NEWS
ARCHIVE NEWS
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Welcome to the MG News Archive
Here you'll find those stories that have now passed their sell by date and are no longer appropriate to keep on the main F in News page. Watch out for the cobwebs !
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OLDER NEWS STORIES with
their own pages !
1.5 million MG's !!!! Rover TCV Extreme road cars ? X Power - race cars The Z Cars MGR + China Brilliance MGF 2002 rumours Ever heard of the X70 ? X80 Revealed THE (mostly) ALL NEW MGTF HERE !
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ARCHIVES :- Older stories removed from the main F in News Page
MG LASERS
MGR have arranged a sponsorship with deal with Laser Sailboats announced at this years London Boat Show. Three MG liveried Lasers will be on display at the show and MG will be sponsoring the "MG Laser National Championships" in Largs, Scotland this year. More efforts to highlight the sporting image of MG and increase sails (sic).
MG SV SUPER CAR
It's been about a year since MGR bought the old Qvale plant in Italy and the rights to the Mangusta along with it. It hasn't realy been that long then for Peter Stevens to radically re deisgn the car. It's a far way from the early sketches released to the public to the shiny muscle machine finally revealed at the Birmingham International Car Show in October. Read about this beast on this special
MG GIVE AWAY FREE FUEL
MG Rover , in the latest attempt to entice further custom , have offered buyers of virtually their entire range free fuel for a year. If your register your new car before March 31st MGR will give you 12months fuel or free services for two years or insurance contributions, aided deposit or cashback - You chose ! The only MG not covered by the deal is the ZR105.
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MG 1 RE SURFACES
The number plate sold with John Thornleys teal blue MG BGT recently has finally resurfaced. You can find it on a registration number site www.regtransfers.co.uk and maybe if you have the odd £275,000 lying around you could even afford to buy it. A fairly tidy profit seeing as the car sold for £150,000 at Cheffins auction which we all thought was pretty extravagant at the time. The question is - what has become of the actual car itself. Hopefully it has , or will be, passed on to a genuine enthusiast somewhere.
GAYDON MUSEUM EXPANDS
The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust has decided that it needs to be just that - and not just reflect the marques that came together to form British Leyland as it is now. This means they will be featuring Humbers, Vauxhalls, Jowletts, Hillmans, Singers etc and, no doubt, the odd Ford or two alongside your current favourites (MG of course). On the downside they will be looking to dispose of some "duplicate and similar vehicles" by offering them first to other museums and, failing that, to auction. It's not clear at the moment what they actually mean by that but hopefully they will be retaining all the important production cars as well as the prototypes they possess. 2002.
MG AWARDS
At the Autocar 2002 Awards held in London during November MG Rover managed to scoop two awards for themselves. The Group won the outstanding achievement award for confounding their critics by producing new models in the Rover 75 tourer , the MG Z cars and the re-vamped TF as well as producing the Mangusta based SV super car in the space of a year and increasing sales by 2.5% in a year on basis.
The second award went to Peter Stevens for his design work on the Le Mans cars, defining an image for MG and his superb work on the SV.
CHINA NOT SO BRILLIANT
It seems that the strange deal with China Brilliance and MGR is off after the chinese government stepped in and persuaded the company to concentrate on alliances with Toyota, BMW and General Motors. The fact that ex chairman, and main instigator of the deal, Yang Rong is currently in the US avoiding a warrant for his arrest on the grounds of "economic crimes" may also have something to do with it. MGR are now playing down the alliance along the lines of "it wasn't such a big deal anyway."
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MG ENTER POLAND
Still on the lookout for partners worldwide it seems that MGR are now making a foray into Poland. Reports are that MGR intends to make a large investment in the ailing Daewoo/FSO plant in Warsaw, Poland with the intention of using it to produce the Rover 45 and MG ZS variants. It is not known if the production at Longbridge will be phased out in favour of this plant or what will happen to the workforce at both sites. A new company known as NSC (New Small Co.) would be formed
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MOTOR SHOW SUCCESS
The MGR stand certainly pulled the crowds at the Birmingham International Motor Show and it wasn't just those Atomic Kittens and scantily clad MG girls either. The main attraction was obviously the SV and several firm orders amounting to about £1m were placed so that the first three months production have already sold out. There were over 1000 orders placed for MG vehicles at the show resulting in about £12m at showroom prices.
MGR AT A LOSS
The Observer newspaper reported that MGR submitted losses of £256m for last year in it's car division. Overall the company is doing better - Phoenix holdings submitted a loss of £178m in july compared to £780m in 1999 so they are heading in the right direction. The car division has also not quite hit targets with sales of just over 170,000 just missing the 180,000 target. The company are currently cutting prices by 15% in a last ditch attempt to reach that target. Despite the losses MGR directors all received a handsome increase in their salaries with John Towers at the head receiving £537,000 last year. 2002
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TURBO CHARGED MGF
Check out the latest issue of MG World for an article on a turbo charged 1999 MGF from Australia. The car belongs to Steve Hollands from Perth and tells the story of how he fitted a Subaru WRX turbocharger into the extremely limited space of the F. He managed it and it now produces about 163bhp from the standard 1.8i engine.
You'll also find the third part of an article on MGF Cylinder Head removal and replacement in MG World - essential to many MGF'ers who want to save a few pounds at their next HGF !.
MG ENTER POLAND
Reports are that MGR intends to make a large investment in the ailing Daewoo/FSO plant in Warsaw, Poland with the intention of using it to produce the Rover 45 and MG ZS variants. It is not known if the production at Longbridge will be phased out in favour of this plant or what will happen to the workforce at both sites. A new company known as NSC (New Small Co.) would be formed
MARTIN BLOWS A GASKET
Whilst en route to the MGF Care and Accessories Day in Lutterworth MGF Register stalwart Martin Woods suffered the almost predictable Head Gasket Failure whilst motoring down the M40. You can read about his experience in the November issue of "Safety Fast" and find him pondering on the cause of these all too frequent HGF's - air pockets after the coolant is changed at a major service causing the head to distort seem to be his favourite theory. The good news is that he still managed to get to Lutterworth but in the Maestro Turbo instead.
