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WORKS COMPETITION CARS - VT-104_EX181

EX181 - Supercharged Twin Cam factory land speed record car

MG EX181

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.

MG EX181 open MG EX181 frame
MG EX181 engine MG EX181 engine
Twin Cam engine with HUGE supercharger producing over 300 brake horsepower
MG EX181 engine MG EX181 engine
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)

MG EX181 on the salt MG EX181 on the salt
EX181 on the salt in 1959
MG EX181 at the factory
MG EX181 at the factory

MG EX181 at the factory MG EX181 at the factory
EX181 at Silverstone MGCC Race Meeting 23rd Aug 1958

MG EX181with fin EX181 with the original tail fin (left).
MG EX181with fins
As first delivered to Bonneville, there was a smaller extension of the vertical tail fin below the horizontal tail (photo above right)
MG EX181with Phil Hill
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).
Phil Hill at Road America, July 2000 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.

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