Description
By: David Knowles .
Description
Ask people to identify the quintessential British sports car and there's a good chance they'll say MG. Even after the demise of the MGB and the closure of the Abingdon factory in 1980, the public retained warm feelings for the little sports car with its image of affordable fun. So it was no surprise that when the MGF was
It's a tale of triumph over adversity. For a dozen years MG's existence was precarious — reduced to the role of a 'GT' badge on warmed-over mainstream saloons. But while management focused on the bread-and-butter range, insiders still longed to see a new sports car. When this finally came back onto the agenda —code-named Phoenix — their efforts took flight despite a tiny budget and tight engineering resources. David Knowles charts the whole fascinating story of how the diminutive mid-engined PR3 prototype was developed into the MGF during a turbulent period for the Rover Group. He analyses the mainstream developments, competition performances, record-breaking with EX253 and EX255, the EX254 Super Sports concept car, and the future for the MGF under post-BMW ownership. Specification and performance data is also included, together with many photographs of the prototypes and design sketches never published before.
The author — who owns an MGB roadster and a GT V8 — has written a number of books on the marque such as MG V8 21 years on, MGB, including MGC and MGB GT V8, and MG: The Untold Story.
