MG Cars is a former
British
sports car manufacturer,
which was founded in 1924, the
creator of the MG brand.
MG Cars is best known for its two-seat open sports
cars, but MG also produced
saloons and
coupés.
More recently, the MG marque has also been used on
sportier versions of other models belonging to the
parent company.
The MG marque was in continuous use (barring the
years of the
Second World War) for 56 years after its inception.
Production of predominantly two-seater sports cars was
concentrated at a factory in
Abingdon, some 10 miles (16 km) south of
Oxford. The
British Motor Corporation (BMC) competition
department was also based at the Abingdon plant and
produced many winning rally and race cars. In the autumn
of 1980, however, the Abingdon factory closed and
MGB production ceased.
Between 1982 and 1991, the MG marque was revived on
sportier versions of
Austin Rover's
Metro,
Maestro and
Montego ranges. After an interval of barely one
year, the MG marque was revived again, this time on the
MG RV8 — an updated MGB Roadster with a
Rover V8 engine, which was produced in low volumes.
The "real" revival came in the summer of 1995, when
the high volume
MG F two-seater
roadster was launched. This was an instant hit with
buyers, and sold in volumes which had been unthinkable
on affordable two-seaters since the 1970s.
The MG marque passed, along with the
Rover marque to the
MG Rover group in May 2000, when
BMW 'broke up' the
Rover Group. This arrangement saw the return of MG
badges on sportier
Rover-based cars, and a revised MG F model, known as
the
MG TF, launched in 2002. However, all production
ceased in April 2005 when MG Rover went into
administration.
The assets of MG Rover were bought by
Chinese carmaker
Nanjing Automobile in July 2005 who themselves were
bought by
SAIC in December 2007.[1]
In 2007 production of the MG TF roadster and
MG 7 large sports saloon (derived from the previous
Rover 75/MG
ZT model) started in China.[2]
Assembly of MG TFs for the European market, from Chinese
built
complete knock down (CKD) kits, was started by
NAC MG UK at
Longbridge in August 2011
Above courtesy of
Wikipeda
