1935 MG

1935 MG PA Airline Coupe

Fuel: Petrol
Gearbox: Manual

Description

Of approximately fifty MG Airline Coupes ever built, only around 27 were built on the PA chassis. Chassis PA 2242, registered TH 6498, is one of the very last of those PA examples: sent from the MG factory to Carbodies of Coventry in July 1935 as one of a batch of five, it was the only one of the five to sell that year. The other four remained unsold, were returned to the factory and converted to the emerging PB specification. That PA 2242 survived at all — let alone in the extraordinary condition it presents today — is a matter of considerable fortune, and its history across nine decades on three continents is as remarkable as the car itself.

The history begins with Mrs. Violet John of Llanelli, South Wales, to whom the car was first registered on 2nd January 1936 — a period photograph from that same year which is included in the history file, shows the car in its original condition with the registration TH 6498 clearly visible. In the early 1950’s it was sold to a garage in Llanelli, and subsequent owners all were based within ten miles of its first owner.

In October 1965, the car was acquired by Gert Jensen while on honeymoon in Wales, a Danish architect then living in San Francisco, who purchased it from a young student named Brian Pratt in Burry Port for £125. Jensen shipped the car to California and spent three years restoring it — no small undertaking in an era when MG Midget parts and specialist knowledge were considerably harder to come by than they are today. The result was triumphant: at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance in July 1969, the Airline took first in the Pre-War class and was awarded the prestigious Gwenn Graham Concours Trophy. The head judge who assessed the car was Phil Hill — the only American-born Formula One World Champion — and theSan Francisco Chronicleof 2nd June 1969 ran a photograph of Hill peering through the Airline’s distinctive roof. The Gwenn Graham Trophy — a handsome glass decanter with engraved label — and a copy of the newspaper clipping are included with the car, alongside period photograph copies of the car on the lawn at Pebble Beach.

Jensen returned to Denmark in 1970, taking the car with him. Over the following five years it participated in numerous vintage rallies and collected further prizes, before the family returned to the UK in 1975 — recovering, on their return, the original TH 6498 registration number, which the car still carries today. Jensen retained the Airline until his death in 2018, an extraordinary custodianship of 53 years.

The current owner purchased the car from Jensen’s estate in 2018 and shipped it directly to Australia, where he undertook an extensive and comprehensive restoration that was finally completed in 2024. The restoration photographs in the history file tell the story in remarkable detail: the chassis stripped bare and rebuilt from the ground up, the Carbodies coachwork and woodwork restored, the 847cc four-cylinder engine stripped, rebuilt, and finished in the correct manner, and the whole assembled to a standard of perfection consistent with the car’s concours history.

The car returned to England for the 2025 Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, one of the most prestigious concours events in the British calendar, which was a fitting return to British life after its superlative restoration. It is presented today accompanied by the original Pebble Beach Gwenn Graham Trophy, the history file including copies of period photographs, a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle cutting, and a complete photographic record of the restoration carried out in Australia.

Please see our website for further details .