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As winter approaches fast, I've been looking for some good reading material
to keep me occupied while I dream of top-down motoring through the mountain
roads. I have quite a bit of BMIHT archival footage on VHS tape (thanks to
the Legends of Motorsport series on Speedvision) of racing and rallies of the
50s and 60s. However, in most of them, the film crews were associated with
Triumph and don't really say much about other British marques other than Minis.
I should really be writing this with Clausager in front of me, but to
paraphrase from memory it says basically that the MGB never did well in
competition because its 1800cc engine straddled it between classes, and
that after the BL merger in ~1970 MG competition was completly quashed.
It also makes a reference to some specially prepared BGTs that were very
lightweight but that avenue was not pursued.
In an interview with the head of the BMC competition group (his name slips
my mind), he said that the BMC committee led by Harryman (sp?) and Issigonis
tended to think of MG as a "sideline" that could be done away with after
the Mini and the AH 3000 were in full swing. (I suppose it was the American
market that really saved it - but I don't want to get sidetracked ;) The
point is, it seems MG wasn't taken seriously by the brass.
I don't really have any information about MGA racing/rallying. I know the
prototype MGA competed at Le Mans and all three (?) cars finished, but I
don't know their standings. They also won several ladies cups in some
of the rallies of the time, and perhaps a newcomer's cup.
In that respect, I am somewhat envious of Triumph, Austin-Healy, and other
marques for the rich racing heritage. It seems most of the MG's victories
were from the pre-war cars and thats where they really made their name. From
the media of the time, I get the impression MG cars were considered
(ironically, considering the bashing that occurrs) to be sort of the "Miata"
of the time - mass produced, easy to manage and service and drive, but not
having as much character as, say, the 3000. Whether this was a fault of the
car, or of BMC for being twits and not giving MG the resources it needed
to do serious development (I'd favour the latter), I suppose that's up for
debate. It certainly seems like MG was always struggling to get the next
model out. Of course, in the intervening 30 odd years the cars have
developed a lot of personality and are now very distinctive.
Still, MGs were designed to be easy to prepare.
I've been looking at some good books to read - preferable something that
has STORIES of the people behind the marque rather than just dry production
changes and numbers. "Maintaining the Breed" by John Thornley, or the
"MG" book by the fellow from the MGCC - can anyone comment on these?
I'm just starting to learn about all this stuff so if I've made all sorts
of mistakes go easy on me ;)
Skye
--
1966 MGB GHN3L-70307 __,__\__ Finger for
The MGB Experience http://www.mgb.bc.ca/ (_o____o_) PGP key
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