Ron Hay, a founding member of the MG Car Club of SA’ & report

Ron Hay – inaugural committeeman

Young Ron Hay was learning the building trade at his father’s business in 1947 when he fell in love . . . with an MG TC.

“You do well in your exams and I’ll help you buy one”, his Dad told him. 75 years on, Ron remembers the day well. “I took notice of what Dad had said, and gee, did I ever try!” he said. It paid off, Ron passed his exams and placed the order at Motors Limited for the 695 pound TC, which arrived from England five months later.

“We lived in Ashford, I went down to Motors Limited in Brown Street (now Morphett Street), picked up the car and drove it home. I was the happiest man in Adelaide”.

“That very first day, the first thing I did was get out the cloths and the polish and give it a good clean. If I ever got caught in the rain I’d dry it off as soon as I got it home, even under the mudguards. My Dad said to me once that if I rubbed it any harder I’d rub the paint off”.

Ron and his green TC were familiar sights around Adelaide and well beyond. His first ‘real drive’ was up around Crafers and Stirling via Devil’s Elbow but he also drove it to Melbourne “and all around”: as anyone from the T Register would understand, it was his real love.

Ron had a good relationship with the crew at Motors Limited, who were the Morris and MG agents at the time. So when Spare Parts Manager Malcolm Caire put out the call in 1956 for the formation of an MG Car Club, Ron was there with his ears pinned back.

“That first meeting, on the 10th of April 1956, was in a room at the back of the sales department”, Ron remembers. There were more than 100 people there; the site of all those T-series cars lined up outside the garage must have been really something.

“We didn’t expect anywhere near that many people”, Ron said. “Just goes to show how popular MGs were – and still are”.

A Committee was formed that night with Bob Brown as President and Ron amongst the committeemen – along with Ian Curwen-Walker and others. It was agreed they’d meet monthly on the second Tuesday – a tradition we maintain today.

“It was always the intent that it would be a social club, a place were owners could get together and swap yarns and give each other advice on how to do things”, Ron said. “But of course, boys will be boys and MGs will be MGs, so it wasn’t long before racing and motorsport became part of our events program. We had races at Mallala and hillclimbs at Lobethal. Steve Tillet, whose family owned the monumentals works on West Terrace, had a black TC and he shortened the chassis for racing. I never raced mine, I had too much respect for my car!”

The social side of the Club dominated for Ron and he fondly remembers the Friday nights in summer when a couple of dozen or more cars would run down Anzac Highway to the carpark at Glenelg, line them all up, and have a good natter – no doubt the fore-runner of our Friday night Noggin’nNatters at the clubrooms. “It was boys talk, we’d talk about anything and solve each other’s car problems”, Ron said. “People out for a stroll would always come up for a nosey and talk to us about our cars, we loved it.

“I was never a great one mechanically but I knew every inch of that TC and I could do some things, like tune the twin SU carbies, but I also had a very good mechanic. The car never gave me any trouble in the 10 years I owned it”.

Ron was on the Club’s committee for four or five years and has been a Club member on and off ever since. “Being a member of the MG Car Club of SA has introduced me to so many great people. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and even though my health isn’t what it used to be, I will always have very fond memories of the Club and the members I’ve got to know over the years”.

His wife Marg owns four MGBs, but Ron is adamant that the TC was the best car he’s ever owned and the one that brings back the fondest memories of the ten years he owned it.

So what advice does the last surviving member of the very first committee have for today’s committee members? “Always do the right thing by all”, Ron answered with no hesitation.

Ron Hay turns 99 in May this year and arrangements are already underway for his 100th. He’s a great part of the history of our great club.

Stephen Marlow.