Couple gear up for the British Invasion

METRO DETROIT — Ken and Melody Klemmer “are preservationists at heart.”

They live in a historic home built in 1925, and a favorite pastime is driving their antique cars. The Klemmers buy and sell different vintage models every few years.

“I’ve had American cars, Model Ts and involvement with the Franklins,” said Ken, who has also owned Austin-Healey, Lotus and Mini Cooper cars. “We don’t tend to keep them for very long. There are so many cool ones out there that we want them all. We buy them and we fix them up. We drive them for a year or two and then we sell them and buy something else.”

The newest collection includes a cerulean blue prewar 1930 “Wiggy” MG M-Type they bought in 2022, and a maroonish/black prewar 1931 “Edwin” MG D-Type they’ve owned since 2023. Neither car is its original color although the M-Types were available in blue. According to Ken, most early D-Types were black, and then green and red were available often in two-tones.

The Farmington Hills residents belong to several MG car clubs, including the Windsor-Detroit MG Club; the North American MMM Register, which stands for Midget, Magna and Magnette; and Melody is president of the Michigan Chapter of the New England MG T Register, and Ken is the vice president.

The couple attend many local British car shows or drive through country roads with other MG enthusiasts, stopping for ice cream, at cider mills or museums for friendship and camaraderie. The annual Old Car Festival at Greenfield Village in Dearborn is a favorite spot. The national Gathering of the Faithful is another regular haunt. There are a few different locations, and the Klemmers frequent the central show in the Midwest.

Ken has studied the history of the MGs extensively.

“This M-Type we have, they built 3,000 of those cars. Quite a few survived, I would say close to 500 worldwide, which is shocking for a car like that,” Ken said. “It was just a cheap sports car. It’s got a wood body. It rotted and rusted and it went through World War II. They were loved so much. People hung onto them and didn’t junk them when they got old.

“The D-Type is the rarest road car MG made. They only made 250 in total. There’s about 40 in the original condition still left. The guys at the MG factory would be shocked to know that we’re still driving these 100 years later,” Ken said. “MG was super prolific in the early years. They built a lot of different models. They were very innovative. There were some really interesting things with chassis and suspension.”

There are different groups of MGs, depending on the year the model was built. Because they are English cars, the steering wheel is on the right side.

“The Triple-M cars are the cars we like to specialize in. Those were built from 1929 through 1935, 1936,” Ken said. “The Triple-M cars had innovative suspension systems. Very quick steering, very nimble cars, very lightweight.”

The style also had small, high-RPM engines with overhead cams.

“The overhead cam was kind of unusual for that time. It made for a very high revving engine,” Ken said. “These cars were all raced in amateur and professional racing. The racing scene in the 1930s in England was big, and then a lot of those cars would go over to Europe to race there as well.”

The Klemmers take out their cars often, several times a week, even in less-than-favorable weather. That includes trips to the grocery store, meetings and out to dinner. There are times they feel like they are in a time warp and even dress in 1930s clothing and wear race jackets. A third passenger sometimes is their dog, Cocoa Puff.

“You’re on the wheel on the other side, so there is already a difference there,” Ken said. “It looks intimidating, but it’s easy.”

It’s guaranteed they’ll meet people who want to know all about the MGs.

“The looks on the kids’ faces,” said Melody, who always lets people sit in the cars. “We let them in. We take pictures with them.”

“People come up to you and talk to you about them,” Ken said, who challenges teens to try to figure out how to start the MGs. “The most prevalent question is, ‘Did GM build these?’ because they see the MG and they reverse the letters.”

Melody said many want to know if the 1930 “Wiggy” MG M-Type is a boat.

The Klemmers attribute the MG’s popularity to different factors.

“It’s a passion,” Melody said.

“Cars were bought by young people and they traded around a lot,” Ken said. “Also, the war and the Depression helped because Britain was in such austerity by the time the war started. After that, people couldn’t afford to buy new cars so they kept old cars running for a long time. They patched them up and they made them work and they stayed on the road. That’s why we have a pretty high survival rate for British cars.”

Ken discovered MGs when he was a preteen after reading the book, “The Red Car,” by Don Stanford.

“That really had a formidable allure to me,” Ken said.

His father also made an impact.

“My dad was a designer for Chrysler, and I had been around cars all my life,” Ken said. “But my dad always bought really boring cars, and the MGs sounded so exotic. But he told me about MGs. The MGs sounded exciting.”