Today’s Cold Start is going to be one of those where I’m just focusing on an small detail of a car that’s decades out of production. You probably understand these for what they really are: wildly, almost deliriously important. There is nothing happening in the world today that is more worthy of your attention than to know and understand how I feel about the small strip of chrome trim placed on the front end of the bulge in the MGC’s hood (fine, bonnet). Are you ready to hear how I feel about it? Are you stitting? Do you have a helmet on, and, ideally, a bite guard in your mouth? Is there a dropcloth under your (ideally perforated or slotted) seat? We all good? Okay. Here’s how I feel: somewhat confused.
That’s right: somewhat confused.
Easy, everyone, take it easy! Let’s all just calm down. Are we settled? Good. Okay, now I implore you to look at this hood bulge yourself with its little chrome strip and attempt to understand why I feel the way I do:
So, I get why that hood bulge is there – this is an MGC, not some pedestrian four-cylinder MGB, that C stands for Cix, which is how one might misspell six if they were trying to make a point that this car has an inline-six engine, like I am. No one thinks the C stands for “cix,” just to be clear. That bulge is to make room in that little engine bay for that three-liter six, and especially the radiator, which had to be shoved way forward, too:
That front SU carb also gets its own little bulge-on-the-bulge, to give room for the bottle-shaped dashpot. A bulge is fine! Lots of great hoods have bulges in them! I love bulges, and you don’t need to take that out of context, but if you do, enjoy. It’s not the bulge I have a problem with.
It’s that weird strip of chrome that runs across the hood bulge. Why is it there? At first I thought it had to be covering up some sort of ugly seam, because that’s the only thing that makes sense. But it doesn’t. There is a crease there, a little step-down for the chrome trim, and that front edge of the bulge is just part of the hood, not some separate piece that could be, say, removed for an air scoop or something. It’s not like that.
It’s just strange! It doesn’t really follow any of the lines of the car, it’s perpendicular to the direction of most of the other trim strips on the car, it feels weirdly haphazardly placed, I just don’t get it. And I see a drawing like this from a MGC brochure that ignores it entirely, and I wonder if I’m not alone:
This drawing also shows how much cleaner it looks sans chrome strip, I think.
I just don’t get why it’s there. The MGC is a sort of a troubled car anyway, often considered a disappointment. The bigger engine wasn’t as powerful as everyone wanted, these cars tended to understeer significantly, and a lot of the lithe joy of the MGB was lost, and for what? A real-world gain of about 20 hp and a lot of weight?
But more importantly, I just don’t get why that chrome bit is there! And, even more confusingly, sometimes it doesn’t bother me? And then it does? See, it’s complicated. Am I alone here? What’s going on?
They had budget for chrome strips, but not for side mirrors?
DON’T MAKE FUN OF MG’s PLEASE!
I kind of like it. Put me in the pro-useless-piece-of-chrome camp.
Now that’s just plain mean, calling attention to the awkward period when headgear was required.
It’s an imaginary finish line that you never cross, to remind British roadster owners what their maintenance will be like.
From what I know of British period marketing, it was there as visible evidence that you spent slightly more on your car and were therefore superior to your neighbours and coworkers. I expect it worked exactly as intended.
This is the correct answer.
It is a pedestrian grater. Can also be used to slice cheddar, but not strong enough for saussison….
It’s not a chrome strip, it’s a titanium reinforcement to stop the mighty Cix from bursting through the hood. The Cix was so heavy that any extra weight over the front wheels would make the understeer even worse, so it couldn’t be steel and carbon fiber hadn’t been invented yet.
My best guess is there was an issue with the stamping machine getting the depth of the bulge to draw properly without creasing. The cheapest solution without building new tooling was to modify existing tooling to have a crease in the leading edge. this chrome strip covers up the cheap fix.
The British cars are full of oversight and cheap fixes. the triumph spitfire transmissions have a hole in the main case behind the reverse gear (that always fails) that hole is 1/8″ too small to remove the gear. the only way to get the gear out is a complete disassembly of the transmission. Had that hole been slightly larger, you could potentially remove the tail housing with the trans in the car and swap out the reverse gear.
Just a thought…. Is it possible there was some undesirable wind noise at certain speeds with the step-down under the trim? Seems like this would be a quick way to address something like that without having to re-tool the dies for the hood. Kinda like chrome duct tape.
To discover this they would have had to have done some validation testing, and that’s a job the British like to leave to the owners of the first year of production.
Man in Picture: “Listen dear, let me explain why the MGC is a superior successor to the MGB in both style and substance. Let us start with the elegant chrome striping across the bonnet”
Woman in Picture: “Please let the tow lorry come soon”
When I see models in old vehicle ads, I wonder what they’re doing now.
