MG Sports Cars

The T-series MG’s have suicide doors and I sure love the look and how easy they make it to get in and out of the car. Maybe there was no problem with a stock fifty-three horse TD, but my V8 version seems to distort the car under hard acceleration and the driver’s door sometimes pops open. I checked on line for safety lock kits and found they were expensive and mostly manual type. I didn’t want to think about setting the lock every time I got in the car so I designed electric solenoid operated units. They are activated when the ignition is turned on, but also have an on/off switch in the loop.

When I was two years old I pulled the door handle on my Dad’s suicide rear door car at fifty mph. I was thrown from the car into oncoming traffic, bounced between two cars and rolled into a ditch. Fortunately I survived that little thrill ride. At my age I don’t think I can do that again.

solenoids are door lock units from EBAY for about $6 each, they are all pull type so I had to make a bellcrank to reverse direction


solenoid activated and pin extended


pin hole drilled in door

Great job Dave. Quite a story about when you were a kid. Hope we're going to get so see your car in Townsend this May.

Hey Rob
I plan to be there for sure. Still working out the bugs in this thing, Hate to say it, but it's the worst I've ever had. I've finished other cars on Friday night and drove 300 miles to an event the next day. I haven't managed to get more the five miles with this one before a problem pops up, and I limp back home. Oh well, maybe this week will be different.
take care, Dave

Well you're ahead of me Dave. Today was the most I've driven mine -- about 1.5 miles total... but it was fun & I was able to knock another item off the list & have one more pretty easy one to correct (I posted that one in an update in the brakes/suspension section & I'm only going to embarass myself once so you'll have to look there if you want to know what that one was!) Anyway, looking forward to meeting you & seeing your car in a couple of months.

Rob