Do you know how much British people love fish & chips? In order to compete for cod resources, the proud British gentlemen actually went to war with Iceland. Someone else conducted a survey: "What best represents Britain?", and the fish and chips "beat" the Beatles, Shakespeare and the Queen of England and were successfully elected. "If you want to grasp people's hearts, you must first grasp people's stomachs." It seems that this is the truth. Among the many car brands born in the UK, who is the British "Fish&Chips"? Everyone's answer may be different, and MG is sure to be one of them. This brand, now engraved with China's imprint, has a history of nearly a hundred years and can be said to have witnessed the rise and fall of the British automobile industry. Today we will tell about its past and present life.
In terms of popularity and influence, MG is indeed far inferior to before. But if you want to look at the history of British cars, MG is a brand that cannot be bypassed. From 1924 to the present, for nearly a hundred years, it has been equivalent to a microcosm of the development of the British automobile industry, from prosperity to decline, and to taking another path to revival. It is no exaggeration to say that understanding MG is to understand a period of development history of British automobiles.
William Morris (hereinafter referred to as Morris) was born in an ordinary family in Worcester, England in 1877. When he was three years old, he followed his family to Oxford, which is more well-known, and started his legendary life in Oxford. For various reasons, Morris dropped out of school at the age of 15 and went to an apprenticeship at a bicycle repair shop. Interestingly, his apprenticeship was extremely short, less than 9 months, when he wanted a raise, and his employer refused his request. In a fit of anger, Morris decided to "start himself". This year, he had just turned 16.
Se Weng lost his fortune, Morris's business was going very smoothly, and he quickly rented a store. In addition to repairing bikes, the business has expanded to assembly and sales. At that time, Morris was already very business-minded. The assembled bicycles were not only of better quality than other vehicles on the market, but also marked his products as "Morris".
In 1902, Morris bought the garage used to repair bicycles on Longwall Street in Oxford and started operating a car business, including selling, leasing and repairing cars. At that time, he became an agent for car brands such as Arrol-Johnston, Belsize, Humber, Hupmobile, Singer, Standard and Wolseley. Although he experienced many setbacks during this period and went bankrupt for a while, Morris still persevered.
At the same time, Morris changed the name of the repair shop, changed from Oxford to The Morris Garage, and also bought more houses on Queen's Street for new business. It is worth mentioning that the factory building on Great Wall Street was redeveloped in 1980 and is now used as a student dormitory.
At that period of war, Morris also had enough time to think about how to improve production efficiency, and also visited and studied in the United States. In 1919, after the armistice, Morris, who resumed automobile production, immediately introduced Henry Ford's assembly line production method, greatly increasing production and laying a solid foundation for becoming the largest automobile manufacturer in the UK in the future.
When Morris was studying in the United States, he found that buying an engine suitable for his sedan in the United States only costs 18 pounds, while buying an engine and a gearbox in the United Kingdom costs 50 pounds. It can be seen that the effect of mass production is huge profits, and Morris began to consciously carry out large-scale automobile production.
Before this, Morris was moving forward alone with the company. It was not until 1921 that he welcomed his first right-hand assistant in his life, Cecil Kimber, the founder of MG brand. Kimber used to work for AC Automobile in the UK. After joining Morris Garages, he was in charge of sales. Because of his extremely enthusiastic about automotive machinery and rich experience in management and sales, Kimber became the general manager after spending a year.
After a long time of market observation, Kimber carefully noticed that as long as the performance of the vehicle is increased by 10%, the price can be increased by 50%. The key is that at that time, the British automobile market did lack civilian sports cars. So he had a bold idea: to set up a car department focusing on sports models. What he did not expect was that Morris actually agreed to his request readily. At this point, the seeds of the MG brand began to sprout, and the seedlings of ideals and hopes planted by Kimber and Morris quickly grew into towering trees that everyone looked up to, leaving a strong mark for British automobile history. The first MG car was born in 1924 and was named 14/28. Kimber personally participated in the body design of 14/28. It is also regarded as MG's No. 1 car. Although it is based on the Morris Oxford design, it has a more streamlined shape. The unique "bull nose" design, compact body size and sporty chassis make the 14/28 full of driving fun.
