Great Cars: MG
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- A small sporty car was being produced in England that would help the world rediscover the joys of the sports car once the fighting ended. The MG’s moment was not too far away. The MG TC emerged as the first post-War Sports car hit. The popularity of this mild mannered, conservatively styled auto launched the British sports car onslaught. The early MG’s were simple machines with few creature comforts and a few nagging mechanical problems. But many were charmed by or in spite of their quirks. The MG helped people discover what fun it was to drive, if you had a car that was fun to drive.
EP 212 - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Morris Garages. That is the 70 year secret of what MG stands for.
I have a 76 Midget with the 1500 cc Triumph engine. I bought the car NEW in 76 when I was 17 and a Senior in High School.. paid 3,670.00 for it. Today I win almost every car show I have been in and even took home 2nd place, 2 years in a row, at the Tampa Bay British Car Show in Safety Harbor FL.....a very well known British car show. Car has 46,000 original miles and is all original including the paint!. As long as you take care of these cars.....they can be reliable and last many years. It draws a crowd every where I take it. Those under 35 have no idea what an MG is....Always asking questions. Love it!!
Yeah, I have a 1971 Midget. I kept waiting for the later Midgets on this show. I feel slighted now, lol. It's just like my 1986 944 Turbo Porsche, it never ceases to amaze me how many Porsche documentaries skip right over it as well. I guess I just like the cars the "historians" like to forget, lol.
Amazing!
I have a 68 Midget and people go crazy over it. It's not a showpiece but people wave, give me thumbs up, take selfies, etc. If I'd known how much girls liked them I'd never have bothered with motorcycles all those years.
@@jackallen6261 I have a 48 TC and a 54 TF.
My dad always said "Never expect reliability from a car with 'garages' in the name." :)
I used to sell MGs back in the late sixties early seventies, I own a MGC now and love it and its very reliable.
I've had my 1968 MGB since I bought it as my first car in 1983. My dad and I rebuilt it. Only three has it ever died on me along the road. Once I ran out of gas . .the other was my fault . . .put new shims in the rear end and didn't use a new compression pin. My bad . . .the other time a u-joint died. I would say the MGB was as reliable as any other car of it's era . . the problem is, in my opinion, not many folks maintained them very well or ran them hard. . . they are mechanically very strong as far as drivetrain . . .electrics not as good . . but reliability and cost really aren't that big of a deal . . any more than any other 50 year old car.
I had two MG TD's and a supercharged MG Midget but not much money, I did the work on them and they were quite reliable and a lot of fun.
I grew up with the brand as my father had several. Even went to visit the factory in 1980, shortly before they closed their doors. Driving around in MGs always provokes a thumbs up response from people. You're never considered a show off. That's worth something too, right?
My wife has one and your right about the thumbs up. We even give more time to run a errand on it because people will always stop and want to talk to us about it!
I remember getting my monthly Safety Fast MG newsletter in the post.
My Wife bought me an actual brick from the demolition of the Abington factory. She always did understand my love of old British sports cars.
Driving a Triumph TR-6 now however.
I had two MGBs the first of which had the three-main-bearing crankshaft and that lasted only a short time, replaced by a 1965 B with the five-bearing crank, much stronger. Great car, did not leak oil and was reliable. Raced it on weekends too.
Then I had a head-on collision in that car on the A1 and had to get a daily driver quick and cheap while the MGB was being repaired so bought a 1946 MG TC at Hexham, Northumberland from a farmer. Gave him 80 pounds and drove it home. Registration I still remember - HYX 974!
Did a little fixing here and there, repainted it blue and drove it for the next 11 months. A fun little car, quite reliable, not fast but 'nippy'.
When I finally got my B back, I sold it at 140 pounds - thought I made money on that - LOL look at the prices now!
My mate almost bought one a TC for $200 I think in 67 . Looking at restoring it . He was a master at that even when young. Could not imagine what that car would be worth today.
I had a svo turbo swapped 73 midget with a 5 speed . One of the funnest cars I've ever had
Exploit brands as much as you like, the 'newer' models will never replace rationally what the new models wish to express emotionally.
learned something new today MG= Morris Garages!!
i had to chuckle the guys painting the cars had no Resperators or safetey gear on Auto Paint in 2022 still has Lead in it i couldn’t imagine how terrible it was for your health in the 1950s ,I’ve owned 4 British Sports Cars ,3 of them being MGs !
Classic British sports cars were great, my all-time favourite was the MGB Roadster and at the time it looked supremely gorgeous.
