The MG J-type is a 2-door roadster / Salonette from British Motor Corporation, built from 1932 to 1934, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 847 .
The story
The MG J-type is a sports car that was produced by MG from 1932 to 1934. This 2-door sports car used an updated version of the overhead camshaft, crossflow engine, used in the 1928 Morris Minor and Wolseley 10 and previously fitted in the MG M-type Midget of 1929 to 1932, driving the rear wheels through a four-speed non-synchromesh gearbox. The chassis was from the D-Type with suspension by half-elliptic springs and Hartford friction shock-absorbers all round with rigid front and rear axles.
The car had a wheelbase of 86 in (2,184 mm) and a track of 42 in (1,067 mm). Most cars were open two-seaters, but a closed salonette version of the J1 was also made, and some chassis were supplied to external coachbuilders. The open cars can be distinguished from the M type by having cut-away tops to the doors.
What is underneath
Power comes from 847 . The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 86 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the MG C-type, D-type and M-type Midgets; its successor was the MG P-type Midget; assembly was at Abingdon-on-Thames, Berkshire, England. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Bugatti Type 57, the Chevrolet Suburban, the Panhard & Levassor type X 49 biplace sport — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the British Motor Corporation catalogue sit the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the MG J-type has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.