Connecting the 1934 Mille Miglia to Jim Clark.

The diminutive MG Car Company came into being in 1924 when Cecil Kimber spotted a market for uprated Morris cars. A sort of 1920s AMG if you will. The marque swiftly became popular and it wasn’t long before customers began modifying their cars to compete, mainly in trials, but sometimes at Brooklands and other locations in circuit racing.

There is a long line of competition cars produced by MG. The company had an interesting business model whereby a customer would buy a car and MG would sell them the parts to modify the car for competition. Hence many entries were in the name of the owner/driver rather than the MG Car Company.

Among the most popular cars produced by MG for competiton were the midgets. These ranged from the original M Type through C and Q Types to PAs and PBs culminating in the T Type. But MG also built and sold larger sports cars and these were known as Magnettes. The MG Magnette was a six cylinder 1100cc vehicle (the later N Type Magnette was 1200cc) which came in three variants. The K1 long wheelbase, the K2 short wheelbase and the competition specific K3.

In 1934 K3 Magnettes, co driven by George Eyston/Count “Johnny” Lurani (K3003) and Earl Howe/Tim Birkin (K3001) finished 1 and 2 in the 1100cc Class of the Mille Miglia. An outstanding achievement given the strength of the competition.

Formula Junior:

From 1958 to 1963 Formula Junior replaced the motorcycle engined 500 cc F3 cars as the stepping-stone to Formula 1. [The championship] ……………….provided for 1.0 or 1.1 litre production engines, and gearboxes in mini Grand Prix chassis. In its short 6 years, the design span covered the major progression of racing car evolution from ladder frame front-engined cars, through space frame cars with proprietary suspension like the Alexis HF1, rear engined spaceframes such as the Coopers, to the full monocoque of the Lotus 27. Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt, Mike Spence, Mike Hailwood, Graf Wolfgang Von Trips, Gerhard Mitter, Lorenzo Bandini, Peter Revson, Giancarlo Baghetti and Howden Ganley, were amongst the G.P. Stars who formulated their careers in FJ. Races were run from Estonia to Australia, Macao to Cuba, with hundreds of cars competing regularly across the USA and East and Western Europe.

Historic formula junior

So, what’s the connection?

Formula Junior was the brainchild of Count Johhny Lurani, he of 1934 Mille Miglia MG fame. Formula Juniors are still being raced under the Formula Junior Historic Racing Association banner and can be seen at many historic festivals throughout Europe and the UK. As of course are the K3 Magnettes, most recently seen at the https://www.vscc.co.uk/ Donington event.

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