John Tipler & McComb - MG A Pictorial History & MG by McComb - 1978

MG A Pictorial History - John Tipler
Hardback in dust wrapper, 128 pages
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd, 1995

MG is renowned as one of the world's most famous sports marques. This book relates its complete story, starting with the 1923 two-seater, and MG's early triumph, the Midget, with its racing success. The Magnas and Magnettes followed, leading into the post-war TC Midget, and the successful MGA and the MGB. Though MG fell victim to corporate politics in the late 60s, it made a comeback with the MGF in the early 90s. The text of this book is complimented by over 200 photographs from the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.

MG by McComb
Hardback in dust wrapper, 319 pages

MG by F. Wilson McComb is a fine book on our favorite marque, published in 1978 while the company was still a going concern. The author is an automotive journalist, was employed at MG Abington for 10 years, and started the company magazine Safety Fast at the request of John Thornley. T

The author puts forth his commitment that the book should be as objective as possible, “I have tried to provide a balanced assessment of the impact that the marque has made in the widest sense: commercially, on the design of sports cars in general, and in the field of motorsport. I do feel that, in the past, many published comments on MGs have either displayed a contempt for such cars matched only by the writer’s total ignorance of the subject, or revealed an intensity of adoration that permitted no criticism whatsoever.”

This is not a book that chronicles MG’s racing exploits in detail, although the highlights are recalled in a manner that will make your chest puff out a bit. It is a book about the company and the people that made our beloved little cars, from the thrilling upstart days before the war that resulted in a bewildering range of cars (almost all of particular beauty), to the latter days where the dedicated employees did their best to keep their spirits up in the face of perpetual corporate uncertainty and occasional outright hostility.

MG’s leaders like Kimber, Thornley, Enever and “Jacko” Jackson where talented men, and set the tone for a small little company with limited resources to punch very much above its own weight. Over and again.

The villains are present too, in William Morris (later Baron Nuffield), the standoffish auto baron who viewed racing with suspicion and Leonard Lord, the overly ambitious young upstart with no sense of MG’s unique place in BMC’s new organization. One can only imagine the stress of proud little MG being under the same corporate roof as their rival Austin, all managed by a cast with indifferent if not dubious motivations.

The book concludes with a passage from John Thornley, “Leyland were so convinced that the sun shone out of Triumph’s exhaust pipe. Then they go on to produce this bloody stupid TR7… Fashion, gimmicky fashion...