Rover brings back MG badge

BY ALASTAIR SLOANE

British carmaker MG Rover, formed after the BMW-Rover divorce this year, will reinvent the MG badge with a handful of high-performance sedans and sports cars.

The first model to wear the badge will be a swept-up variant of the Rover 75 sedan, expected to be unveiled at the Geneva motor show in March.

MG versions of the two-door Rover 25 and four-door 45 models will follow, along with a reworked MGF sports car.

But who is MG and where did it come from? The first MG cars were the creation of Cecil Kimber (1888-1945) who, as general manager of Morris Garages in Oxford, England, built the first special bodies on a standard Morris chassis in 1923.

Months later, the first examples of the MG Special Sports four-seater followed and advertisements for the new brand began to feature the octagonal badge. A two-seater racing model was built for Kimber's own use in 1925. The MG marque quickly became popular and Kimber had to find larger premises to cope with demand.

In 1928, he formed the MG Car Company and built two new models - the six-cylinder 18/80 and the first of the Midgets, the 847cc M-type, both with overhead camshaft Morris engines.

Between 1930 and 1935 MG had considerable success with its sports and racing cars, including a class win in the 1933 Mille Miglia. During this time the four-cylinder Midget was followed by the six-cylinder Magna and Magnette models.

Among the most famous models in the early 30s were the J2 Midget, which set the style for a generation of British sports cars, the K3 Magnette and the single-seater R-type racing Midget.

In 1935 the company was sold to Morris Motors. MG cars were withdrawn from racing and the company stopped making competition cars.

From 1935 until war broke out in 1939, MG produced a range of cars with pushrod engines.



The first post-war MG was the TC, the first to be exported in significant numbers. More than 10,000 TC models were built before production ended in 1949.

An all-new sports car in 1955 pointed the company in a new direction. The MGA stayed in production for seven years and was the first MG to sell 100,000. Meantime, MG built the Austin Healey sports car range along with the Midget and four-door 1100 and Magnette.

In 1962, the MGB replaced the MGA. The new car, with its 1.8-litre engine, became an international best seller and in 1965 was supplemented by the MGB GT coupe. The last MGB cars were built in October 1980 and from 1982 until 1992 the MG badge appeared on Austin models, the Metro, Maestro and Montego. The MG RV8 in 1992 carried the badge until the all-new MGF was launched in 1995.