7 BRILLIANT STORIES FROM THE MG ARCHIVE
FROM THE MG ARCHIVE Think you know MG? With Silverstone’s MGLive! taking place this weekend, David Simister takes a timely look at the archives and unearths some amazing new stories
Think you know MG? Think again.
Graham Whitehead’s introduction to MG’s golden jubilee celebrations back in 1979 – when he was Jaguar Rover Triumph’s US boss – still rings true today: MG means sports cars,’ he said. ‘It means driving fun – and it’s not so much a car, as a heritage.’
Whether they’re on the front of a PA Midget skipping through the bends on a tight B-road or straddling a ZT’s rear end, squeezing those two little letters into an octagon has generally resulted in cars with a grin-inducing feelgood factor.
Chances are you’ll be familiar with what makes MG’s cars a mainstay of the classic world – so we’ve dug a little deeper to unearth some of the lesserspotted stories behind the manufacturer’s heritage. With the help of the MG Car Club’s newly extended archive collection we’ve dug up some of Abingdon’s long-lost anecdotes.
All the tales over the next few pages reveal the very British story behind a sports car maker that’s loved the world over. There’s meddling management, lost opportunities, unfortunate owners and that rare thing – the odd lucky break – behind the MGs that we know and love.
If you’re one of the thousands who’ll be at MGLIve! at Silverstone this weekend, remember the struggles Cecil Kimber and his successors overcame to make to make the marque such an enduring success. And as you look at row after row of MGs that owners have brought from across Europe, just remember what Whitehead said – MG is about its heritage just as much as the cars. The nuggets here prove that its success was all the more remarkable.