MG Centenary debate settled?

The age-old debate on when exactly MG was founded looks set to have been settled, with five of the major MG clubs agreeing to celebrate the centenary of the brand at a special event in May next year. In 1923 Cecil Kimber, the Founder of MG Cars, designed, built, advertised and sold his first MG sports cars. He called them the ‘MG Super Sports Morris’, with sporting coachwork by Charles Raworth.

The first fully documented sale was to Oliver Arkell, of the Arkell Brewing dynasty, in August 1923. However, some enthusiasts believe that the centenary should have been marked in 2020, the anniversary of Kimber founding ‘Morris Garages’, while others (including MG Motor UK) wish to mark the event in 2024, 100 years since the first MG-badged cars. Incidentally, the MG Octagon itself was first seen in October 1923.

Under Kimber, the company grew quickly to produce a plethora of sporting models, until he resigned from the Abingdon Company in November 1941. Kimber was tragically killed in a train crash in 1945, so he did not live to see his legacy of hundreds of thousands of Britain’s favourite sports cars produced. To celebrate the Centenary of MG cars, the MG Owners’ Club, the MG Car Club, the Early MG Society, the MG Octagon Car Club and the MG ‘T’ Society have joined forces to organise an ‘MG Centenary’ event on Saturday 27th May 2023.

The celebration will be held at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, with a full range of attractions to be held during the day, culminating with an optional Centenary dinner in the early evening in the Sky Suite at the Museum. Full details of the program of events to be held at Gaydon will be released at a later date. For more information contact Jonathan Kimber: jonathank@mgownersclub.co.uk