Available today digitally or a fully illustrated paperback, MG Classics Book 2 details two post-war decades of Britain’s best-loved sports car. From revival of the 1930s T-series to MGA and MGB, MG Classics 2 is a comprehensive account of every model. It has specs, performance and prices, charts MG history, lists racing and record-breaking. Crammed with reference material and a good read it is authentic, accurate, distinctive and perfect for MG owners, fans and historians.
MG TD: The author's brother John had one
MG was a cottage industry of a car factory, and when peace broke out in 1945 it had to move from tanks and aircraft back to hand-made sports cars. Strictures of 1939-1945 persisted. Food was rationed, so was petrol, industry reconstructed itself when drivers were limited to 200 miles a month. Business and priority users like doctors got extra fuel but it was June 1945 before a basic allowance returned. Shortages continued during the Berlin Airlift 1948-1949, constraints persisted until 1950. Post-war administrations, obliged to pay off Britain’s war debt allocated steel only to exporters so it was as well that MG could sell cars in America. Sir Stafford Cripps President of the Board of Trade, later Chancellor didn’t much like MG but safeguarded its raw materials.
The author's first MG, a 1950s MGA.
MG had only made some 22,500 cars in its 17 years. It was another ten before it made its 100,000th, or as many as Jaguar Land Rover makes in a couple of months nowadays.
MG Classics 2 covers the death in a freak railway accident of founder Cecil Kimber as well as Abingdon’s manufacture of Rileys and Austin-Healeys. MG’s racing heritage made it home for BMC’s Competitions Department under Marcus Chambers, Stuart Turner and Peter Browning, which brought success by Minis in the Monte Carlo Rally as well as big Healeys and MGs in racing. This was the era of the Amalgamated Drawing Office and the creation of BMC, a turbulent time for the British motor industry.
MG Classics 1 is already available digitally or paperback. MG Classics Book 3 follows shortly.
Book 2 covers MG record cars. EX181 in the British Motor Museum, Gaydon.
CONTENTS: History of MG Classics 1945-1965; MG Model by Model 1941-1965; 1945-1949 TC Midget; 1947-1951 YA 1¼ litre saloon; 1948-1950 YT 1¼ litre open 4-seater; 1947 Coachbuilt Y-types; 1949-1953 TD Midget; 1949 George Phillips Le Mans TC; 1950-1953 TD Mk II; 1951 EX 172 George Phillips Le Mans TD; 1951-1953 YB saloon; 1952 EX175 prototype MGA; 1953-1954 TF Midget 1250; 1953 Arnolt, Ghia-Aigle, and Shipsides; 1953-1956 Magnette ZA; 1954-1955 TF 1500; 1954 EX179; 1955 EX182 Le Mans team cars; 1955-1959 MGA; 1956-1959 MGA Coupe; 1956-1958 Magnette ZB; 1957-1959 EX181 record car; 1957-1959 EX186 proposed Le Mans car; 1958-1960 MGA Twin Cam; 1959-1961 Magnette Mark III; 1959-1961 MGA 1600 Tourer and Coupe; 1960 Ted Lund Colin Escott Le Mans coupe; 1960 EX220 and ADO34 front wheel drive MG prototype; 1961-1962 MGA 1600 Mk II Tourer and Coupe; 1961-1962 MGA 1600 De Luxe 1962 1600 De Luxe Mark II; 1961-1968 Magnette MkIV; 1961-1962 Midget GAN1; 1962-1964 MG Midget GAN 2; 1962-1968 MG1100; 1962-1967 MGB; 1964-1966 Midget Mk2 GAN3; 1964 EX234 Hydrolastic MG; 1964 O-series MGB; 1964 Dick Jacobs Midget Coupe; 1964 MGB Sebring racer; Chronology of MG speed records; Chronology of MG Sports; Chronology of MG; Acknowledgements; Bibliography.