Having introduced the USA to the brand during the war MG started exporting the TC in 1946. Their first model to be produced in LHD form was the MG TD and this model is based on one of those exported cars.

The owner was one James Byron Dean, racing driver and actor. It was a 1953 model which he purchased in May 1954 and about which Jimmy said it had a hot motor and milled head, etc..

There are no known pictures of the actual car so this model is based on one used in a film of his life.

The car is a straight build of a Gowland & Gowland MGTD kit which has had the centre of the chassis part cut out so that it could be mounted on a Scalextric Lotus 7 chassis.

The only variations from the kit were the use of Matchbox MG TC headlights and a modified spare tyre. The car wheels are from the lotus 7 with inserts that I cast from the kits wheels. An unused kit wheel was glued to the back of the kits spare tyre and the join filled so that the tyre width was the same as the Lotus 7's.

Jimmy was always interested in speed and wished to enter the popular road races held at this time. He choose to change his car to what he hoped would be a winning model. This could be thought of as a mistake as the results show that he was beaten by an MG every time. We will however never know due to his tragic death on 30 September 1955, caused by a F*!D Driver.

In May 1955 Jimmy traded the MG in for a Porsche 356 which was the most popular car at the time for road racing in the USA. Its 70hp 1.5 "racing"engine with a top speed of 100mph made the model a regular winner in the under 1500cc class.

The model is based on photos of the car at this race meeting and uses parts from two Nico Porsches. I made the race number decals but due to problems with the pixels they are not as good as I would have liked and will be replaced at some time.

Race 2: May 1, 1955 Minter Field Bakersfield, California
Details: Jimmy entered the 1,300-2,000cc production and 750-1,500cc modified race. He was placed third behind Marion Playan in an MG Special and John Kunstle in Panhard Devin. Although he finished third in the main event, he was first in his class.

Race 3: Memorial Day, May 28-29, 1955Santa Barbara Road Races.
Details: Jimmy entered the 1,500cc production event. He moved up to fourth place before the Porsche blew a piston

On September 21st 1955, Jimmy purchased a Porsche Spyder 550 for $6800 getting $3000 part exchange for the 356.

He filmed the last scene for Giant on September 24th and prepared for a Rally in Salinas, California to be held on October 1st. Warner Brothers had forbade him to race professionally until Giant was finished.

On September 30th Jimmy went to Competition Motors, at 1219 Vine Street in Hollywood to give the final touches to the car. George Barris, mechanic for Warner Bros. and noted custom car builder painted the number 130 and the name "Little Bastard" on the car.

He left Hollywood at 1:30pm that day, at 5:59pm the F*!d Tudor turned across his lane near Cholame……

The car is my first complete resin casting. Knowing that the car has the same wheelbase as the 356 I used a spare chassis for this model. I had a near 1/32 die case scale model of the 550 which was 4mm too short in the wheelbase so I lengthened it, corrected some bulges on the rear and modelled the straps before making a mould and then a casting.
I cast the engine grills an filler cap separately but having difficulties getting 'bare metal foil' to stick resorted to using the donor cars chromed parts.
The decals I created and printed myself. The red stripes are also made from decal paper which I sprayed red and then cut to fit.
The windscreen is a piece of clear plastic card that was shaped around the one from the donor car and dipped in hot water to bend it to shape.
The donor car's windscreen was the only part of the original that I had planned to use but its plastic reacted badly to my clear coat and couldn't be used. This was only one of countless problems that happened during this cars construction.