The floorboards in the MG T series and MGA's were made with a pretty good grade of the equivalent to marine plywood. They held up well as long as you kept them dry. But if the car leaked in the rain (a given with all British sports cars of the period) and you let the carpets stay soaked with water, then the floodboards took a beating. Pretty much like Alfa and MGB metal floorboards. The MGB had scupers in the floorboards and if you kept these cleaned out they drained off accumulated water. But people never took out the carpets and rodded out the scuppers, so they would eventually become clogged and then the rust began. The Alfa's have the big black rubber plug at the low point, but again people rarely lift the carper and pull the plug, so then the rust begins.
The MGA had a ladder chassis and a heavy metal and wood body bolted on seperately, and they were underpowered at first. The 58 would have been the last of the 1500 CC models. After 58 they increased to 1600 CC and then 1622 CC. The later cars had adequate HP and all of them had a near perfect weight distribution. something like 52/48. So they handled very well in the turns. But the Triumphs with thier big Leland industrial engines had the power to power through the turns and pull out on engine HP alone, so they were hard to beat. The only problem with the TR was on the TR-2 and TR-3 the body flexed so much in a hard corner that the doors would occasionally pop open in the middle of a power corner turn. the SCCA made the owners bolt the doors shut at one point. But it did not matter in the long run because the 1300 CC Alfa Spider was the car to beat in those days.
The best set up on an MGA was to install an early MGB 1800 CC 3 main bearing engine in place of the original. Then the car handled very well in the turns and still could power out of a turn and get a lead on the competition. But converting to the 1800 CC engine put you in the modified class and then you were up against the real contenders. One way or another, the MG big blocks (not to be confused with the small blocks like Sprites and Midgets and Mini's), though a pleasure to drive, were never contenders in club racing. Of coures there were the exceptions, when in the hands of an exceptional driver.
Best wishes, Robert
