MG May Not Be Dead After All

[Tuckerfan]

It’s all just speculation at this point, admittedly.

Among the various factions believed to be interested are some of the UK’s specialist sports car companies. Caterham, Bristol, Noble and Morgan are all quietly going about their very individual businesses as is Blackpool-based TVR on a slightly grander scale.

TVR is believed to be among those showing more than a glimmer of interest in reviving the MG brand. A marriage of MG and TVR would enable the latter to realise the dream of its new owner, Russian billionaire Nicolai Smolensky.

He did not buy TVR to leave it standing still but rather to expand it into a more formidable force, which the acquisition of MG Rover’s Longbridge plant and the wherewithal to build cars would permit.

The car in the photo’s quite pretty, and would probably sell well in the States, if they could manage to get them to meet US regs.

[QuickSilver]

I saw them review this car on a British car show called “5th gear”. They liked it but didn’t love it. Something about low power and average handling. The guys (and one girl) who do this show are quite fun, hip and knowledgeable about cars. One guy is aparently a well know former race car driver (but not to me) who used to race for team ferrari F1 and other race classes. I thought the car was quite nice inside and out in styling.

[MrAlpen]

@QuickSilver

I saw them review this car on a British car show called “5th gear”. They liked it but didn’t love it. Something about low power and average handling. The guys (and one girl) who do this show are quite fun, hip and knowledgeable about cars. One guy is aparently a well know former race car driver (but not to me) who used to race for team ferrari F1 and other race classes. I thought the car was quite nice inside and out in styling.

The car in the picture is already very old - it’s the MG-TF, a slight body-freshening of the MG-F. You may also like to know that it’s two British Leyland Mini Metro front subframes welded together (no, honestly).

One of the reasons they ran out of cash was because they fiddled around with attempts to come up with a volume production two seater, but did it so ineptly that they never came close to a viable product.

For the definitive take on all things britcar, refer to the industry reference site, sniffpetrol.

[Scissorjack]

As I understand it the MGF was never released in the States, which I find unfathomable: I’ve driven them, and they’re nifty little mid-engined ragtops with nice handling and enough poke to have fun - real MGs. If they’d been marketed properly - say to the boomer market with fond recollection of the MGB - they could have provided a good counterpoint to the Mazda MX5 or Toyota MRS, and probably done very nicely.