Birthday present and past

By ALASTAIR SLOANE Motoring editor

The chassis identification of the 10 special-edition MG TF sports cars due in New Zealand next week will include the numbers 101, part of the 11-digit telephone number for MG Rover's factory at Longbridge, near Birmingham in the English Midlands.

It has been that way since 1929, when MG cars had the numbers 251 as the starting point on most chassis. Back then, long before automatic telephone exchanges, callers to a factory near Oxford asked an operator for "Abingdon 251".

It is a tradition the iconic British MG sports car company has continued as it gets its 80th birthday underway this year with a run of limited edition cars.

Around 500 will be available for the British market. New Zealand will get 10, each one black with red interior, and carrying a commemorative chrome 1924-2004 birthday badge on the boot and a price tag of $51,990, $2000 more than the standard model.

"We were lucky to get that many," said MG Rover New Zealand general manager, Andrew Bayliss.

"We had to get our wishlist in early in the piece because only 50 were allocated to Australia and New Zealand and the Asia Pacific. Ten cars is a big chunk. We were fortunate." Australia received 30 cars.

The British MG was the creation of Cecil Kimber, who in 1923 began putting special bodies on standard Morris chassis.

The brand has been at the forefront of sports car design since, responsible for many generations of outstanding and desirable motorcars. These include the MG Midget and Magnette, the TC and TD Y-Type saloons and still highly desirable MG A, B and Cs.

The TF has been Britain's best-selling sports car for the past few years, recording a 22 per cent increase in sales last year. Demand for the 80th anniversary model will be strong. The first sold for £275,000 ($706,000) at a charity auction in London.

Kimber might have started the MG story in 1923, but 1924 is generally accepted as the company's founding year. That's when Kimber built the first MG Special Sports four-seater and the company's advertisements began to feature the octagonal MG badge.

A year later, Kimber won the Land's End Trial in a two-seater variant of the Special Sports. This car became known as Old Number One, although it was not strictly the first MG.

The MG Car Company was formed soon after and became a limited company in 1930, with Kimber as managing director, and major shareholder Sir Williams Morris (Lord Nuffield) as governing director.

But the story had really begun in 1922, when Kimber (1888-1945) was appointed general manager of Morris Garages, the sales division of Morris cars.

Kimber had already worked for several motor companies. He had considerable design flair and had accumulated solid experience in engineering, factory management, and the commercial and business side of the motor trade.

It was Kimber's idea to begin to produce a line of special bodied cars on Morris chassis. He was later to say that he saw an opportunity in the market for a car that was 10 per cent better than the standard product but which would sell for 50 per cent more.

He took an ordinary Morris Cowley chassis and had it fitted with a light, open, two-seater body and in 1924 commissioned Coventry firm Carbodies to produce two- and four-seater bodies for the Morris chassis.

These cars were sold as MGs. A four-seater with a 14bhp Morris Oxford engine sold for £395. A four-seater standard Morris Oxford cost £285. And the similarly bodied 12bhp Cowley was £195.

Kimber's MGs soon caught on. In early 1925, he had a special car built for his own use. This used a modified Morris chassis with a special overhead-valve version of the side-valve Morris engine, and a light racing type body.

After entering this car in the Land's End Trial at Easter 1925, and winning a gold medal, he sold it for £300.

MG bought it back some years later, and ever since it has been Old Number One - the first "proper"MG sports car, says the company.

The MG name was, as Kimber later pointed out, given as a compliment to Lord Nuffield, taking the initials of his first business, Morris Garages, as the inspiration for the brand, although the name was not an abbreviation for Morris Garages.

In 1926, the original Bullnose Morris models were replaced by the so-called Flatnose types with a more conventional radiator, and the MGs followed suit.

In 1927, MG production was moved into a factory at Cowley, near Oxford, not far from the Morris plant. In 1928, the MG Car Company was formally set up and the business began to separate from the original Morris Garages.

Work had also begun on two new MG models, which would both be introduced later that year.

The first of these was the MG 18/80, a six-cylinder car with a 2.5-litre overhead camshaft engine from the most recent Morris model. Available with a range of open and closed bodies, the 18/80 was billed an excellent touring sports car. But it was expensive and never made in large numbers.

The later Mark II version featured a redesigned chassis and four-speed gearbox and continued in limited production until 1933. A special racing version, the Mark III 18/100, or Tigress, was introduced in 1930. It cost £895. Not surprisingly, only five were made.

The most important of the new models in 1928 was the first MG Midget, the M type. This was based on the Morris Minor small car with an 847cc overhead camshaft engine. The bodywork was a fabric-covered two-seater with a pointed tail.

At £175, it was "truly an affordable sports car," said Autocar magazine. It added that the "MG Midget will make sports car history".

The Midget went into full production in March 1929 and the success of the new car required MG to move yet again to a bigger factory.

At the end of 1929, MG took over part of the Pavlova Leather Company's factory at Abingdon on Thames, a few miles south of Oxford, where the phone number was Abingdon 251.

The period from 1930 to 1934 saw the development of the MG brand to become one of the world's most famous sports cars. The Abingdon base was MG's home for the next 50 years.