2022 07 02 Posting – MG Car Show June 22, 2022, by Jim Kenzie
Car Show, Class 22 – MGT and Pre-War
First Place – 1953 MG TD Midget, owned by Michael (Ajax, On)
Second Place –Â 1954 MG TD Midget, owned by Glenn (Maryland, USA)
Third Place –Â 1955 MG TF Midget, owned by John (Virginia, USA)
Collector Car Canada Guest Writer – Jim Kenzie
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Anyone who has followed the auto industry over the past few decades in Canada knows the name Jim Kenzie. Among many other distinctions, Jim was Chief Auto Reviewer of the Toronto Star’s Wheels section, has been a longtime contributor to Motoring on TSN and won the first-ever AJAC Journalist of the Year award.
Jim attended and spoke at the recent Collector Car Canada Cars & Coffee event June 18 so it is no secret that we have been talking to him in an effort to bring this Canadian automotive icon to the site in some capacity. We are still talking to Jim and do not have anything formal to announce at this time but as a goodwill gesture, he has contributed today’s posting. As we did, he attended the Car Show on the final day of MG2022, the annual convention put on by the North American MG Register and hosted this year by the MG Car Club of Toronto (MGCCT).
Over to Jim for his report and photos. Thank you, Jim! And thank you again, MGCCT, we are glad to advertise in your magazine.
Jim Kenzie, Today’s CCC Guest Writer.
Words, Photos and Captions by Jim Kenzie
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MG Owners Unite!
If there’s a second example of any car ever built, chances are the two owners will form a club.
There are car clubs for just about every marque. Austin to Aston-Martin. Ford to Ferrari. Peugeot to Porsche. Morgan to MG.
Some, like the MG Car Club, represent cars that are no longer produced. These clubs help preserve their memory.
For a company that went through a particularly convoluted ownership history from its founding in 1924, and which didn’t actually build that many cars, MG still has a disproportionate hold on its owners.
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I recently attended “MG22”, a once-again-annual (post-COVID shut-down) four-day event which brought nearly 300 examples of MGs of every vintage and description from all over Canada and the USA, to the beautiful Nicholls Oval Park in Peterborough Ontario. Photos of a random selection of these you see here.
This particular venue is well-loved by the car owners since the vehicles are displayed on lawns under big shade trees. Beats the tar out of the more typical venue – an open paved parking lot on the hottest days of summer.
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Concours judging, slalom contests, tours of local attractions, even instruction on how to drive a manual transmission car, are all part of the event. After all, newer members (often, the offspring of older members) may love these cars, but may not be able to actually drive them.
Each example represents the attention to detail, the craftsmanship, the investment of both time and/or money, that goes into preserving the marque’s legacy.
In a sense, the MGB lives on. After-work drinks in a pub in Irvine California with Bob Hall and Mark Jordan, two designers who worked for Mazda, led to the development of the Miata.
Hall always said their basic objective was to build an MGB that didn’t leak oil on your driveway.
As much as these people love their cars, the main reason they get together is to share their enthusiasm with like-minded car freaks. Life-long friendships (and the occasional marriage) result.
Often, serendipity is involved. Some 30 years ago, Keith Holdsworth found a wallet on the ground near a local bank. He contacted the owner, the late Jon Rosenthall, and drove the wallet to him in his mid-50s vintage MG TF. Jon told Keith about the MG Car Club, and hence began a legacy that continues to this day. Keith is still a member, and his son Jeremy handles advertising for the club’s magazine, The Octagon.
@vintageracer – the man has a way with words. We are lucky to have him guesting today.

So good to see some of Jim’s writing again, after the lamented demise of The Toronto Star’s WHEELS section. That was “the Golden Era” of newspaper automotive articles. Gradually WHEELS was watered down as it appeared the Star cut their in-house local and regular writers.