MG Anniversary

Reaching the age of 80 gives anyone the right to celebrate, and MG achieves that milestone this March. However, there's more cause for celebration than mere longevity, as MG is as vibrant now as at any time in the past 25 years, with a line of cars appealing to young buyers in the UK and some success in racing.

Throughout its 80-year history, MG has always prided itself on producing affordable sporty cars, largely using parts from more mundane automobiles. Today's lineup is no different--with the exception of one model, the MG XPower SV.

The SV is an exciting, rebodied version of the short-lived mid-engine Qvale Mangusta. Historians will recognize the irony: Based in San Francisco, the Qvale family became the primary importer of MGs after World War II. In the 1990s, Qvale returned to the auto importing business and, among many projects, it developed the second-generation Mangusta with DeTomaso, but that partnership soon ended. Qvale then opened its own assembly facility in Modena to build the Qvale Mangusta, but, after selling a few dozen of the Ford V8-powered cars, Qvale sold the company to MG Rover in 2001.

At the 2001 Frankfurt show, MG Rover unveiled a concept of the car, clothed in a new design by Peter Stevens, the well-regarded Brit who, among many other accomplishments, designed the McLaren F1 supercar. Since then, the SV has been further refined and is now in limited production, powered by a 4.6-liter Ford V8 with 326 bhp.

Stevens has been MG Rover's product designer director since the new company was formed (see sidebar), and he has put his skills to work producing attractive MGs based on standard Rovers.

Apart from the exotic SV, the current MG line consists of four models: The TF roadster is a revamped version of the F, which was first introduced in 1995, when the Rover Group finally decided to develop a real sports car. It would be the first since the famous MG factory in Abingdon had closed in 1980.

Amazingly, the MG TF is now Britain's top-selling sports car and is regarded as a worthy competitor to the Mazda MX-5 (Miata). It's powered by either a 1.6- or 1.8-liter K-series four-cylinder engine, mounted midships, in four stages of tune and producing from 114- to 158 bhp. During a brief drive recently in England, I found the car similar in character to the Miata. However, its handling dynamics are not as well sorted as in newer cars. Still, the car is nicely finished, and the manually operated ragtop proved easy to deploy.

MG has always produced sporty sedans, so it's no surprise that the remaining three models are based off Rover sedans. The two smallest models, the ZR and ZS, are sportier versions of the Rover 25 and 45 ranges of hatchbacks and sedans. They in turn are based off Honda-derived cars from the early 1990s, when Rover and Honda developed cars in a joint venture.

The most interesting is the MG ZT range, which is a competitor to the BMW 3 Series. In another ironic twist, it is derived from the Rover 75, which was largely developed by BMW and was originally introduced in 1998. I had the opportunity to drive the ZT-T 160 2.5 V6, a sporty-looking wagon powered by a willing 160-bhp 2.5-liter V6, coupled to a slick five-speed manual transmission. It was a very pleasant car to drive and boasted excellent handling. The spacious interior has a contemporary look, with carbon-fiber-look trim.

I also spent a week in the ZT 135 CDTi, the sedan version powered by a 135-bhp four-cylinder diesel engine made by BMW. It provided plenty of torque and performed admirably as long as you kept the revs at around 2500 when changing gears. The plus was an average fuel economy of 33 mpg (U.S. gal.) while driving mostly at 80+ mph, fully loaded with four people and luggage. It might not be as nice as the BMW 320td, but it's not a bad car.

More recently, a V8-powered ZT, the 260 V8, has gone on sale. It's a true muscle car, its 260-bhp 4.6-liter Mustang V8 driving the rear wheels instead of the front wheels as in the rest of the ZT range. With plenty of low-end grunt, it promises to be one of those infamous sleeper Q-ships, especially as it looks virtually identical to the regular sedan or station wagon.A highly modified version of this car, the X15, is powered by a Roush-modified Ford 6.0-liter V8 producing over 750 bhp. Built by the famous SoCal Speedshop in Pomona, California, and driven by Pat Kinne, it did two "landspeed" runs at El Mirage Dry Lake and one at Bonneville in 2003. Its fastest run was 225 mph. Bonneville has featured in MG's past several times, so it was not as weird an adventure as it sounds for a British company that no longer sells cars in America.

