MG Back?

[8valvegrowl]

Looks as though MG will get a new lease on life, so to speak. The Chinese are going ahead with investment, at least for the MGTF model, which is the only one I cared about. Now bring it to America!

Full Story is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4739616.stm

It would be nice if someone would buy and revive Rover, but I think keeping MG alive, and as a small scale manufacturer is a good move for now.

[Si]

Glad they got there in the end, it was the obviously the right decision from when BMW took their chunk, rover is dead (I think the management & unions did there best to killed it in the 70's personally)while MG remains an exiting brand.

[earthworm]

Art Herrick..... "The Rover is the world's worse car." 1967 or 68. At Coldspring, working on a Rover 90
Adrian Snare..... "I concur". 1971. Re a Rover 2000
At one time the English were number one in auto exports. The war may have directly and indirectly taken a greater toll on the UKers than the Axis nations...

[i want an aero]

a dead duck since red robbo had his way in the 70's.made worse when honda pulled out. bmw stole everything and left a empty shell with alot of peoples livelyhoods riding on it. a 33year lease for building cars at the old factory employing up to 1000 jobs.at least it's a start

[boxman]

a 33 year lease with a pull out option after 6 months, now what does that tell us

[john tanner]

MGTF...omg is that what you remember British leyland for?..look at what the americans have done for "retro" look at the success of the Mini...now is the time to bring back some of the classic shapes in motoring history...not the bloomin MGF...if the Japs look at the old classic shapes of the Frog eyed sprite and the triumph spitfire or the "stag" and resurect these into a modern reliable alternative to the crap we have on offer today...they will be millionares...

[boxman]

fare point, nicely put

[Si]

Can we take the pi** out of Maxis and Allegro's for a bit now

[8valvegrowl]

I agree, a retro take on the classic British sports cars ( I own a MGBGT) would be phenomenal. Kind of like the MG RV8 of the early 90's. The only reason I like the F/TF so much is that we never got them here in North America, and it wasn't a rebadged Rover, but their own design. Sure there are prettier sports cars, but the TF was a good, competent sports car, with decent looks and handling for not a lot of money, just like the MX-5 Miata.

Has anyone seen the pictures of the MG GT concept built off of the MGTF platform? The specs were juicy:

Mid-Engine
RWD
Rover KV6 tuned to ~200 BHP
Curb Weight ~3000 lbs (1400kg)

I'll look for an image.

Here we go:
http://www.carbodydesign.com/vehicle...-Concept-2.jpg
http://www.carbodydesign.com/vehicle...-Concept-1.jpg

[N]

I think we should keep taking the p*** out of the MGF seeing as it is a retro car. It is afterall based on a Mini Metro and in fact uses the same subframe, two I think, one at the front and one at the back.

As far as making new rovers/mg's, we have an order for another 75,000 rover 75 subframes and they are horrible!!

[seany]

Be nice to see MG return.
Current MG hatch/saloons are going for a song, esp the ZT.
Fabulous car IMHO, but with the uncertain future of the brand, until now, always a gamble purchase (spare parts/saleability in future) ...

Hopefully they will continue with parts back up for these cars too.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by seany

Be nice to see MG return.
Current MG hatch/saloons are going for a song, esp the ZT.
Fabulous car IMHO, but with the uncertain future of the brand, until now, always a gamble purchase (spare parts/saleability in future) ...

Hopefully they will continue with parts back up for these cars too.

Mate of mine has the ZT, a great car, bit like the Saab with the big grin 3rd Gear driving experience.

[aeropilot]

I can't actually think of a good MG........well not a post WW2 one anyway

Alright, maybe just at a pinch, a BGTV8 could be described as adequate

[boxman]

Originally Posted by Si

Can we take the pi** out of Maxis and Allegro's for a bit now

NO! you'll upset nutcaes

[DavidMorgan]

Originally Posted by aeropilot

I can't actually think of a good MG........well not a post WW2 one anyway

Alright, maybe just at a pinch, a BGTV8 could be described as adequate

You have forgotten the MG TF Midget from the 50's..??
As a kid it was my dream car

[aeropilot]

Originally Posted by DavidMorgan

You have forgotten the MG TF Midget from the 50's..??

No I haven't.........

[Aero Slaab]

It is unfortunate that MG's were plagued with a poor reputation (rightly or wrongly). My father has a '46 TC that kindled my passion for cars at an early age, and I hope to own a nice MG at sometime in my life.

For what it's worth, MG enjoys tremendous name recognition here in the states, even though they haven't been sold in here since 1980. Even casual car owners will envision an MGB whenever MG is mentioned - it's an absolute auto-icon. I would love to see a revived, semi-retro roadster from MG come to the US. Just make it so the engine doesn't leak oil and avoid Lucas electrics (I know these are part of the seminal MG experience ).

All of this is far fetched, but would certainly be a treat!

[8valvegrowl]

While the postwar MG's may not have been as glorious in Motorsport as the prewar cars, they still did well on the competitive level. The T-series are classics, the A-series is a beautiful car, and the B-Series were the most driveable (not too mention highly modifiable for truly modern performance in terms of suspension (get rid of that pesky live axle, and swap to coilovers and IRS), braking (full disc kits, and front big brake kits), engines (X-flow heads, EFI, the skies the limit as the block is wonderfully stout), and gearboxes (Supra, Sierra, T5 swaps...all easily done for a modern 5 speed with lots of gearing options).

Plus rebuilding them is relatively cheap and easy (of course it is too easy to end up with 30K in a B that's only worth 10K). Not to mention the head factor, everybody pretty much knows what a B is, even though they aren't that common a sight anymore. I always get glances and conversations no matter where I go in my GT (or did, until it became my new monster project).

One could theoretically build a brand-new 'retro' roadster or GT from a BMH shell ($7-8K). It'd be an expensive deal though with a crate rebuild engine and all new running gear. My guess is it would cost 30K to build, but it'd be a brand spanking new B.

hrmmm. anyone with some capital? wanna go in on a small volume boutique sports car manufacturing venture?