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BMC's headquarters were at the Austin plant at Longbridge, near Birmingham and Austin was the dominant partner in the group mainly because of the chairman. The use of Morris engine designs was dropped within 3 years and all new car designs were coded ADO from "Austin Drawing Office". The Longbridge plant was up to date, having been thoroughly modernised in 1951, and compared very favourably with Nuffield's 16 different and often old fashioned factories scattered over the English Midlands. Austin's management systems however, especially cost control and marketing were not as good as Nuffield's and as the market changed from a shortage of cars to competition this was to tell. The biggest selling car, the Mini, was famously analysed by Ford Motor Company who concluded that BMC must be losing £30 on every one sold. The result was that although volumes held up well throughout the BMC era, market share fell as did profitability and hence investment in new models, triggering the 1966 government sponsored merger with Jaguar to form British Motor Holdings (BMH), and three years later leading to the merger of BMH with Leyland Motor Corporation.


At the time of the mergers, there was a well established dealership network for each of the marques. Among the car-buying British public there was a tendency of loyalty to a particular marque and marques appealed to different market segments. This meant that marques competed against each other in some areas, though some marques had a larger range than others. The Riley and Wolseley models were selling in very small numbers. Styling was also getting distinctly old fashioned and this caused Leonard Lord, in an unusual move for him, to call upon the services of an external stylist.

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The British Motor Corporation (BMC) was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation (parent of the Morris car company, MG, Riley and Wolseley) in 1952. Basically, it was the predecessor of British Leyland.


BMC was the largest British car company of its day, with (in 1952) 39 percent of British output, producing a wide range of cars under brand names including Austin, Morris, MG, Austin Healey, Wolseley as well as commercial vehicles and agricultural tractors. The first chairman was Lord Nuffield (William Morris) but he was replaced in August 1952 by Austin's Leonard Lord who continued in that role until his 65th birthday in 1961 but handing over, in theory at least, the managing director responsibilities to his deputy George Harriman in 1956.

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After the Second World War car production was to resume, and then in 1952 MG became part of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) when the Nuffield group merged with Austin. The MGA sports car was launched in 1955 to meet competition form family rival Austin-Healey, and this car sold well on both sides of the Atlantic. The usual badge engineering employed by BMC applied, as with other marques in their stable, equally to MG, and saloons such as the Farina designed Austin Cambridge were made in an MG variant, and were of a more upmarket and sporting nature. 1962 saw the arrival of what was to become one of the most popular sports cars of all time - the MGB.


In 1968 BMC, after merging with Jaguar and the Leyland Motor Company, became the British Leyland Motor Corporation. This in turn was taken over by the Rover Group, which was later bought by the German Company BMW. Production of MG cars at Abingdon was stopped in 1980 and the MG name was then for the time being only used on the higher performance versions of the Austin Metro, Maestro and Montego. In 1992 the new MG RV8 was launched featuring the Rover V8 engine, and coincided with the 30th anniversary of the launch of the MGB on which its styling was based. This was later followed by the all new mid engined MGF in 1995. MG is now part of the Independent and British owned MG Rover Group.

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Today the MGA Cars in coupe and roadster bodies can be seen all over America, while the Twin-Cam MGA Cars, the production car with a double overhead camshaft engine, provides the sporting bloods with enough power for serious competition. But the EX's still march on. MG still experiments. In 1958, David Ash and Stirling Moss drove the EX181 to speeds of 243 and 245 mph, and in 1959 Phil Hill flashed it across the salt flats at 254 mph.


What is the appeal of the MG? The best way to describe it is to call it a personal car. It will do whatever the driver asks, within limits. But these limits are widespread. The engine is rugged, long lasting, and easy to maintain. The car handles with the quickness of a cat, and readily forgives most driving errors.


The T series models all had the classic style of vintage machines, while the new series has the functional smoothness of a jet plane. No matter which model they possess, MG owners love their cars with a rabid fanaticism, and MG Car Clubs were among the first specialized sports car clubs in America. Most of our great racing drivers started their careers in MG's. Perhaps the little car even taught them to drive! The MG heralded the era of European automobiles in America. And even now it is still the most sought after small sports car in our country.