I remember as an 8 year old getting a matchbox MG TD and to me then it was such a great looking car, of course by then the MGA had come out and i liked that too but I knew that when I was old enough I was going to but a TD, after having a Morris Minor MM for a time I did buy a 1953 MG TD Mk II when i was 18. Now as a boy i knew nothing about it but loved the look of it, I was never disappointed in it, great handling, very good brakes and the Mk II had all the competition parts and quite good performance, of course no rev limiter and i did see up to 6,500 rpm but usually kept the revs down under 6,000 rpm since you hardly needed to rev hard.
Strangely all the people who claim they were unreliable yet I found them quite reliable and very good fun.
Yes. Late 1960's family vacations in the Monaco Wagon and how I wished the guy driving a BRG with dark tan interior MGB. Chrome rack on trunk lid with cute Hippie Chick riding shot gun climbing "Going To The Sun Road." Looked like a life of leisure could get used to.
My first choise would have been a K3 magnette or a Wolseley Hornet Special!
And now, Morris Garages is owned by SAIC Motor: China.
Go China!
I was lucky enough to work for MG during my school holidays in Abingdon (in those days before boundary changes, in Berkshire) at the time they were developing the MGA and as with all alleged MGs to follow had lost the plot. The last real MG was the MGTC - and I owned three of them. After the TC they simply became Leyland cars.......
Great video!
yo tengo un TD 1952, excelente motor :)
I used to care for a 34 or 36 Tickford model with the 1/2 folding convertible roof what a cool car to bad only 1/2 of me fit in the car
Miada is a disposable car. 5 years and throw it away. I have a fully 1968, 1971, 1979, 1979 Limited Edition, 1980 and recently acquired a 1968 MGC GT. my oldest MG is 51 years old and ready for another easy 50 more years.
Miata is still a God send for those of us craving a convertible top great handling sports car. So whilst your selective memory reminisces I will do the same and remember the Miata and how many times I thought : "Don't forget that you don't have to open the hood every time you come to a stop." A fact that gets lost among many vintage purists memory banks. Thankfully the Miata provides a similar albeit more trouble free experience for new generations to cling to. Sorry, there is always a positive trouble free part with those Miata's. that kind of make it a modern day somewhat "less romantic" equivalent.
I must have slept through the discussion of the MGC and the MG-RV8.
That aside, an excellent and enjoyable video. I miss my old MGTD and MGA Twin Cam.
I once had an MGA; i consider it to be the most attractive design MG ever made.
Bollocks
@ even your bollocks would look good in an MGA!
nice car :D
Loved the look of the tall skinny tired MGC. Had a 61 Healy 3000 when I was 20, no roll bars in those days. The Abarth exhaust was music to my ears. Drove like a maniac. It's a miracle I survived my youth. Now I drive a rag top Wrangler with tall pizza cutter tires. Closest thing to an old MG, all manual and fun to drive. 😃
I used to own some MG 4 bangers back in the early 70,s worked on em too, I never knew about the stream liners, by the way the early MG,s had three main bearings, instead of five, I never liked the twin exhaust ports in the center of the head, man if they ever had made a cross flow head (bet they did), the list can go on....
The MGA Twin Cam, it was very good but a lot of owners did not watch the rev counter and gave it an undeserved reputation for unreliability.
During the narration of the history of the TC, many of the cars shown were actually TDs. All TCs have 19 inch wire wheels and are RHD, The TDs have lower cut fenders and solid 15 inch wheels, can either be LHD or RHD.
Otherwise great video!!
Thanks for the corrections. I wish I'd had all of this insight when producing these films. If I do another round I'm going to try and assemble a group of experts. Appreciate you helping to set the record straight.
Agree with your observation. I owned a 1953 TD from mid 64 thru the end of 66.
Beautifully written!
Thank you.
great video
I like MGs. Friends had them. But compared to my Sunbeam Alpine, the MG was not so great.
I love my MG
A lot of talk about TC whilst showing TD's .
MG the British Alpha Romeo , true sports car
Too bad it's not an Alfa Romeo.
No matter how much they tried the engineers could not put that much rust into a British car
@@ianfindlay865
If you drove an MG you might not say too bad, the most fun you could have for the money was in an MG.
Had a '67 Sting Ray, removable hard top, 2 Triumph GT6+ and lastly a '66 Alfa Guilia convert. Suffice to say that Alfa IMO was of better build quality and every aspect of it trumped those GT6+ go karts in design and construction save for galvanic rust protection which nobody had in that era.
