Every MG T-Series car carries a set of stamped and plated numbers that, read correctly, tell you what it is, roughly when it was made, and whether its major components belong together. This page explains where those numbers are on a TA, TB, TC, TD or TF, what the engine prefixes mean, and, most importantly, how to get the definitive factory record for a specific car. It draws on the widely-published record and points to the official sources for anything car-specific; corrections from owners are welcome.
Where the numbers are
Four numbers matter. The chassis number is stamped on the outside vertical face of the left-hand front dumb-iron, the chassis extension the front bumper bolts to; turn the wheel onto full left lock and look behind the front wing, and expect to scrape away paint or grease to read it. The engine number is on a small plate, octagonal with a brass centre disc, riveted either to the left of the flywheel housing on the TA, TB, TC and early TD, or on a shallow plinth on the front right of the block on later TC, TD and TF engines, where it is usually stamped on the plinth as well. The guarantee or identity plate, on the bulkhead, carries the car number and the engine number together. And the body number is on a separate plate and stamped into the ash frame. If the numbers agree with each other and with the factory record, the car is what it says it is.
The chassis number
The chassis number is the car's primary identity: simply the model letters followed by a sequence number, TA, TB, TC, TD or TF and the number. As a rough guide, TA numbers run from around 0251 to the low 3000s, TB from about 0251 to 0630 (only 379 were built), TC from about 0251 to 10251 (10,000 cars), and TF from 0251 to 10100 (9,602 including two prototypes numbered TF0250 and TF0251); the TD, the best-seller, runs well into the high 20,000s across roughly 29,664 cars. Treat these ranges as approximate: sources differ by a car or two at the ends, and the only definitive figure for a given chassis is the factory record described below.
The engine number and what its prefix tells you
The engine number is where the T-Series encodes the engine type, through a Nuffield-system prefix.
- MPJG: the TA's 1,292 cc engine, unique to that model.
- XPAG: the 1,250 cc engine of the TB and TC.
- XPAG/TD: the TD and TD Mark II.
- XPAG/TF: the 1,250 cc TF.
- XPEG: the 1,466 cc TF 1500, its numbering starting at XPEG 501.
(The related Y-type saloons used XPAG/SC, and the YT tourer XPAG/TL or TR.) The brass disc in the centre of the engine plate also shows the type.
Two cautions.
- The engine may not be original: many cars carry BMC reconditioned “Gold Seal” replacement engines, which have a different, oblong plate and prefixes such as C, D or E, and a replacement block may even have begun life in a TD, a YB or a Wolseley 4/44.
- A casting date code near the dipstick records when the block was cast, which is not the same as the car's build date.
For the engine itself, its variants and the banana-versus-round-block change, see the XPAG engine page.
The guarantee plate and its codes
The guarantee, or identity, plate on the bulkhead is the factory's summary of the car. Alongside the engine number it carries the car number with a group of code letters and digits that record the body type, the original colour, the market and drive (home or export, right- or left-hand drive) and the type of paint finish, followed by the car's sequence number. The system is logical once decoded, but the codes changed in detail through production, and the safest way to read a particular plate is against the factory record rather than a generic key.
The definitive record: Heritage Certificate and T Register
For anything car-specific, two official sources settle it, and both are worth using. The BMIHT Heritage Certificate: the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, at the British Motor Museum, holds the surviving Abingdon production records and will issue a certificate for your car, compiled from those records, giving the original colour and trim, the engine number, the build and despatch dates and the original specification; you order it by quoting your chassis or engine number, and it is the single most useful document an owner can obtain. The MG Car Club T Register Factory Production Records: the T Register has digitised the T-Series production records into an online lookup that lets you search by chassis or engine number and returns the car's build details, effectively its birthday, confirming what is on the plates. Between them, these two tell you what a web page cannot: exactly what your specific car was when it left Abingdon.
Originality and matching numbers
Reading the numbers is the first step in judging originality. A matching-numbers car is one whose chassis and engine numbers are those the factory recorded together, and whose plates are consistent with the production record. Because engines were so often replaced over seventy years, a non-matching engine is common and not disqualifying, but it is something to know. For how this works out in practice on a TF 1500, see identifying a genuine TF 1500.
Read next
Model references: MG TB, MG TC, MG TD and MG TF. See also the XPAG engine, identifying a genuine TF 1500, MG TF production changes, MG TD production changes, MG TC production changes, and the site's production records page. Corrections and additions from owners are welcome.