Page 27 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

could not expect a car to stand up to continuous hard driving but, instead, they revelled in that glorious gearbox and there was an appalling disaster at 15,000 miles. People tuned J2 Midgets to achieve 80mph, but that entailed handling Mr Laystall a lot of folding money for a special crank.’
RE-THINKING THE ‘SMALL SIX’
As well as an open four-seat tourer and a close-coupled fixed- head coupé2, two racing versions of the J-type were additionally offered. The J3 was a supercharged J2 and the J4, introduced in
March 1933, a no-holds-barred blown racer with a high-set Brooklands exhaust and no doors; both had 746cc engines to fit into the up-to-750cc competition class. Cecil Kimber’s motor- sporting ambitions didn’t stop there. Back in its 8 March 1932
2 Known as the Salonette, this had the same body as the D-type and F-type Salonettes. Rene Kimber used one, and according to Jean she competed in the car in early M.G. Car Club rallies. This may tie in with a story that as a youngster future M.G. racer Dorothy Stanley-Turner navigated for Rene in a trial. Miss Stanley-Turner was the daughter of Abingdon GP and friend of Kimber Dr Henry Stanley-Turner, a one-time RAF wing-commander and the former Principal Medical Officer for the Middle East.
The J3 was a supercharged J2; to cope with the extra performance, bigger brakes from the L-type were fitted. (Author)
195 Chapter Nine: Technical Advances but a Marriage in Retreat
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