Great production values, a lot of awesome information, but what about the 1961 Spridget?, What about the MGC? What about the MG Coupe? Totally skipped those units, would be cool if they were included too.
Good vid - though the logo is octa- rather than hexagonal...
Where were you when I was producing these shows? Thanks for letting me know.
@@KingRoseArchives It's shaped like a stop sign because, well, buy one and you'll find out.
Gorgeous little car the MG. Now owned by the Chinese! And making SUV’s! Bah! I wish they would stay true to the brand!
I loved my 1969 MG, but god it cost so much to keep it on the road.
I had a 67 that was pretty reliable and cost me very little overall. only mg parts I ever bought were filters and points. ended up wrecking it and made money off the parts. basically all it cost me was gas and oil.
I did all my own work. that is probably the difference in our experiences.
I always loved those cars but I'm 6foot 3
A somewhat selective history. Totally ignored the Magnette, the 60s Midget and the effect of US safety regs on US sales (ugliest 5 mph bumpers ever).
@
Those awful bumbers ruined the MG Midget, the best for aerodynamics were the Le Mans and Sebring MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite. The Sprites did up to 150 mph at Le Mans.
the MG may not be the most reliable car on the road but with a little know how you can take care of them for a long time.
My 26 year old MG was more reliable than the 3 year old Mazda i bought after selling the MG.
can someone please i.d. the delightful theme music to this docu-series?
See above comment...
I had the last of the Mk 1 MGB's with O/D, however the rear axle hop was a problem with most sports cars with this cheap type of suspension, I once did a slow L turn in a suburban street at moderate to low speed and the car danced sideways over some mild corrugations that i 'hit' just at the right/wrong angle, I cured this by fitting horizontal dampers under the springs filled with 140 grade diff oil, stiff as hell but better than anti tramp rods that strained the body.
Funny that was never a problem on any of my MG's. I hardly ever drove them slow, so i could not say about moderate speed but I could about fast.
@@barrierodliffe4155 You drove them "fast"? Compared to what? Bicycles?
Surely MGAs were made from Aluminium & Datsun 260 Zed. Old Boy!
I wonder if their speedos were built n Coventry
Salut my friend super car super video subscribe subscribe ..
Spanner man all my life 😆..
A lot off great britis cars made in the day ....and some off the best fastest engines in the world born in the UK lived and worked in uk ...😢 ... live in ireland ...😊 better county to live in ... 😕.. i was over last year working for a bit ... its a horabull place to live now ...😦.... helo from ireland😉...
You can only see my dad's MG only onec
Octagonal
I hate to do this but the MGB had a 1798cc engine, not 1789. If you're like me, it was just a transposition. I had a 1966 MGB that I bought new in November of 1965, and finally gave it to my son in 1992 when he went off to college. He drove it for another four years until some moron rear ended him and totaled the car. I also owned a 2005 Miata. There just was no comparison. The MG was way more fun to drive but it was never reliable. The Miata was more a sedate convertible than a real sports car, but it did start every time, didn't have those damned SU carbs,. and it didn't leak water every time it rained. Sadly, as much as I loved my MG, I'd buy another Miata instead, especially since I can't get a new MG living in the US as I do. .
What about the MGC?
Heavy gutless engined B.
@@martinda7446
Not really, it made a great touring car and could be modified for racing.
That was the thing about MG, they were nice fun road cars but could be modified for racing like My MG TD Mk II and supercharged MG Midget Mk I.
That is not a DB 2.
MGs are good beautiful little sports cars just not good enough for the internatioonal market ....cudos to the british people who patriotically supported the brand but unfortunately they (and most british cars) lack in the reliability sector.....e.g I abandonned my automatic transmission Triumph 2000 in Ex Yugoslavia and flew back to UK where I purchased a BMW Tii for the rest of my academic years......only Mini owner schoolmates kept them and drove to Greece and back ignoring the summer heat adding to the engine heat under their feet they loved the Mini ( we used to carry their buggage in our cars to aid them due to lack of space)
Millions of people? What was the total production of all MG models? Not knocking its influence, but let's be realstic.
MG TC over 10,000, MG TD over 30,000. MG A over 100,000, MG Midget over 200,000, MG B, MGC and MGB V9 was over 500,000, I would say that is getting on for 900,000 but if you add all the people who bought them second hand then it would easily be in the millions.
