From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
80 YEARS OF MG: Currently celebrating 80 years since its inception, the MG marque occupies a special place in motoring history. In the early 1920s Cecil Kimber was the man in charge of the Morris Garages which were the Morris agents for Oxford and the firm from which the Morris empire had been born. At that time many manufacturers offered "special" versions of their production cars, usually lightly embellished and mildly tuned for the man in the street who could afford to pay a little bit extra for something a little more distinctive.
In 1924, Kimber began to offer the new 1.8 litre Oxford with improved handling and a handsome aluminium body. With the backing of Morris service and reliability the MG - as he called his creation - was a great success.
By 1928 Kimber was offering a completely new cylinder block and head, a new light body and a higher axle ratio. The resulting 18/80 hp MG was improved further in 1930 with a four-speed gearbox and a stiffer chassis. Additionally, when Morris introduced the new ohc 847cc Morris Minor in 1928, Kimber adopted it to the MG style, producing a fabric-bodied two-seater MG in 1929 which he called the M-Type MG Midget. With a top speed of 65 mph and excellent acceleration for the time, this was Britain's first practical, cheap sportscar. Truly, the car that launched a thousand imitators . . .
In 1930 MG went racing to promote the brand. Based on the production models it offered for sale, the racing MGs were supercharged and were fitted with special wheels, springs and valves. After their victory in the Brooklands Double Twelve Hour Race of 1930 they became known as the Double-Twelve M-type. An even more highly tuned version went on to win the 1931 Double Twelve, the Irish International Grand Prix at Phoenix Park and the Ulster Tourist Trophy Race - outstanding results for such a small, production-based car. In succeeding years, racing successes were achieved not only in Britain and Ireland but on such famous Continental races as the Mille Miglia, as well as its class in the French Grand Prix. Its mission achieved, MG gave up racing in 1935 and ended the production of competition cars for sale to the public.
After the second World War, the company's then-current sports car - the TC Midget - did more to develop the American cult of the European sports car than any other make. The MG TD and TF followed before the aerodynamic MGA.
An all-new MG Midget and the introduction of the MGB gave the company the two quintessentially 1960s British sports cars and saw its success continue into the 1970s. Recently, the MG brand has been reborn and today's models ably carry a unique heritage. In Ireland, MG cars were for many years assembled at Booth Poole's Islandbridge plant, and thankfully a great number of the Irish cars survive today as cherished examples in the hands of Irish enthusiasts.
ABINGDON OUTPUT: Something which is not generally known is that the vast majority of Riley cars built between 1949 and 1958 came off the production line in the MG factory at Abingdon. Additionally all Austin-Healey sports cars built between 1957 and 1970 were also assembled at the MG factory.
In fact, such was the popularity of the Austin-Healeys that in the years 1959 and 1960 substantially more were built at Abingdon than the number of MGs produced there. This was despite the fact that 1959 saw MGA production reach its highest level of 23,000, which exceeded the entire pre-war production of every MG model from 1923 to 1939.