Current Owner: Keir Whitcher, Victoria

Information:

J4417, the fourth last J2 produced, was built at Abingdon in 1933 as a rolling chassis for export to Australia.

History: written by Graeme Jackson, full version appeared in Pre-war Newsletter No. 1/2016

Imported by Lanes Motors in chassis form in May 1933 together with J4415, J4416 and J4418.

These cars were sold to Britannia Motors who had an unidentified coach builder, possibly Martin and King, clothe J4417 in a Salonette body quite unlike those produced on M.G. cars in England. What it lacked in elegance it made up for by avoirdupois and lack of space. One reference records the car as being sold through motor dealers British Sports Cars in Preston. Then, after thirty years of enduring the demands of the flexing J2 chassis and harsh suspension, the disintegrating Salonette coach work was reaching the end of its useful life. A youthful Alan Bail owned the Salonette for a time and then sold it on to Winston Bolwell.
With Peter Beasley’s help, the body was removed and dumped at Frankston tip, and some parts from J4417 were used in Winston’s rebuild of J3771.
Campbell Bolwell had bought his first car, a 1937 Ford V8, at age 15. Some friends demolished the Ford’s bodywork in a local Frankston pine forest so the body was unbolted and discarded, and a pretty crude metal-panelled, space-framed monster was built by the Bolwell boys to become Bolwell Mk 1.
The sports car mad Bolwell brothers had closely followed the innovative ideas of Colin Chapman who conceived and constructed the highly effective Lotus cars from re-engineered components, initially of Austin Seven origin.
Embracing Chapman’s philosophy of lightness, simplicity and good weight distribution, the Bolwell brothers attempted to emulate Chapman by rehashing J4417. A Ford 10 engine, complete with extractors, clutch and gearbox was set so far back in the chassis that the M.G. radiator could be lowered behind the front chassis member. The driver sat almost over the back axle half surrounded by a lightweight metal body constructed on a tubular frame.

The car, Bolwell Mk 2, registered HSM 645 in 1963, proved “exhilarating to drive because you were totally windblown.”  The handling and braking attributes are not recorded, but it did venture on to a race track with the mudguards removed.  It was sold to Lindsey Hughes in 1965.
J4417 reappeared in the 1990s as a rolling chassis in a small car museum at Gembrook east of Melbourne after being purchased by John Holyoak from Lance Dixon. Eventually Don Smyth bought the chassis and a trailer full of bits and had the M.G. reconstructed as a standard cycle guarded two-seater by Nick Langford’s men, using for detailed reference Alan Bail’s second J2, the unrestored J3418.
He was fortunate to obtain a gear box in pieces, a block and a lot more bits from Graeme Jackson, plus a lot of help and encouragement from Glenn Bishop.
The restoration took 4 1⁄2 years and was completed just prior to the 2005 Beechworth Rally.

D.S. sold the car to Ian Head in 2014.

I.H. sold J4417 to Keir Whitcher in 2023, Keir is having a bespoke motorhouse built to house the car in style.

 

• Listing ID: 1834
• Midget: J2
• Chassis Number: 4417
• Year of Production: 1933
• Previous Owners: Alan Bail, Vic. 1950s
  Winston Bolwell, Vic. 1960s
  Lindsay Hughes, Vic 1965
  Maxwell Hobson, Vic.
  Lance Dixon, Vic. 1970s
  John Holyoak, Vic. 1990s
  Don Smyth, Vic. '90s-2014
  Ian Head, Vic. 2014-23
• Current Owner: Keir Whitcher
• Current Engine Number: 1747A
• Date Acquired: October 2023
• Current Reg: 94376 H