In fact, there is still some controversy in the outside world about the year when MG was born, because the star anise logo of MG appeared in the newspapers in Oxford, England as early as November 1923. Of course, the official has a clear statement, claiming to have registered the MG trademark on May 1, 1924, and MG is taken from the first letter of Morris Garages. As for the octagonal logo, it is inspired by the dome of European churches, exuding the temperament and spirituality of the aristocratic tradition. Over the past century, the MG brand has adhered to the octagonal logo and has continuously injected fresh connotations into it, making the edges and corners brighter.
Kinber, with his enthusiasm for cars and talent in design, aimed at the gap in the British civil sports car market, laying a solid foundation for MG's development. After the launch of 14/28, he also led engineers to make comprehensive and meticulous improvements to this model, including lowering the chassis and adjusting the steering wheel tilt, further enhancing the handling of the car. At the same time, different sizes/styles are provided, as choosing different sizes/styles can make the car look more dynamic.
After launching three models in less than five years, as the market demand becomes larger and larger, MG continues to increase its production capacity, and its production factories were originally relocated in downtown Oxford and suburbs but still could not meet the demand. So MG bought a leather factory building in Abingdon town (16 kilometers south of Oxford). After renovation, production of the Abingdon factory began in 1929 until it closed in 1980. MG stopped in Abingdon for half a century.
The advent of M-Type is said to have laid the foundation for MG's sports lineage. It is equipped with a new design of Wallsley's four-cylinder engine with a maximum power of 20 horsepower. In addition, its chassis was lower than most cars at that time, and the rear suspension was made of coil spring shock absorbers. In 1930, the maximum power of the M-Type model was increased to 27 horsepower, and the gearbox gear was upgraded from three-speed to four-speed.
In our words today, M-Type is the "little cannon" of that era, and the key is that it is very affordable. The earliest M-Type launched costs only £175. What does this mean? It's priced at half the cheapest version of the Morris Minor at the time. Due to supply shortage, MG also raised its price to £185. Despite this, the M-Type was still hard to find at that time, and it opened a new era of British civil sports cars.
● A place of worship for millions of MG fans: Kimber House
For tens of thousands of MG fans around the world, in addition to their hometown, there is also a "hometown" that always wants to return passion, called Kimber House, which is where the MG Auto Club is located. In 1930, MG founded the MG Car Club in Abingdon, England. Today, it has millions of loyal MG fans and is one of the largest single car brand clubs in the world to date.
MG Although most of them are quite cheap civil sports cars, it does not prevent it from achieving dazzling results in the stadium and demonstrating its strong sports genes. As early as 1925, The Old Number One, which was offline at that time, was Kimber's "special vehicle". As the head of the brand, Kimber personally drove it on the track to challenge the strong enemies.
Since the birth of the brand, MG has been active on the track. Perhaps unlike other brands, they focus on forex racing, but in its brand genes, the pursuit of speed and sports passion have long been deeply embedded in MG's bloodline. It is this belief that has also enabled MG racing at the "grassroots" level to win countless brilliant glory.
At the 24-hour endurance race held at the Brookland Raceway in 1930, the MG M-Type Midget racing defeated the powerful Bentley team. Interestingly, it is reported that a Bentley driver once said sourly: "We were invaded by the 'flea'." In any case, this is one of the most important awards that MG won in the early days, which made MG famous.
MG was invincible in the early 1930s. It not only won the Irish Grand Prix, the Isle of Man TT competition, and the Ulster TT competition. He also won the competitions in other countries such as Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Monaco, and dominated the world! The excellent results in the arena not only bring sales to MG, but more importantly, it attracts more MG fans.
One of the speed records of MG challenges is particularly amazing. In 1932, the famous British racer George Eyston drove this Midget Dwarf car to challenge a speed of 120 miles (193km/h) on the Pendine beach in Wales. You know, this car has only 7 horsepower and a displacement of only 0.75 liters. And after its successful challenge, it immediately caused a sensation in the industry.
The MG C-Type is also not expensive, the standard version costs only 295 pounds, making it a racing car that is truly affordable for ordinary people. Of course, due to the success of the competition, its price has also been adjusted later, rising to £490. C-Type is used in many competitions, and it once won the top five in the 1931 Brookland competition.
