William Morris’s Morris Garages in Oxford was the origin point of MG cars, beginning as a sales promotion sideline in the 1920s. Cecil Kimber, the dealership’s sales manager, modified standard Morris Oxfords, adding “MG Super Sports” to the car’s nose. A separate M.G. Car Company Limited was incorporated on 21 July 1930, and by 1925, the company had moved to premises in Bainton Road, sharing space with the Morris radiator works.
The first car that can be described as a new MG, rather than a modified Morris, was the MG 18/80 of 1928, featuring a purpose-designed chassis and the first appearance of the traditional vertical MG grille. In 1929, a smaller car was launched with the first of a long line of Midgets, starting with the M-Type based on a 1928 Morris Minor chassis. MG established a name for itself in the early days of international automobile racing, and Captain George Eyston took several world speed records in experimental cars.
After the Second World War, MG returned to racing and record-breaking attempts. In 1955, a team of MGAs was entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the best car achieving 12th place. The MGA was released in 1955, departing from MG’s earlier Y-Type saloons and pre-war designs. The MGB followed in 1962, satisfying demand for a more modern and comfortable sports car, and a fixed head coupé version, the MGB GT, was released in 1965. The MGB was produced until 1980, with continual updates to comply with increasingly stringent United States emissions and safety standards.
The British Motor Corporation (BMC) competition department, based at the Abingdon plant, produced many winning rally and race cars until the factory closed in 1980. Prior to the use of the Toyota Tundra silhouette in the Craftsman Truck Series, MG was reported as the last foreign marque used in NASCAR, driven by Smokey Cook in 1963. In 2001, MG re-launched their motor sport campaign, entering the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the British Touring Car Championship, and various rally championships.
Following the closure of the Abingdon factory in 1980, the MG marque was used to badge-engineer sportier versions of Austin Rover’s Metro, Maestro, and Montego ranges. The MG name was revived in 1992 with the MG RV8, an updated MGB Roadster with a Rover V8 engine, and again in 1995 with the mid-engined MG F. In 2000, the MG marque passed to the MG Rover Group, which introduced the MG ZR, ZS, and ZT/ZT-T based on contemporary Rover cars.
The MG Rover Group entered receivership in 2005, and car production was suspended on 7 April 2005. In 2005, Chinese manufacturer Nanjing Automobile Group purchased the rights to the MG marque, and in 2007, Nanjing Automobile was acquired by SAIC Motor. Production of MG vehicles restarted in 2007 in China under Chinese ownership, and the first new MG model in the UK for 16 years, the MG6, was launched on 26 June 2011. MG Motor ended car production at the Longbridge plant in September 2016, citing “improving production scale efficiencies”, and since then, MG vehicles have been imported from China into the UK. SAIC has designated MG as its main international marque, and it has been the largest single-marque car exporter from China since 2019. In 2023, MG Motor introduced its first new roadster, the Cyberster electric vehicle, which went on sale in 2024.
[unverified] The long-form study of MG’s motorsport history belongs to dedicated motorsport publications rather than this article’s corpus.
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