1934/37 MG K3 Magnette Roadster

This 1934/37 MG K3 Magnette Roadster sold for $381,150, including buyer’s premium, at H&H’s Buxton, England, auction on September 16, 2009.

Aside from the remarkable, world-record price, this sale is unusual in that our subject automobile illustrates four important value-influencing factors at one time. And in this case, given that there are two other discrete historic automobiles currently in existence that have some colorable claim to major parts or provenance of our subject car, the role of one factor, “continuous existence,” looms large in our story. But we’ll get to all that in due time…

First, a little background for context. The MG K3 is arguably the greatest MG ever built. Prior to its appearance, truly effective racing cars were either Italian or French. To be sure, England had her share of reasonably competent small-bore, club-oriented cars in the form of Austin, Frazer-Nash, Riley, and so on. But the K3 could take the fight to the best of the Italians and the French and win in class. This they did in the 1933 Mille Miglia, and outright (on handicap) in the RAC Tourist Trophy. In 1934, one won the Italian 1,100-cc championship, another achieved 4th overall and 1st in the 2-liter class at Le Mans, and so on. Indeed, a K3-based streamliner, EX-135, set international speed records at over 200 mph both before the war and, with Major “Goldie” Gardner, after as well. They were driven in period by the Who’s Who of racing, from Nuvolari to Lord Howe, Eddie Hall, and Tim Birkin, just for starters.

Thirty-three K3s were built between 1933 and 1935, and roughly 29 exist today, though 23 were reported extant by F. Wilson McComb in 1966. Due to the nature of British racing in the 1930s, it was common to rebody sports cars with single-seater coachwork for lighter weight and better aerodynamics. Such rebodied K3s were capable of lapping the outer circuit at Brooklands at speeds approaching 120 mph, an extraordinary feat for an 1,100-cc car. Needless to say, there is great demand for these cars among collectors and a dearth of “no stories” cars.

Our 1934/37 MG K3 Magnette Roadster is well known in MG circles and enjoys an extensive racing history, the high point of which was a 2nd in class at the 1935 Mille Miglia, many physical iterations ago. JB 3180 achieved its history by being ruthlessly used and modified in period to remain competitive. Like many other K3s, it was rebodied in period as a single-seater. It was also heavily modified mechanically, receiving a new chassis, relocated engine, special front axle, new block, bronze cylinder head, hydraulic brakes, special steering gear, lowered radiator, and so on. All of which adds up to the first noteworthy value factor of the four: With competition cars, history often comes at the expense of condition.

The second notable issue is the product of the sometime conflict between historic value and monetary value. Make no mistake-they can conflict. JB 3180’s historic value lies in its career as a slim-bodied, open-wheel, single-seat special, like a baby Grand Prix car-far removed from its two-seat sports car origins. Much of its content had been replaced in period with modifications intended to further its efficacy in competition.

While of immense historic interest, such a special is far less valuable than an intact and untouched K3 sports car. So it was that in 2000, a former owner “restored” the car to its “as-manufactured” configuration. In so doing, JB 3180’s monetary value was enhanced, and its historic value destroyed. Alas, this kind of “restoration” has happened to a number of important historic specials, when it was realized they were worth more dead than alive.

The third point to note is that while it is an accepted practice to restore a car to a moment in time, only certain cars are candidates for this approach-those that incorporate all, or virtually all, the components from that moment. When subsequent modifications have taken that original fabric beyond the “reversibility point,” such restoration ceases to be constructive and turns to vandalism, or potentially worse, the creation of, at best, a resurrection or, at worst, a replica of the original. Indeed, so extensive were the take-off parts that a shortened MG KN chassis was built up into a replica of the monoposto version of JB 3180 using the period front axle, brakes, and body work, and, presumably, any other non-K3 factory components.

The final and probably most important value-determining factor here is manifest in our subject’s registration number: JB 3180. It is important to understand that registration numbers in Britain stay with their automobile permanently. Because of this property, British competition cars registered for the road may be easily identified through their careers by the display of their unchanging registration number. Think of it as being as definitive as having the car’s serial number prominently visible. The identity of a particular racing car is made easy and unambiguous. Indeed, famous competition cars are often referred to by their registration numbers-CUT 7, BUY 1, and so on.

Except things can go wrong. Once the historic integrity of an object is lost through breaking it up into major components (having had two chassis, for example), we encounter the requirement for paper to support history. The question of where the original registration number goes becomes crucial. In this case, the original title and registration number, under the British system embodied in the “buff logbook,” have remained with JB 3180 throughout its many “George Washington’s axe” incarnations of five bodies, two chassis, two and perhaps three engines, three front axles, three sets of brakes, and so on.

It was this document’s continuous association with our 1934/37 MG K3 Magnette Roadster that the licensing authorities used to confer the original license number, JB 3180, on our K3 in opposition to the claim made by the owner of the now-rebuilt original chassis, K3015 (and probably the only extant component from JB 3180’s 1935 Mille Miglia exploit), which was replaced in 1937.

So now three versions of our subject car exist. There is the original Mille Miglia chassis, K3015, built into a complete K3 but registered with a contemporarily determined registration number. Second, our subject car, carrying a modern chassis number, K3015-2 (the original chassis having the valid claim to the factory number), but carrying the historic registration number, JB 3180, due to our subject’s continuous legal existence as an automotive entity from date of registration to the present. (And it is this notional concept of “continuous existence” that trumped authenticity and originality at the H&H auction.) Finally, a KN-based single-seat replica of JB 3180 exists, carrying neither the serial number nor the registration number, but carrying its non-MG period racing parts with most of JB 3180’s real history. At this point, it would be better to take the log book to car events and leave the car itself home.

I would imagine that the extraordinary result here was due to two determined but not terribly discriminating bidders vying for a recognized, event-acceptable, usable, “weapons grade” version of a very desirable but hard-to-find model. The underbidder should be thrilled to be out of it. Very well sold.