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The Ultimate History of MG

Part of the '8 DVD Box Set – Classic Cars' reviewed by John Cooper Running Time - 78 minutes www.greenumbrella.co.uk

As ever with these reviews, the content of the whole DVD is best summarised by the list of chapters, which in the case of MG goes as follows:

1. Old Number One and the ‘Triple M’ Cars
2. Saloons and Roadsters of the Thirties
3. MG Record Breakers
4. The MGA – Smooth and Streamlined
5. The MGB – A Big Seller
6. Midgets and Spridgets
7. Re-Manufacturing the MG
8. Back in the High Life Again
9. 21st Century Saloons

The MG story starts back in about 1925 with Old Number One being built by Cecil Kimber for use in trials competitions where it won a gold medal (for an un-penalised performance) in the Lands End trial. Puritans may argue that it is not a true MG as it was sporting the circular Morris Garages badge. The success of this car made Morris Garages think about creating a separately branded sports car range to distinguish between its conservative ranges of saloons bearing the name of the company founder, William Morris. And so MG and its now famous octagonal badge were born.

In 1930 the company moved from Oxford to Abingdon where it has long been associated. The DVD shows great period footage of car production here including new owners turning up to view their new cars being built or to collect them.

The early success of the cars naturally led to them being used in competitions and 1933 a MG scored a class win in the Mille Miglia. The DVD goes on to recount further competition successes over the years.

In the post war years, it was the T type range that ensured the continued existence of the company, helped by exports to the American market largely fuelled by returning soldiers who had fallen in love with cars while posted in Britain.

Probably one of the most fascinating parts of the film is around the record breaking MGs. In the summer of 1939 with war looming Lt-Colonel Goldie Gardener raced his MG down a closed autobahn of Nazi Germany to set a new 1100cc class record at 203 mph. Not content with this, the engine was then re-bored at the record site using mobile equipment to just above the 1100cc limit, re-assembled and set another 200+ mph record in the 1500cc class.

Another equally amazing car was EX135. As a 6-cylinder 750cc engined car it set the 750cc class record at over 150 mph. Later on 4 cylinders only it set the 500cc record at 154mph. Finally with 4 rods and pistons removed completely making it a twin it set the 350cc record at 121 mph.

It’s hard to imaging anything like this going on these days.

To complete the picture, the fastest ever MG was the EX181, which reached 254 mph in the hands of Phil Hill.

The story then returns to its more familiar road going history with the MGA and the MGB which with its derivatives was the best selling British sports car ever with over 400,000 being sold between 1962 and the closure of the Abingdon factory in 1980.

It is probably these cars that are the reason that MG owners club is the largest owners club in the world. The support they provide in producing spares created from the original toolings means that it is probably possible to create a brand new MGB from ground up.

After this period, the marque was used for badge-engineering the higher performance versions of the Metro, Maestro and Montego. It was with the arrival of the RV8 that MG returned to manufacturing sports cars and the subsequent arrival of the MGF.

When BMW sold the company for a mere £10, the new owners had the vision to name the new company MG Rover exploiting its sports car heritage and pedigree.

Unfortunately, this is the point where the despite being only a year old, this DVD is becoming a bit dated in light of recent events. It starts to describe the X Power SV and the future of the company. The closing line is “The MG story is far from over.” The reality is that another chapter is being written in MG history, whether this is the final chapter I guess only time will tell.

Another thoroughly engaging and entertaining film in the series.