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During these days of feverish record breaking, the factory was producing straight racing and sports cars. The K-3 Magnette was one of the finest, winning race after race, some under the capable guidance of the famed Tazio Nuvolari. But in 1935 the staid MG management participated in an exploit that would have delighted a Broadway press agent. They entered a team of three PA production sports cars in the Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance Race, and for publicity value decided to recruit an all-female team of drivers! So it fell to. doughty George Eyston, who lived in a man's world of engines and high speed, to select and captain the entourage. He picked six girls, all experienced drivers, and immediately fell prey to the journalists. The newspapers called them "Eyston's Dancing Daughters." The phrase persists today as a memory of the 1935 Le Mans, but what should also be remembered is that the girls won their class and brought all three cars in at the end without a scratch!



Suddenly in 1935 Lord Nuffield announced that the MG Car Company would terminate the racing program! He pointed out that high speed had served its purpose. Enough advanced ideas had been developed that could be incorporated in the production cars for years to come. Besides, there was no competition. MG had sewn up the 750 cc. class. But before the axe fell EX 135 had been built. It was run by private owners for several years and finally passed into the hands of Major Goldie Gardner who, shortly before World War II, managed to set a speed record of 206 mph.


During MG's non-racing period a series of models marched along, the J, the Q, the R, and the famous T series. A new designer, Sydney Enever, experimented with the beautiful streamlined scale models that culminated in the MGA. Engine size progressed steadily until 1600 cc. was reached, a size that provided enough acceleration for the production models to cope with the newer postwar cars. EX179, built for a private owner, George Phillips, set a new series of records on the Bonneville Salt Flats with George Eyston and Ken Miles as drivers. This success gave the factory the impetus to design and produce the sleek, aerodynamic MGA. Under the label EX 182 three cars triumphed at Le Mans in 1955, and MG finally abandoned the old square design.

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The first really important racing success was at Brooklands in the Double Twelve Hour Race in May, 1930, where the Midgets captured team prize and defeated their rivals, the Austin team. Fired up by the victory the Abingdon men decided to take the International Class H record, then held by Austin with 84 mph. They chose the EX120, a prototype model, and redesigned it completely. When the car was in running shape a private test was arranged. With the Brooklands track closed for the winter, the MG crew, led by Captain George Eyston, gathered on a strip of public highway outside Newmarket. In the foggy dawn they quietly unloaded EX120 from the truck and prepared the car for the run. Like saboteurs on a secret mission they watched for the police, who would have jailed the lot of them.

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When their muffled, surreptitious preparations were done, Eyston made a spectacular entrance. Disdainful of the police, he arrived, gleaming in the early sunlight with white coveralls, white helmet, white gloves - a beacon that could be seen for miles. After a set of railroad crossing gates were illegally lifted, the test run was made. Eighty-seven mph! In December of 1930, the little car made it official at Montlhery, France, then raised it at Brooklands in March to 97 mph.

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But Eyston was dissatisfied. He wanted to crack the magic 100 mph figure for the flying mile. With an engine of only 743 cc. such a record would stand for years. The attempt was made at Montlhery in the summer of 1931. It was successful. Eyston drove to a record of 101 mph. and then figured in an incident that would have mystified Sherlock Holmes.

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After finishing the record run he swung around the track for an extra lap. As he drove out of sight of the pits, the crew heard the engine cut out. They piled into their truck and raced around the bend. There was EX120 in flames! Only seconds remained in which to save the driver. The crew knew that the big-framed Eyston could not remove himself from the tightly fitting cockpit! With frantic haste they crowbarred the side panels off. The seat was empty! A desperate search of the track revealed nothing - no driver!

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Eyston himself later supplied the answers. On that last lap he discovered smoke and flames rising at his feet. Slowing the car to 60 he managed, with that last ditch strength of desperation, to jump from the car. A moment later a Frenchman, testing his Citroen, found the unconscious Eystron, put him in his car and drove across the fields to the Montlhery hospital. There the anxious MG crew found him, quietly recuperating from his bruises, not at all concerned about his phantom disappearance. This ended the saga of EX 120.

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Before the dust raised by EX120 could settle, EX127 appeared - the Magic Midget. Sporting an aerodynamically streamlined body, it also featured a venturi type windshield, which sucked the oncoming air up between two parallel sheets of glass. The driver actually viewed the track through an open slot, but a test with a mechanic sitting on the bonnet, throwing confetti at the windshield, proved that nothing would get through. EX 127 raised the record to 120 mph. Then Bobby Kohlrausch of Germany bought it, installed the new Q-Type engine, ran the machine to a new record of 130 mph and followed that with a screaming 140 mph on the Frankfurt Autobahn. At that point, perhaps under Hitler's orders, the car was acquired by Mercedes-Benz.

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