You'll also find a write up on a trip in an F to Ireland and the White Horse Run III in Safety Fast. (Editors Note :- we managed to be absent for the group photo somehow !). But if you don't subscribe to the MG Car Club then you'll also find the White Horse run elsewhere on this site in Events
MG X-POWER SV
Read all about it ..... >> Here <<
The Birmingham motor show not only revealed the sensational MG X Power SV but also showed off a few more innovations up MGR's sleeve. The Rover TCV was on show as were updated "designer" versions of the Rover 25 and 45 now known as Rover "Impressions". Atomic Kitten also put in an appearance on the MG Z stand promoting the "Atomix" range of special edition MGZ car variations based on the rally and touring cars with extra features. Sadly you don't actually get an Atomic Kitten when you buy one.
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MOST EXPENSIVE MGBGT ? - quite possibly...but would you pay £125,000 for an MGBGT V8 conversion even if it did belong to John Thornley (long time General Manager at MG). Perhaps it was the number plate that drew the attention and the dosh at Cheffins Auction on 22nd June - what would you pay for "MG 1". I wonder who bought it and where we'll see it next.
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MGTF SPRINT
MG have revealed the first Special edition MGTF - to be known as the Sprint- echoing those days of the good old Triumph Dolomite. The car comes in five different colour combinations and is aimed at capturing a good bulk of the summer market with a bargain deal of uprated specifications, particularly on the TF135, for lower prices. See MGTF Specials for more details.
MG are Virgins
OK - so maybe not but they have teamed up with the car arm of Richard Bransons Virginal empire. This means you'll now be able to buy your favourite specially discounted MG online. It's the first time that Virgin have done a direct deal with a car manufacturer so hopefully they won't suffer supply problems as they have in the past. If you fancy one then surf away to www.virgin.com/cars Oct 2002
MG GETS NEAR AMERICA !!
Well quite near anyway - MG Rover have struck $15,000,000 deal with Mexico under the Free Trade agreement between that country and Europe. So far six dealerships have been signed up to import MGRover cars into the country. They will be concentrating on the MG ZT and ZTT as well as the TF along with the Rover badged 75 and Tourer. They are aiming for the Luxury and sports car market in the more affluent areas of Mexican society. How long will it be before MG finally gets back to the US ? Sep 2002
CHINA BRILLIANCE DEAL OFF ? - Ructions on the board of China Brilliance resulted in the resignation of it's chairman, the one man who pushed this deal through. The rest of the board were not so keen and this departure could well see the deal scuppered.
LE MANS DISAPPOINTMENT - Ok so they didn't do anywhere near as well as expected with both cars breaking down and not completing the race. There was much hype at the last Le Mans that this was going to be MG's year ....still we can always say the same thing again - there's always next year !.Incidentally the private entry MG Lola also failed to finish the race. Just as well the event was all but lost amongst the furore over the World Cup !.
HAS THE X80 PASSED ON ? - EVO reports that the X80 will not be making it on to the streets as production car. Instead MGR will be using the X80 based on the Qvale Mangusta as the basis for a one make race car being built in the Midlands by David Price Racing. The car will use the Ford 4.6litre V8 producing about 400bhp and there will be models ready by October this year. MGR have decided to develop the ZR and ZS instead of plunging money in to a high spec expensive sports car which will make the ZT the flagship of the MG range although the 260bhp V8 version has been further delayed until September. The ultimate ZT will appear after that with a power output of 385 - 400bhp and a price of about £35,000.
MORE FRIENDS FOR MGR - Not content with crossing the continents and joining hands with the Chinese market MGR have now ventured to the far South and the equally exotic Caterham in Surrey. A joint deal has been signed with Caterham Cars allowing them to use MGR's powertrain technology and also the MG Racing sports logos. Caterham have already been using K series engines for some time and some new variants were announced at the launch including a 1.4 (105bhp), 1.6 (115bhp) and four variants on the 1.8 (140,160,200 & 230bhp). What was not clear was whether the 200 & 230 were the rumoured supercharged engines or not. If they are ready to go in to Caterham Cars then it can't be that far away for them to appear in the TF as well !. So not only will be seeing Rover Zhongurha's on the streets of the UK and BrilliantTF's in Peking but we'll see MG Racing Caterham Sevens on the race track - is there no end to their bid for world domination ?
STRIKE AVERTED - A strike which could have spelt disaster at the MG Rover plant has been averted. The company had offered a 2.5% pay rise to workers but there were problems over flexible working. Both unions involved have voted overwhelmingly against strike action , however, proving that there is still great loyalty amongst the staff at MGR. If the strike had gone ahead it would have been catastrophic for the still fledgling company (March 2002).
MGTF WINS AWARD - Rob Oldaker from MGR was presented with the prize for the "Cabrio of the Year" at the Geneva Motor Show. The prize is presented to the open top car that has the best design and world wide appeal in the opinion of 18 motoring journalists from countries around the World. Understandably MGR were extremely pleased with this prestigious award. (March 2002)
MGF RECALLS - MG Rover have recalled 10,000 MGF's sold between Sept 2000 and Sept 2001 for remedial work to be carried out on the electronically controlled pre-tensioners in the seat belts. Faults had appeared on six cars manufactured between these dates. Hopefully this problem should not effect sales of the MGF which now run at some 70,000 cars since their inception. (Dec 2001).