EX-181 1957 - driven to land speed records at Bonneville.
    23 Aug'57 - MG EX181- 1489cc producing c290 bhp @ 7000 rpm Supercharged MGA Twin cam engine. running on 86% methanol laced with nitrobenzene, acetone and sulfuric ether. - British Driver: Stirling Moss 245.64mph - 395.31 km/h - Experimental project 1100-1500cc
    3 Oct'59 - MG EX181 - Increased to 1506cc producing over 300 bhp @ 7300 rpm Supercharged MGA Twin cam engine, running on 86% methanol laced with nitrobenzene, acetone and sulfuric ether. - American Driver: Phil Hill - 254.91 mph - 410.23 km/h - Experimental project 1500-2000cc - to this day still the fastest MG ever.

Twin Cam engine with HUGE supercharger producing over 300 brake horsepower

os - More Records For Stirling 1957. 226-mph (1-min 10-sec Video)
os - MG Does It Again 1957. 245-mph (14-min 1-sec Video)
os - Tailer Made/ Record Breaking Car 1958. (3-min 32-sec Video)
os - The Sports Car Of The Year 1955-1958 . 254-mph (1-min 2-sec Video)
os - British Car's Great Feat! 1959. 254-mph (1-min 2-sec Video)
Roaring Raindrop - 40th anniversary -MG World, Oct-Nov'97 -(1.5-MB pdf)

EX181 on the salt in 1959

MG EX181 at the factory


EX181 at Silverstone MGCC Race Meeting 23rd Aug 1958

EX181 with the original tail fin (left).

As first delivered to Bonneville, there was a smaller extension of the vertical tail fin below the horizontal tail (photo above right)

The entire tail fin was removed during speed trials at Bonneville. The car was still stable, and ran significantly faster without the fin.

Without the tail fin, and with Phil Hill at Bonneville in 1958 (photo at right).
I met Phil Hill in person at Road America (Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Illinois, USA) in July 2000. See Chicagoland MG Club photos

We were at the concours street car show near the lake in Elkhart Lake, WI. Kurt Bork 's wife was near their nice MG TD when this nice old man came strolling along to say, "Nice TD". Then he said, "I once drove an MG 255-mph". She sort of choked and said, "Yeah, sure", and walked away. Then Kurt came along to talk to his wife, and finally told her who the old gent was, and boy was she embarrassed.

The following page contains more close up photos of the spare engine for EX-181.