“Now, if you owned a classy car like that, I might consider marrying you,” my father-in-law’s future bride said to him as the pair walked by his gleaming red 1954 MG TF Midget. About half a century later, the car’s still in the family.
This is not the first awful British car I have ever owned; I once had an awful Triumph TR7 Fixed Head Coupe that tried to kill me twice. You’d think after that experience that I would have learned a lesson (any lesson) and steered clear of these loathsome automobiles built by awful men who prefer warm beer.
While digging at a site in Larkhill, England—about 85 miles west of London and long a garrison town—some archaeologists recently found what was left of a 1932 MG J2, one of only 2,083 ever made. And it’s been there since at least around World War II.
Recently, if you’re in Silicon Valley, it’s not that unlikely that at some point you’ll encounter some boring SUV wearing a car-hat covered in sensors and LIDAR and all the other cybernetic crap needed to make a car autonomous. What is genuinely weird to see is all this stuff stuck onto a Chinese-market MG that is…
Raph’s classic review of a 1966 MG 1100 charmed the pants off of most of us today. But rising above it all, with a coldness and curtness more suited to a high school guidance councilor telling you your dream college is out of reach, reader Nacho, PhD hit us with the reality hammer.
Everything about it seems wrong. It’s a front-engine, front-wheel drive family car with soft suspension and no power. And yet this little 1966 MG 1100 is one of the most entertaining cars I’ve ever driven.
Above is a lovely MG 1100, built from 1962 through to 1973. This is a 1960s car and, unless there’s something I’ve forgotten, it’s the oldest car I’ve ever driven.
Everybody should start their driving careers in something weighing under 2,200 pounds before buying a Golf GTI, a V6 Camaro, or maybe a BMW M2 if they have a fat enough bank account. Like an MG Midget, for example—if you can fit.
I remember when I first saw this car. I’d never seen anything like it before.
[A batch of MGAs being prepared for dispatch to the United States. Only complete cars are sent to this important market, and the method of packing illustrated here makes the best use of the cargo space. (1957.)]
Building a GT3-spec road legal race car based on a 1966 MGB GT is one thing. Powering it with a twin-turbo Lotus V8 Lotus themselves wasn’t ballsy enough to make in the eighties is the decision suggesting that you should seek mental help.
If you can keep straight the bizarre and convoluted history of brands like British Leyland, Morris, Austin, Rover and MG, then consider yourself smarter than I am.
Not every car community is filled with douchebags. These ten groups of people are as good as auto owners come.
Most people my age remember MG because it's something their parents talked about, not because they've actually had first-hand experience with one of the roadsters that were rather popular up until 1980. The MG name is still kicking around and its Chinese backers want so badly to return to the U.S. Just not necessarily…
Today in sad press release sentences: "Sheffield is to become the first city in Britain to have two new MG dealerships."
MG, the venerated British brand that gave us little runabouts like the Midget and the MGB, drove itself into the ground a few years ago and it was scooped up by the Chinese companies Nanjing Automobile and SAIC. To that end, SAIC debuted the SUV part of the re-born MG, the CS, at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier today.
The British screwed up their automotive industry like no other. The endless badge-engineering meant that their once great cars become as outdated as the fish and chips kiosk just outside the factories, while the long-lasting strikes made sure that the workers went back to do their shifts with just the right attitude.…
