Mc Comb told me the top speed was expected to be “around
125mph” but when we had the car for Road Test it managed only 120, though the
acceleration time to 60 was much quicker, at 10 sec.
The 1970s were a time of strikes, falling sales and mounting
losses, culminating in the bombshell announcement in 1979 that the Abingdon
plant was to be closed, as part of the recovery plan put forward by the new
boss Sir Michael Edwardes. In his book Wheels of Misfortune Jonathan Wood
relates how 100 Americans and their wives had come over to celebrate 50 years
of the Abingdon plant with a visit ending in a dinner at the Connaught Rooms in
London. It fell to the BL vice chairman David Andrews to stand up and tell the
visitors that the company was to stop making MG sports cars. “It really was one
of the worst things I’ve ever had to do, and I’ve had plenty,” he said
afterwards.
A new era for MG
Of course, the lamentable closure of Abingdon was not the
end of the MG name, far from it. MG versions of family saloons soon appeared,
beginning with the MG Metro in May 1982. It was slightly more powerful than the
standard one but essentially it was ‘badge engineering’ at its worst, with the
MG octagon all over the place at least the 1100/1300 had some character about
it. However, a more worthy addition came at the Motor Show in October the same
year, with the arrival of the 1275cc Metro Turbo boosted to give 93bhp. On Road
Test in March 1983 it gave a top speed of 110 mph, and accelerated from rest to
100 in 36.3 sec which wasn’t bad going 30 years ago.
MG TF LE500 Front
View
More MG versions followed, for both the Maestro and Montego,
and a great occasion for me was to be taken to the south of France for the
launch of the MG Montego Turbo in March 1985. With its 2 litre engine boosted
to give 150bhp, the Montego Turbo, identified by its badging and red line all
the way round the bumper and side strips, was a real flyer. It had a lovely
spread of torque and could go from rest to 60mph in 7.3 sec, and on to a top
speed of 125mph. Now, the MG name is thriving again, with production building
up at Longbridge with the MG3 and MG6.
Highlight of the 90 year MG era, to my mind, was the MGR V8
which appeared in 1993 from the Rover Group, and I loved that car. Its engine
gave superb, effortless performance and I thought its interior was excellent,
with a fine walnut fascia and seats so sumptuous that I even measured them up to
see if I could buy a couple to fi t in my Triumph TR7. They didn’t. But it was
not to be for the MG either, and the RV8 did not enjoy the success it genuinely
deserved.
90 years of MG
If there was any justice in the world, then the MG name
would still be rivalling the likes of BMW and Mercedes as the brand to drive.
Come to think of it, MG was more Audi in its history and outlook and surely
would have similarly prospered if British Leyland management hadn’t starved this
famous, and much loved outfit, of proper encouragement and cash.
The TF LE500 – a
special edition of the well-loved original sports car
The origins of MG date back to the very roots of motoring.
Cecil Kimber joined Morris Garages in 1921 (William Morris had set up the
Oxford based business in 1913, and started building the first Morris Oxford),
and during the early 1920s Kimber experimented with various special bodies
based on plain Morris chassis. Successes in motorsport raised the profile of MG.
However, by the mid 1950s buyers were looking for more modern designs, which
the MGA duly provided, even though it was essentially an updated and rebodied
TF.
The MGB ran for almost 20 years but the rot was setting in
for MG because, despite having some of the finest engineers within BMC, the
company was continually neglected and under funded for no other reason than
because British Leyland now saw MG’s once arch rival Triumph as the
corporation’s blue eyed boy and its saviour.
BMW quickly extricated itself from the business it took over
in 1994. In 2000 ‘MG Rover’ was acquired, shaken up and revived by the Phoenix
Consortium who appeared to be the company’s saviour at long last. Sadly, it was
a false dawn and the company went out of business in 2005, to be bought and
revived by the Chinese where new MG models, produced by Nanjing MG, are
marketed as the MG3 and MG6 (tests elsewhere in this issue). Rest assured,
whoever owns the badge, the famous Octagon talisman will be around for many
more years yet!
MG Rear View
We all thought it was all over for MG when MG Rover finally
shut up shop at Longbridge in 2005. But no: after various deals and counter deals
with Nanjing Automotive and then Shanghai Automotive in China, the MG name
cranked back into life and so too, in a small corner near the distinctive round
building by the main entrance, did part of the Longbridge factory.
It began with a resurrected MG TF, followed in 2011 by the
MG6. This five door hatchback, larger than a Ford Focus but smaller than a
Mondeo, soon gained a four door saloon sibling, plus a new turbo diesel engine
to join the re-engineered K series petrol unit, now known as N series.
The MG6 was largely designed and engineered at Longbridge,
although its assembly there is mainly from parts sent from China.
