MG: The Iconic British Sports Car
Published: 24th January 2004
Leonard Lord eventually relented and gave the green light for the new car that was introduced as the MGA in 1955, with a new chassis, all enveloping bodywork in contrast to MG’s traditional style, and the 1.5-litre engine from the saloon model. This became MG’s biggest success story to date, as more than 100,000 MGAs were made until 1962, including just over 2,000 of the advanced Twin Cam model with two overhead camshafts and four wheel disc brakes. With the MGA, MG also returned to motor sport.
At Le Mans in 1955, three prototype MGA cars had taken part, and later models also ran in the 12-hour race at Sebring in the USA. A new MG record car, the EX179 of 1954 built for George Eyston had been based on a prototype MGA chassis. The last and most impressive MG record car was EX181 of 1957, with a supercharged Twin Cam engine behind the driver in a teardrop shaped body.
This was driven by Stirling Moss and later Phil Hill, and set 1500cc and 2000cc class records at speeds over 250mph.
In 1959 a new MG Magnette saloon was a badge engineered version of BMC’s new Farina styled 1.5-litre saloon, and further new models reflected a similar philosophy: the MG Midget of 1961 was based on the existing Austin Healey Sprite small sports car, while the MG 1100 saloon of 1962 was a tuned version of the Issigonis designed Morris 1100 front wheel drive car. However in 1962 the MGA was replaced by the MGB, a unitary construction sports car with a 1.8 litre version of the BMC B series engine.
In 1965 this also became available with the GT body, a hatchback style coupe. While the Magnette saloon was discontinued in 1968 and the 1100 derived 1300 in 1973, the MGB and Midget sports cars went on to set new production records. Both were also used in motor sports, in particular the MGB with good results in long distance sports car races such as Le Mans, Sebring, and the 84-hour Marathon de la Route at the Nurburgring which an MGB won in 1966.
An MGB derivative was the short lived six-cylinder MGC of 1967-69, with only 9000 made, although MG’s last competition car before BL pulled out of competitions was the spectacular and very fast lightweight derivative of the MGC GT. After the BMC-Leyland merger of 1968 there was comparative quiet on the MG front until 1973 when another MGB based model was introduced, the MGB GT V8 with the 3.5-litre Rover V8 engine, again destined only for a short career with just under 2600 cars being made over a three year period.
