MG: The Iconic British Sports Car
Published: 24th January 2004
It was Kimber’s idea to begin to produce a line of special bodied cars on Morris chassis. He was later to state that he saw an opportunity in the market for a car that was ten per cent better than the standard product, but which would sell at a fifty per cent higher price. He took an ordinary Morris Cowley chassis and had it fitted with a light open two-seater body of distinctly sporting lines, and in 1924 he commissioned the Coventry firm Carbodies to produce sports two- and four-seater bodies for the Morris chassis.
For the first time, these cars were sold as MGs and the famous octagonal badge began to feature in advertisements. At £395 the four-seater with the 14hp Morris Oxford engine was an elegant vehicle, with the body panels partly in polished aluminium offset by wheel discs. At the time, a four seater standard Morris Oxford cost £285 and the similarly bodied 12hp Cowley as little as £195!
Kimber’s MGs soon caught on. In early 1925, he had a far more special car built for his own use. This used a much-modified Morris chassis with a special overhead valve version of the side valve Morris engine, and a light racing type body. He entered this car in the Land’s End Trial at Easter 1925 and won a gold medal. Although soon sold for £300, the car was bought back by MG some years later and has ever since become known as "Old Number One" – the first proper MG sports car ever to be made.
The MG name was, as Kimber later pointed out, given as a compliment to Lord Nuffield, taking the initials of his first business – Morris Garages - to form the inspiration for this great automotive brand. Importantly the initials were taken to form MG, not, as some naturally presume, to stand as an abbreviation for it.