Do British cars all leak oil? I heard that to be the case with Rolls, Jaguar and MG. That's just the way they are. Is that true, too?
Main bearing seals. Worked in a garage as a student saw lots get changed.
I keep on hearing that but my old British cars did not seem to have much of a problem, I owned MG's, Sunbeam, Morris, Austin and Ford, when it comes to reliability I would rate Austin, Morris and MG as among the best I have owned and Japanese as not so good having had brake, suspension and electrical problems on Mazda, Toyota and Nissan. I now have a Korean and a German car. My van is a Ford but with a Mazda engine and it has needed quite a lot of work, mostly the fuel system, electrics and gear linkages, all of which I have sorted out and it is much improved, I no longer have misfiring, backfiring and a slow awkward gearchange.
Endemic to the British motorcycles of the ‘40’s, ‘50’s as well. Never park one an an uncovered surface which you valued.
Scroll and slinger on the rear of the crank and rope on the front .
Bore out the hole at the bottom of the bell housing / put a split pin in it and just let it drip.
@@barrierodliffe4155 I'm very glad to hear all that positive info about the excellence of various British motor company autos but all I really want to know is will Jaguars, Rolls Royces and/or MGs leak oil on my driveway?
And the logo was created by.....drawing around a nut!
No The logo is eight sided not six
📞💩
Once
Good series of auto documentries ive watched lots of them. However, an Englishman calling zed, zee and aluminium, aluminum, gets right on my tits. Keep calm and go for a cuppa tea and a biscuit 🍵🍪
by the 60;s they still had no snyco first gear and I top that was in parts and took time to put up ... every one else had up dated 20 years before
A bit OTT, old chap. Lots of cars still had non-synchro first gear in the late 50s early 60s. And hardly 20 years earlier...in the 1940s?
What planet are you from? MG were made from the same components as all other Austin/Morris/Wolsey/Riley etc cars in the 1950s and 60s. Good old B series or A series engines and gearboxes. I dont think many 1930s cars had syncro on any gears
Who needs synchromesh on 1st gear. My old 1953 MG TD didn't but it was a very simple double declutch to go into 1st not that I needed to much at all. The very good steering, handling and brakes more than made up for it.
'Gas mileage'?
Please!
35MPG
Chrome wires. Ugh.
The MG never made it back to the States but it is ok it looked like an abomination Anyways.
The MGA was one of the sexiest little cars ever made and the first incarnation of the MGB was great looking too, but then the lift kit for crash testing, holding on to 1929 with its spoke wheels and the tons of chrome trim and God awful ugly rubber bumpers pretty much killed that car and he company. The Nissan z wasn't exactly a rocketship nor was it super sexy but it was a modern car for the early 1970s Why would MG think it was a good idea to keep 1963 going with out ever a real update?
Don't get me started on the Midget...
I wish the Brits still made a kick ass reasonably priced sports car that was imported to the States but I guess I will stick with my 1965 MGB while I look for a reasonably priced MGA.
I think the Miata/MX5 is really the MG for today.
To bad MG didn't make a Miata/MX5. It would have crap, so it's better that they didn't.
That be true those rubber black nose on the MG's were ugly, only comes in black. Had a 69 Fiat 124 Spider with an aluminum dual overhead cammed head with 5-speed trans and 4 wheel disc brakes. Even had a magnetic water pump fan to boot. Love that car!
@@Twolife A magnetic water pump fan? Fascinating. Is that why it suffered from all those electrical problems?
@@ianfindlay865 No problem with the electromagnetic fan. My only problem was the condenser wire would come out and kill the engine. Checking the ignition system found that issue and this happened twice. No fun being stranded with a European car in the states.
And now, Morris Garages is owned by SAIC Motor: China.
Go China!
It is funny see the commercial stating the car ability to drive diffecult roads.. while it is snowing on the car with open convertible roof (or no roof)!! not so smart advertising! @ 03:00
Great fun to drive in any weather, snow would go over the top unless you were going very slow.
Sorry but those number just after WW2 in the U.S. was not an avalanche, perhaps a snowflake.
Fun but not reliable. Own by Chinese now? Probably not reliable either.
Contrary to this video, the Miata was nothing like an MG. It was NOT a road car. It was Japanese junk. It was not fun to drive like an MG. There was no feedback from the road, so it had no feel. No personality.
everything british died in 1970 all crap made ..
Mostly true. But the TR-6 lived on until 1976 in USA. After that the classic open British sports car never came back.
So many mistakes I unsubscribed!