The TD was MG's big seller, nearly thirty thousand cars in under four years, and though it never had formal model years it changed steadily through its life. This page sets out what was new when it arrived, the mid-life engine and clutch change that created the TD2, the separate Mark II competition model, and the detail changes that let you place a car in the sequence. It draws on the widely-published record; for anything car-specific, use the official record described near the end. Corrections from owners are welcome.
A modern chassis under a familiar body (1950)
Announced in January 1950, after a handful of cars late in 1949, the TD kept the T-Series look but modernised almost everything beneath it. In place of the TC's beam axle and wire wheels it had independent front suspension by coil springs, rack-and-pinion steering, a wider track on a chassis derived from the Y-type saloon, a hypoid rear axle and twin-leading-shoe front brakes. It rode on 15-inch pressed-steel disc wheels, wire wheels were not offered on the TD at all, and for the first time chromed bumpers with overriders were standard. A left-hand-drive version was offered from the start, and the great majority of TDs were built for export. The engine was the familiar 1,250 cc XPAG of around 54 bhp, so outright performance barely changed; the transformation was in ride, handling and comfort.
TD2: the engine and clutch change (mid-1951)
From the middle of 1951 the TD received a new cylinder block, sump, bell-housing and flywheel to take a larger clutch, and with it a new engine-number prefix, XPAG/TD2, from engine number 9408. Cars from this point are widely known as the TD2. It is worth being clear about one thing, because it causes endless confusion: the TD2 is simply the standard car after a running change to the engine and clutch. It is not the Mark II. A TD2 has the ordinary single carburettor and standard gearbox; the change is under the skin.
The Mark II: the competition model
Separately, from the middle of 1950, MG built a higher-performance version alongside the standard car, the TD Mark II, carried in the records under the TD/C prefix and sometimes called the Competition Model. It ran a more highly tuned XPAG: higher compression at around 8:1, larger one-and-a-half-inch SU carburettors, twin fuel pumps, revised dampers and a higher rear-axle ratio, for about 57 bhp. Around 1,710 were built. Later Mark IIs wore identifying badges on the bonnet sides and rear bumper, but earlier ones, before TD/C 22613, did not, which is why ordinary TDs have sometimes been dressed up as Mark IIs; the engine specification and the production record, not the badges, are what settle it. To repeat the distinction that trips everyone up: the Mark II is the tuned competition car; the TD2 is the standard car after the 1951 engine change.
Detail changes that help date a car (1952 to 1953)
As sales began to slip against the new Triumph TR2 and Austin-Healey 100, a cluster of detail changes arrived between August and November 1952. The rear lamps changed from the earlier square units to circular lamps incorporating flashing indicators, a car from roughly number 21303 onward carrying the round lights. The hood frame went from two bows to three, and the windscreen-wiper motor moved from the side of the screen to the centre. Through 1952 the factory also began fitting either Girling or Armstrong shock absorbers, the Armstrong type needing a small raised bulge on the front wing to clear it, so that bulge shows the wing could take either type rather than proving which was fitted. And during TD production the XPAG itself changed internally from the early “banana” block and head to the later round-water-passage type, described on the XPAG engine page.
A word on TD records
One honest caveat. The TD was among the last cars built under Nuffield before the merger into BMC, and individual-car records from that period are less complete than for the TF and later models. The production points above are the best generally-agreed information, but they cannot be treated as absolute, and there were exceptions. For a specific car, the definitive record is its Heritage Certificate and the T Register production records, described in the chassis and engine number guide.
The end of the line, and the TF
TD production ended in August 1953 after roughly 29,664 cars, including about 1,710 Mark IIs, the overwhelming majority exported and more than twenty-three thousand of them to the United States alone. It was replaced by the TF, which was in essence a facelifted TD Mark II: the same basic car, restyled at the front and, later, given a larger engine. For that story, see the TF production changes.
Read next
Model references: MG TD, MG TC and MG TF. See also the XPAG engine, the chassis and engine number decoder, MG TC production changes, MG TF production changes, and the ash frame. Corrections and additions from owners are welcome.