I found the discussion of the "resurrection" of M.G. rather interesting since
M.G. never died in the first place. Okay, I know that the cars were not
made at Abingdon-on-Thames, though there were, throughout the 1980's, M.G.
badged versions of the Austin Metro and Maestro available. It's a sad way
to keep the name alive, though it acting as if it disappeared completely is
just not right. As for the Mini Coopers, John Cooper had a contract with
BMC such that his name could be used upon the cars; when his contract expired
in 1971, the Mini Cooper was no more since BL choose not to renew it. Somehow,
Innocenti continued to produce their Mini Cooper 1300 until '74. I guess that
that had something to do with the contractual agreements with Mr. Cooper, again
Donald Healey had a similar arrangement with Austin and later BMC, and much
the same happened in '71 when his contract expired. Anyone recall the
Austin Sprite? BMC wanted to keep producing the car, though dropped Healey's
name since they could no longer legally use it. If BMW wants to build new
Austin Healeys, I'm sure that this will have to be worked out with the Healey
estate or his descendants. This is what happened when the Mini Cooper was
born again: a new contract was drawn up with John Cooper. Hopefully they
will have enough sense to renew it when it expires this time around.
Brian Willoughby
bawill01@ukcc.uky.edu
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