This is a guide to what a correct, original MG TD should have, area by area. It is a companion to two other pages: for how the TD changed through production see the production timeline, and for reading a car's numbers see the chassis and engine number guide. The usual caution applies throughout: these cars were hand-built, altered in detail through production, and maintained and restored for seventy years, so treat this as the general picture and check specifics for your car against its BMIHT Heritage Certificate and the T Register's registrar.
The engine: the XPAG
A correct TD has the 1,250 cc XPAG, carrying the XPAG/TD or, from mid-1951, the XPAG/TD2 prefix, breathing through twin SU carburettors for around 54 bhp. The more highly tuned engine with larger carburettors and higher compression belongs to the separate Mark II competition car, not the standard TD, so twin larger carburettors on an ordinary TD are worth questioning. For the engine itself and its variants see the XPAG engine page, and for the prefixes and where the numbers are stamped, the chassis and engine number guide.
Wheels, hubs and tyres
This is the single most commonly altered thing on a TD, and the easiest to get wrong. A TD left the factory on 15-inch bolt-on pressed-steel disc wheels, with octagon-centred hub caps and crossply tyres. Wire wheels were not a TD option at all; they did not return to the T-Series until the TF. So a TD on wire wheels, however handsome, is not original, and it is a change many owners have made for looks. For strict originality the disc wheels, their correct hub caps and the tyre type are the things to check first.
Bumpers and brightwork
Unlike the TC before it, the TD was fitted with chromed bumpers and overriders front and rear as standard, and these, with the grille surround, the octagon badges and the lamp bezels, are the external brightwork a correct car carries. Reproduction parts are widely available, so it is the fit, finish and pattern that reward a close look rather than mere presence.
Chassis, suspension and steering
The TD's defining advance over the TC is underneath: independent front suspension by coil springs and wishbones, rack-and-pinion steering, and a chassis derived from the Y-type saloon. A correct TD has these, with the period Girling or Armstrong dampers; the front wing carries a small raised bulge to clear the Armstrong type, a detail that dates from 1952. These are the features that make a TD drive as it should.
The dashboard and instruments
The TD dashboard is laid out symmetrically, with the instruments grouped centrally, an arrangement that let the same dash serve both left- and right-hand-drive cars for export. The instruments are Smiths, in the MG octagonal theme, with the correct switches and controls. As with any T-Type, reproduction instruments and later replacements exist, so the dial faces, bezels and lettering are worth checking against known-correct examples.
Seats, trim and interior
The TD was trimmed in leather over a bench-style seat back; the individual seat backs that many people associate with the T-Series did not arrive until the TF. Originality here is about the seat pattern and material, the door trims and cappings, the carpet and the correct colour combination for the car's trim code, all of which are frequently changed in a retrim and are recorded on the Heritage Certificate.
Electrics
The TD is a 12-volt, positive-earth car with Lucas electrics: the correct dynamo and control box, coil, distributor and wiring pattern. An alternator conversion, a change to negative earth or electronic ignition are common and sensible improvements, but each is a departure from standard that an originality assessment will note.
Paint and factory colours
The TD was offered in a range of factory colours and trim combinations, and the one correct for a given car is a matter of record, not taste: the original body colour and trim are recorded on the car's Heritage Certificate and encoded on its data plates. A repaint in a colour the car never wore is a departure from originality, so begin from the Heritage Certificate, not the colour the car happens to wear now.
What ‘correct’ really means
The same honest close as for any T-Type. These cars were hand-built, altered in detail through production, and have been serviced, repaired and restored for seventy years, so almost no survivor is correct in every particular, and many sensible improvements make a car more usable at the cost of strict originality. None of that makes a car wrong; it makes it a used classic. Originality is a spectrum, and the authorities on where a given car sits are its BMIHT Heritage Certificate and the T Register's registrar, not any single web page.
Help build this guide
If you own a TD and can photograph its original details, the dashboard, the disc wheels and hub caps, the engine bay, the seats and trim, those photographs would help make this a stronger reference for every TD owner. You can also add your car to the registry. Corrections and additions are equally welcome.
Read next
MG TD, MG TD production changes, the chassis and engine number decoder, the XPAG engine, the ash frame, the companion MG TC originality guide, and, for the numbers method in practice, identifying a genuine TF 1500. Corrections and additions from owners are welcome.