MG is also involved in Le Mans racing as several teams run Lola-MG LMP 675 cars with MG engines. At Le Mans they were painted in MG XPower colors and added greatly to the British flavor at the classic 24-hour race. In the American Le Mans Series, the MG identification on the Lola-MG cars has been limited to just a few MG octagon badges.

The most prominent racing involvement for MG has been in the UK's hotly contested BTCC racing series. In 2003, a two-car team ran ZS sedans, modified to produce over 270 bhp from their 2-liter V6s. MG grabbed several victories, beating factory-backed teams from Vauxhall and Honda, but finished behind them for the championship.

MG has also been running several ZR Super1600 rally cars in the Group N production class in selected Junior World Rally Championship events as well as national rallies in the UK. These factory hot-rods come with a 200-bhp 1.6-liter engine and a six-speed sequential gearbox similar to the transmission found in the BTCC cars.

MG Sport and Racing is set up as a subsidiary so it can supply factory cars and parts. XPower is a separate sub-brand given to the company's high-performance cars such as the SV. MG also hints that there will be further XPower models, including a limited-edition XPower ZT, powered by a 500-bhp V8.

If only the business and legal climate were more favorable, we might see MG cars on sale again in the U.S. Perhaps MG fans could persuade Bruce Qvale to import MGs through his British Motor Car Distributors in San Francisco!In the meantime, you can trot down to Mexico and buy an MG, but count on using it only on tequila runs south of the border.

Whither MG Rover?There's no denying that life is proving tough for the MG Rover Group, formed in 2000 after BMW divested itself of the Rover Group. Land Rover went to Ford, and BMW kept the Mini brand. The remnants were sold for a mere #10 ($16) to Phoenix Venture Holdings.

Optimism continues to course strongly throughout the company, which has certainly managed to produce a decent range of cars with limited financial resources. However, a few things have gone wrong that cause concern. So many, in fact, that many pundits question whether the company can survive as an independent.Apart from some nicely executed facelifts and minor tweaks to models already in production, MG has not yet introduced an all-new vehicle. It had commissioned TWR to engineer a new car, but TWR went bankrupt in 2003, leaving MG Rover scrambling to continue development of a mid-size car scheduled to go on sale in 2004.MG Rover also pinned much of its future on a deal with Brilliance, a Chinese firm, but that fell through. Since then, a venture with Tata Engineering in India to import a mini-car for sale in Britain has been started in the hopes it will prove successful for the mass market.

Of all the British brands that have disappeared from the U.S. market, MG has the strongest image. MG fans worldwide are gratified that MG Rover realizes this and has placed more emphasis on creating a distinctive line of MG cars. It's paid off, as one third of its sales are cars with the MG badge.

MG Rover exports to over 70 countries, and in some it does well, including Germany, where it outsells Jaguar. In 2003, MG re-entered the critical Japanese market, and there have been discussions about coming back to the U.S. market as well, but given the high costs involved in engineering cars to meet U.S. federal standards for safety and emissions, it appears doubtful we'll see any MG models here in the near future. But Americans don't have to go far to buy an MG, as the range is available in Mexico.The big question, of course, is what will happen if MG Rover fails. It's currently only selling around 150,000 cars a year, which makes it a minnow. Given the predicament such likely suitors as Ford, VW and even GM currently find themselves, it seems highly unlikely any one of them would want to be burdened with MG Rover and it's aging line of cars. There's also the matter of the old, under-utilized Longbridge factory complex. If MG Rover goes bankrupt, someone could make a bargain grab for the brand names. Ironically, yet again, BMW still owns the rights to the Rover name, which it holds in trust. Phoenix Venture Holdings owns the MG brand along with Austin, Morris and other defunct names.

We can only hope that MG will be around to celebrate its century in 20 years. Who will own it by then is anyone's guess--my bet is Honda or Tata. Tata might be India's largest engineering group, but just imagine how nice a new range of Honda-engineered MGs would perform.--John Rettie