MG

For our video of the week this time, we have an MG factory publicity video that comes to us via Pathé.  This film, Sports Car of the Year 1955-56, focuses on the newly introduced MGA. Starting with competition films from Le Mans, the Alpine Rally, and the Mille Miglia. The MGA, as most readers know, replaced the MG TF 1500 and represented a complete styling break from MG’s earlier sports cars – that styling having been developed for racing and records cars. Announced on September 26, 1955, the car was officially launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. A total of 101,081 units were sold through the end of production in July 1962, the vast majority of which were exported. Only 5869 cars were sold on the home market, the lowest percentage of any British car. While now what one would call “impartial”, […]

For the sixth year running, the parent company of MG has launched the SAIC Design Challenge for automotive design students. Following the competition’s success in China, a European based competition has been launched now running for its second year. This year, students are being challenged to develop a flagship electric vehicle for the iconic MG Motor brand that will meet 2025 transport requirements. The technical level of entries that students are required to produce is very demanding, with future automotive designers producing fully-developed concepts. Last year, two European finalists were sent to China to present final designs at SAIC Motor’s global headquarters to the board and international members of the press.

MG has achieved a record sales month, with March 2018 figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) confirming a 49% increase in registrations compared to the same month last year. MG sold more than 1,100 cars in March, marking it as the brand’s highest monthly performance since its return to the market in 2008. Year-to-date, MG is the fastest-growing car brand in the UK, with sales increasing by 67% versus the same period in 2017. MG is partly attributing this success to its new warranty programme. Since the start of the year, all new MGs are backed by a manufacturer’s warranty of at least five years, led by the all-new MG ZS Compact-SUV, which has a 7-year/80,000 miles warranty. Daniel Gregorious, Head of Sales & Marketing at MG Motor UK, said: Our strong growth figures show that the MG […]

There are many types of books in an MG collection. There are shop manuals, marque histories, racing stories, advertising records, and on and on. There are few however that standout is completely different. MG, Made In Abingdon: Echoes from the Shop Floor by Bob Frampton is one such book. This book is one of the few that while dealing with the MG factory, doesn’t actually have a ton of information about the cars. Instead, it is about the people and is told in their own words. MG, Made In Abingdon will give you a feel for the people and the time and the place made famous by the sacred octagon. In the book, we hear from the true voices behind the cars. We hear stories that range from tea-girls bringing cinnamon buns to the line-workers to fist fights in bars to men […]

Auto Class Cars, authorized distributor of MG in Qatar, has announced that the MG RX5 compact SUV will be available in the Qatari market by the end of April. MG Motor’s new ‘Hero SUV’ will be available at the MG showroom on Salwa Road, with prices starting at around QR54,000 (approximately $15K USD). The new MG RX5 will appeal to a range of customers, especially younger buyers looking for value for money in a stylish, technologically-advanced package that allows them to stand out from the crowd, according to a statement.

SAIC Motor Corporation, the seventh largest automobile manufacturer globally and China’s largest automaker, sold 6.93 million vehicles in the calendar year 2017. The company registered an overall growth of 6.8 percent compared to 6.49 million vehicles sold in the year-ago period. SAIC’s self-owned passenger car brands MG and Roewe became the new engines for growth, driving more than 50% of SAIC’s overall sales growth in 2017. Sales of MG and Roewe surged 62 percent at over 520,000 units in 2017.

Vintage racing isn’t just a hobby, it is a passion. And an art. We are quite pleased to have a guest article by Don Racine of Mini Mania about using the ribcase transmission from the ubiquitous “Spridget” in the vintage racing application. The most conventional gears in the everyday manual transmission are helical cut. The single biggest advantage of this design is the reduction of noise that is inherent in the more efficient, easy to manufacture straight cut gears. The helical patterns allow for a much less violent meshing of the gears. But, the decreased noise comes with a few penalties. The first of which is sideload – because the gears are helical, some of the thrust is lost in the rotational direction and thus must be controlled with a thrust surface. The thrust surface most often used is called thrust […]

Let’s get bumpy this week!  Our Video of the Week this time is going to be a Morris 1100 television commercial from New Zealand featuring the car’s hydrolastic suspension. Made for the New Zealand British Motor Corporation (BMC) distributor Dominion Motors. If you don’t know, hydrolastic suspension was used on early Minis and the full line of BMC 1100 / 1300 cars, collectively known by their factory designation of ADO16. The ADO16s include the MG 1100, Austin America, Morris 1100, Vanden Plas Princess 1100, Riley Kestrel, and many more. At this point, BMC was huge into badge engineering. Hydrolastic suspension cars, at least in this form, use liquid-filled dampers at each of the four wheels instead of shocks and springs. Those dampers, which are basically large heavy rubber bladders, are connected front-to-back by hoses. This means that when the front left […]

MG Motor UK has announced an exceptional month for sales, reporting a total of 475 vehicle registrations in January –  a staggering 130% increase compared to the same period in 2017. Despite a market downturn of 6.3%, according to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), MG has successfully bucked the trend becoming the UK’s best performing car brand in January. The Longbridge-based company, which concluded 2017 with a year-on-year registration increase of around 6%, looks on course for a successful 2018, despite challenging market conditions.

