The MG P-type is a 2-door roadster / Airline coupé from British Motor Corporation, built from 1934 to 1936, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 847 cc I4.
The background
The MG P-type is a sports car that was produced by MG from 1934 to 1936. This 2-door sports car used an updated version of the Wolseley Motors-designed and made overhead camshaft, crossflow engine, used in the 1928 Morris Minor and previously fitted in the J-type Midget of 1932 to 1934, driving the rear wheels through a four-speed non-synchromesh gearbox. The chassis was a strengthened, slightly longer version of that used in the J-type, with suspension by half-elliptic springs all round and rigid front and rear axles. Steering was initially by a Marles Weller and later a Bishop Cam system.
The two-seat car had a wheelbase of 87 inches (2210 mm) and a track of 42 in (1,100 mm). Most cars were open two-seaters, but streamlined Airline coupé bodies were also made. The P-type was also available as a four-seater, a car that suffered from a lack of power and poor rear ground clearance. Whereas J, K and L-type MGs differentiated between versions with the use of numbers, with 1 indicating a four-seater (i.e., J1) and 2 a two-seater (i.e., J2), this was not the case with the P-type (or its six-cylinder sister, the N-type Magnette), and there is no clue to the type in the name.
The engineering
Power comes from 847 cc I4; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The wheelbase is 87.25 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the J-type Midget; its successor was the TA; assembly was at Abingdon-on-Thames, Berkshire, England. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the Mercedes-Benz W29 — show what else the money bought that year. Its British Motor Corporation stablemates include the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the MG P-type — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.