MGA

The MGA was the first British sports car to sell more than 100,000 units - and more than 80 per cent of the production went to North America. The streamlined MGA - the first production MG capable of topping 100mph - was a big departure from the upright midgets which the factory had produced since the 1930s and was a huge international success. In this text the author has gone back to factory records and to the people who worked on the car in the 1950s, to find out how it was conceived, manufactured and marketed. It describes MGA's engineering, body styling and every aspect of the car's development and production - including MG's strategy to beat its competitors. In seven years of production, there were major successes and disappointments. The MGA was the car that was "right first time" and though the Twin Cam variant was troublesome for the factory, it is now the most sought after model. This text tells how the sleepy Thames-side village of Abingdon became a mass-production centre for MGA, how the MGA became one of America's best-loved sports cars and how the MGA has become one of today's classic cars.