Description
From the earliest days of the marque, MG was closely associated with motor sport. Cecil Kimber encouraged private owners to compete in trials and other events, while the factory provided varying degrees of assistance to successful drivers. Although the precise extent of that support was not always formally recorded, it helped to establish MG’s sporting reputation and led to the creation of some of the most significant competition cars of the inter-war period. Factory involvement became more organised with the famous Cream Cracker and Musketeer trials teams. Although the cars were sold to their drivers, the MG factory undertook to maintain them during the season and repurchase them at its conclusion. Alongside these machines came purpose-built competition cars and the celebrated EX series of experimental and record-breaking MGs. In the post-war period, works competition activity became much more clearly defined. The formation of the BMC Competition Department, in time for the 1955 Le Mans race and the competition debut of the MGA, brought a new and more professional approach. Works entries involving the MGA, MGB, MGC and MGC GTS followed in Britain, Europe and North America, where the market for MG sports cars was particularly strong. Renowned MG historian Malcolm Green draws on decades of original research to document these cars, their development, their competition careers and the people who drove and prepared them. Richly illustrated with rare archive photographs, this is the most comprehensive study yet published of the competition and works-supported cars that established and maintained MG’s sporting reputation.