It is with great sadness that we must report the passing of another great member of our hobby, Ken Smith. Ken was a founding member of the North American MGB Register (NAMGBR) and served as the first editor for the MGB Driver Magazine. Later he also served as editor for Classic MG Magazine. Ken was one of the most recognized people in the Little British Car (LBC) world. Along with his wife, Barby, Ken shared his passion for the MG Marque throughout the world for most of his 80+ years on earth. Ken worked at Moss Motors for 25 years and, with Barby at his side, traveled across the country for many years supporting British car events and representing Moss.

According to many, the last “real” MG was the MGB series which included the MGC — a very important part of the MG history. With over a half million built from 1962 thru 1980, the “B” was certainly the world’s best selling sports car until very recently being surpassed by the Mazda Miata. In this new video put out by Shelbourne Films and available on the Youtube MG channel restoration expert Tom Metcalf, North American MGB Register’s Alan Magnuson, and John Rogers of the North American MGC Register provide interesting and insightful information about these cars. In this new video put out by Shelbourne Films and available on the Youtube MG channel restoration expert Tom Metcalf, North American MGB Register’s Alan Magnuson, and John Rogers of the North American MGC Register provide interesting and insightful information about these cars.

Our video this week deals with the last production MGB made and its continued travels. On October 23rd, 1980 the very last MGB Roadster rolled off the production line at the MG Car Company in Abingdon. After a while, this final specimen ended up in The Heritage Motor Center alongside 300 other classic, vintage, and veteran British cars. In fact, The Heritage Motor Center in Gaydon is the world’s largest British sports car collection. However, recognizing the importance of MG’s to the people of Abingdon, the Center was kind enough to loan that last MGB to Abingdon County Hall Museum for an indefinite period of time. There was only one problem with the loan – the display area at the museum is on the second floor of a historic building with winding stairs and no good way to get a full-sized car, even […]

The sports cars from Morris Garages were founding members of postwar American sports car racing. The 23rd annual “Amelia” will celebrate marque-founder Cecil Kimber’s original MGs that grew from the success of Morris automobiles before World War II. The M.G. Car Company celebrates its 90th birthday in 2018, though the cars wearing MG’s famous octagon badge have been around even longer. The earliest MGs were re-bodied Morris models with styling and performance enhancements. By 1928, the Oxford company had become large and prosperous enough to warrant an identity separate from the original Morris Garages and the M.G. Car Company Limited was established that March.

2017 investment in industry-beating new product, expansion of the dealer network, and an enhanced aftersales package have all contributed to MG Motor UK achieving its best sales performance in recent years. More than 4,440 new cars were registered by the iconic MG Motor UK brand in 2017, an increase of around 6% year-on-year, according to the latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) released today (4th January 2018). In December alone, MG Motor UK achieved 100 additional unit sales over 2016 figures, thanks largely to the roll-out of the new MG ZS Compact-SUV.

We have received an announcement that Abingdon Spares, founded in 1968 and the world’s largest MG T-series parts specialist, is adding MGB parts to their ever-expanding catalog of MG parts. Ed Cooke of Abingdon reports that many of their customers have multiple MGs, and MGB seems to be the most popular second MG model. We will be sourcing many of the MGB parts from our existing T-Series suppliers. For convenience, we will be using the Moss part numbering system as it has become the industry standard. We will be offering some Moss products but at a discount. We will be sourcing parts from many suppliers for the best value. We will not be printing a catalog for MGB parts, our complete line of MGB parts is featured on our website. — Ed Cooke The MG T-series will continue to be Abingdon Spares […]

In this video we go behind the scenes at British Motor Heritage Limited, to show you the processes of manufacturing an MGB door. I knew that there were multiple layers of an MGB door but never realized how much actually goes into it. The way these reproduction doors are made in the video is exactly the same way they were made by the factory back in the day.

The dynamic new MG ZS has achieved a three-star rating from Euro NCAP after undergoing its rigorous testing program. The Compact-SUV, which is proving popular with families thanks to its affordability, outstanding design and digital extras as standard, received the positive rating following vehicle testing that represents real-life accident scenarios. In both the side barrier test and the more severe side pole impact, the MG ZS scored maximum points and protection of all critical body areas was good.

MG Motor UK is the top performing British car brand in the UK, reporting a near 80 percent increase (79.74%) in November new car sales. Latest figures issued by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that new car sales in Britain have fallen for the eighth consecutive month. Despite the automotive industry reporting an 11.17 percent decline in November, MG has outperformed every other marque this month and has achieved 4.24 percent market growth this year to date.