that we all love and desire, Bob enjoys tinkering with archaic machinery. His current obsession is a 1962 Porsche 356 Super coupe.

3 COMMENTS

    • Click on the link in the paragraph that mentions the car as the Pick of the Day and you’ll get the seller’s listing with all the photos.

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