Do these now 80-year old models show their great-grandkids these brochures and say, “That was me trying to look interested in a vehicle falling apart before my eyes. The agency spent 10 pounds to rent me for the day, and took half of that for its fee.”
Man in Picture: *blah blah important mansplaining things blah blah*
Woman in Picture: “Sorry Oliver – It’s just that I don’t like your bulge.”
Correct. It stands for siCs, which is an entirely different misspelling of the number meant to also bring to mind siccing a dog on someone, to promote the aggression of the six-cylinder engine.
They quickly realized that dog attacks weren’t really the image they wanted, though, so you won’t find that in any official documentation, which is a convenient way for me to handwave the lack of evidence for my assertion.
Back in the day I thought the intent was a scoop that had been blocked off. “Yes, Dear Customers, if you are special enough to be part of our factory racing programme, that would be an actual bonnet scoop. But since you are mere plebian buyers the MGC you may own will have the scoop blocked off — for your safety, of course, and to prevent foreign matter from entering the environs of the mighty 6-cylinder power unit.The carefully crafted chromium strip is to remind you of what you might have had had you been an elite driver.”
I have no explanation as to why, but when I look at the two pictures at the end of the article, the one with the chrome looks more British to me. I can’t say I care either way.
Surely Adrian has Views on this.
My guess is that the strip hides (accentuates) a bead formed into the hood skin stamping to give it rigidity. They probably realized too late in tool build that it would “oil-can”, popping in and out with just a little pressure, and this was the cheapest/fastest/ugliest way to solve it. Why they didn’t run the bead down the hood center line instead, I’m sure I don’t know.
That’s an early prototype of a Breathe-Right Nasal Strip. Those SU Carburetors often got a little clogged up – especially when the car slept on its side.
Well, that is indeed a bit flummoxing, to say the least. Perhaps they found that putting a crease there added some strength to the hood’s sheet metal? Given that engine clearance under the hood was at such a premium (heck, they added a bulge on a bulge) there might not have been enough room for bracing or stiffening layers of sheet metal so creasing the hood was the way to go? And adding that chrome strip was somehow a win-win in that it covered up an otherwise unsightly crease and it further denoted the fact that this was a MGC with its mighty six and not a lowly MGB with its piddling four? Were any MGCs ever sold here in the US or did the carburetation setup make it untenable to switch the steering components over to LHD? So many questions…
The US got both the MGC and the MGC GT but not all that many were sold. Up until about three years ago I’d occasionally see a GT being driven locally but I never had a chance to speak with its owner.
The structural thing was my thought as well. Yes, MGCs were officially imported by MG and sold here in the United States.
Sadly, it’s successor, the MGB GT V8, with less weight and more power, was not officially imported.
They were sold here in the US. I own a 1969. I never thought about it before but now I need to go out to the garage and lift the bonnet and take a look from the underside.
Here’s my take: MG knew bulging was necessary. And for that forward-most carb, a bulge on a bulge. But perhaps the first test designs made it one big continuous bulge, and it was too much. They wanted to take the bulge down a notch.
So, what do you do?
You reduce the size of the leading portion of the bulge (reducing that initial visual ‘weight’), then step it up behind a nice chrome accent strip so you can have the bulge reach the actual size you need (minus the carb bulge-bulge) without having to upsize the whole thing to a potentially ungainly look when carried all the way to the front of the hood.
MG was trying to be respectable about their bulge.
I guess we are all trying to be respectable about our respective bulges, right? What?
I don’t mind it. It doesn’t bother me as much as the ugly front hood seam on cars like the Civic, Accord and Camry.
Maybe somebody thought the bulge looked just a little too blobby without something to break it up, and they chose the worst possible remedy. And/or there was some higher-up who thought if a little chrome was good, more was better. Whatever, it must be a fascinating tale, because it involved too much work to just be some random afterthought.
That fascinating tale surely includes Leyland designers spending time at the pub.
Probably some senseless British car stylist felt that the chrome trimline around the side needed continuity across the nose.
This is how we end up with LR Disco’s terrifyingly disturbing asymmetric rear (but then complain about the split of Clubman’s barn door – probably also styled somewhere in the UK).
Every time I’m stuck behind some poorly driven Disco (and they are all poorly driven) that pointless asymmetry wanks actual pain right into my eyes.
Lanes don’t apply to Land Rovers. They’re better people than us.
Is it actually chrome or is it alumin[i]um?
It does follow the top edge of the grille somewhat, but I think it’s there primarily to draw attention to the bulge and to differentiate the C from the more plebeian models.
It’s a bit of bedazzling on the automotive codpiece.
I think it’s polished stainless steel but it’s been a while since I’ve had a close look at one.
In the top photo, that lady is even giving the chrome strip side-eye. She knows that chrome strip is pesky and not to be trusted.
Aaaand now I can’t unsee it…thanks.